let our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee, nor for sake thee. strengthened by their courage, pardoned by their value, and worn by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much, and god bless you all. [applause] announcer: president biden mark to the 80th anniversary of the day in normandy and talked about the's of defending ukraine amid russia's invasion. this is 15 minutes. [applause]

let our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. will not fail thee, nor for sake thee. strengthened by their courage, pardoned by their value, and worn by their memory. for the ideals for which they lived and died. 12thank you very much, and god bless you all. [applause] minutes. [applause] pres. biden: the hour had nearly come.

that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee nor forsak. strengthened by their courage and hardened by their value and borne by their memory. he ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much. and god bless you all. ■x mr. dawson, you did your men proud today. general shalikashvili. mr. cronkite. chaplain. distinguished leaders of our government. members of congress. members of the armed services. our hosts from france. and most of all, our veterans, their families and their friends. in these last days of ceremonies. we have heard wonderful words of tribute. now we come to this hallowed place that speaks more than anything else. and silence here on this quiet plateau, on this small piece of american soil. we honor those who gave their lives for us. 50 crowded years ago today, the beaches of normandy are calm. if you walk these shores on a summer's day, all you might hear is the laughter of children playing on the sand or the cry of seagulls overhead, or perhaps the ringing of a distant church bell

that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee nor forsake th their courage and hardened by their value and borne by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much. and god bless you all. mr. dawson, you did your men proud today. general shalikashvili. mr. cronkite. chaplain. distinguished leaders of our members of congress. members of the armed services. our hosts from france. and most of all, our veterans, their families and their friends. in these last days of ceremonies. we have heard wonderful words of tribute. now we come to this hallowed e that speaks more than anything else. and silence here on this quiet plateau, on this small piece of american soil. we honor those who gave their lives for us. 50 crowded years ago today, the beaches of normandy are calm. if you walk these shores on a summer's day, all you might hear is the laughter of children playing on the sand or the cry of seagulls overhead, or perhaps the ringing of a distant church bell.

that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened.

that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee nor forsake thee. strengthened by their courage and hardened by their value and borne by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much. and god bless you all. mr. dawson, you did your men proud today. general shalikashvili. mr. cronkite. chaplain. distinguished leaders of our government. members of congress. members of the armed services. our hosts from

that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee nor forsake thee. strengthened by their courage and hardened by their value and borne by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much. and god bless you all. mr. dawson, you did your men proud today. general shalikashvili. mr. cronkite. chaplain. distinguished leaders of our government. members of congress. members of the armed services. our hosts from france. and most of all, our

let our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgway listened. i will not fail thee, nor for sake thee. strengthened by their courage, pardoned by their value, and worn by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much, and god bless you all. [applause] announcer: president biden mark to the 80th anniversary of the day in normandy and talked about the's of defending ukraine amid russia's invasion. this is 15 minutes. [applause] pres. biden: the hour had nearly come. monday, june 5, 1944. the evil of the third reich was devastating the world. nazi germany had subjugated the once-free nations of europe through brute force, lies, and twisted ideology of racial superiority. millions of jews murdered in the holocaust. bombs, bullets, bloody warfare. hitler and those with him thought democracies were weak, that the future belonged to dictators. here, on the coast of normandy, the battle between freedom and tyranny would be joined. here, on that june morning, the testing was at hand. president ma

this is general matthew ridgway general taylor. these two folks participated in earlier airborne operations in sicily and salerno. taylor was with the 82nd as a commander and ridgway was the commander. under him was general gavin, a real airborne trooper, so let me discuss a couple of things here. there was a diversionary plan as part of the airborne operation and it was called operation titanic. it consisted of dropping 500 paradummies inland off areas away from the actual landing zones. they dropped them in an arc like this. they called them rupert after rupert the bear, the comic strip there. 500 of them jumped in with sas troops. they had little notes attached to one of these dummies. they are 3.5 feet high wrapped in cloth with sand to fill them out. they attach notes on them as they dropped in the early morning hours here. good morning hans. we have arrived. [laughter] but anyway, that was very successful, because it did draw on some of the german units to go and investigate that. in particular interrupt a couple of units tha

and he goes to the commander, the two us airborne divisions, max taylor 101st, and matthew ridgway 82nd asked them about it. yes, general bradley omar bradley, who's the commander of the first army, the highest ranking american ground commander. he asks the corps commander. corps, j. lawton collins will one day be army chief of staff as well. and he says, what do you think about? and they say, i'm sorry, we just have to do this utah beach is not feasible without the airborne landings and i don't think lee miller is right. i don't think it's to be as bad as he says. but we're going to have to do this. but imagine the trauma of that, of having to wrestle that for for several days now, lee miller had a reputation, something of an alarmist. so that's another factor, too. and it's not as if eisenhower didn't trust him, but he's also taking all these other pieces of into place and ultimately a decision as he must, you know, so famously, of course, he decides, go ahead with it. and then, of course, on top of that weather and all that situation to one little interesting wrinkle about the weathe

and he goes to the commander, the two us airborne divisions, max taylor 101st, and matthew ridgway 82ndthem about it. yes, general bradley omar bradley, who's the commander of the first army, the highest ranking american ground commander. he asks the corps commander. corps, j. lawton collins will one day be army chief of staff as well. and he says, what do you think about? and they say, i'm sorry, we just have to do this utah beach is not feasible without the airborne landings and i don't think lee miller is right. i don't think it's to be as bad as he says. but we're going to have to do this. but imagine the trauma of that, of having to wrestle that for for several days now, lee miller had a reputation, something of an alarmist. so that's another factor, too. and it's not as if eisenhower didn't trust him, but he's also taking all these other pieces of into place and ultimately a decision as he must, you know, so famously, of course, he decides, go ahead with it. and then, of course, on top of that weather and all that situation to one little interesting wrinkle about the weather. one