- President Joe Biden joined French President Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s King Charles III and other dignitaries to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when the Allied forces launched a surprise attack that helped liberate Europe from Nazi Germany.
- “Democracy is never guaranteed,” he told the assembled crowd at the Normandy American Cemetery as he honored the veterans who fought in the defining World War II battle and helped defeat Nazi Germany. He went on to praise NATO’s strength and unity, drawing an implicit contrast with his Republican rival, Donald Trump, who aides say considered withdrawing from the alliance.
- Leaders traveled from around the world to attend commemorations in northern France, but the real stars of the occasion were the handful of remaining veterans. About 150 American veterans who took part in the Normandy landings were expected to attend the ceremonies, which could be the last major milestone for many.
- Western leaders are also confronting a shattered postwar peace, with Russia waging a new war in Europe, and the far-right on the march.
For the most part, Joe Biden’s address marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day sounded like a familiar ode to a historic war victory — but tucked into the speech was a warning to Americans.
Biden name-checked the World War II veterans who sat behind him on stage in wheelchairs, blankets draped over their laps in the early afternoon chill. He praised their sacrifice in defeating Nazi tyranny. He highlighted the importance of alliances.
But he slipped in a plea to those who will decide in a few months whether he remains in power: Democracy is a fragile thing and, all these years later, the battle for its survival is still in doubt.
“Let us be the generation that when history is written about our time in 10, 20, 30, 50, 80 years from now, it will be said when the moment came, we met the moment,” Biden said. “We stood strong, our alliances were made stronger. And we saved democracy in our time as well.”
Biden never mentioned his Republican rival by name, but his speech offered an implicit critique of Donald Trump’s “America First” approach that devalues the post-war alliances that the U.S. helped build to ensure its security.
He spoke proudly about how the NATO military alliance has expanded on his watch — Finland and Sweden joined since he became president — providing a bulwark against Russian aggression. Trump repeatedly threatened to pull out of NATO and some worry that he would go through with it if elected to another term.
Biden used the speech to argue that, despite Trump’s complaint that European allies don’t contribute enough to NATO and rely on the U.S. to fill the gap, the alliance is essential to beating back present-day dictators.
“America has invested in our alliances and forged new ones,” he said, standing at a lectern above Omaha Beach, where U.S. troops waded ashore 80 years ago in the face of withering fire. “America’s unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today.”
Neglecting the alliances the U.S. helped forge would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wages a war meant to swallow up Ukraine, Biden suggested.
If Russia wins, it will inevitably try to build on the victory by menacing other European states that are members of NATO, he said. That, in turn, could trigger a wider war: NATO’s Article 5 holds that an attack on one is an attack on all.
“We cannot let that happen — to surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators is simply unthinkable,” Biden said, standing near the gravesites of more than 9,000 U.S. soldiers who died on D-Day or later.
