U.S. President Joe Biden speaks Friday in front of a cliff-top memorial at “Pointe du Hoc” in Cricqueville-en-Bessin, northwestern France, as part of D-Day commemorations marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II. Photo by U.S. Embassy in France/UPI President Joe Biden speaks Thursday during a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France. He spoke at Pointe du Hoc on Friday. Photo by Andre Pin/EPA-EFE
June 7 (UPI) — President Joe Biden on Friday praised the U.S. Army Rangers who scaled the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc during World War II's Normandy landings, saying they changed the world and helped protect democracies around the world.
About 225 Rangers scaled the cliffs of the Omaha and Utah coasts, destroying Nazi German positions that were attacking Allied troops ashore in the largest amphibious landing in history.
advertisement
“When we talk about democracy, American democracy, we often talk about big ideals like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What we don't talk about enough is how hard it is,” Biden said.
He added that the Rangers' mission that day was difficult and dangerous, as they came under direct fire from German forces, but they put the mission and their country before themselves.
“They believed America was the lighthouse of the world,” Biden told the crowd. “Those rangers who scaled these cliffs never thought they would change the world, but they did.”
Biden said that while all of the Rangers who scaled the cliffs in 1944 are now dead, the echoes of their voices today ask allies what they're prepared to do to defend our democracy.
“American democracy demands the hardest thing of all: to believe we're part of something bigger than ourselves. So democracy starts with each of us,” he said.
“I don't believe the best of America is in the past,” Biden said, saying he would lead the defense of democracy around the world. He said people from all walks of life came together for a common purpose.
“I've long said that history shows us that ordinary Americans can do the most amazing things,” Biden said, “and there's no better example of that in the world than here at Pointe du Hoc: Rangers from farms, from cities, from every corner of America.”
