that is it. [applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated for the unveiling of the statute. ladies and gentlemen, the statue of president ronald reagan.

[applause] [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the reverend will now deliver the benediction. >> let us bow our heads and pray for god's blessing. our god, source of patriot dreams and strength of heroes

proved we are confident that this reception of president reagan's statue here in the capitol will remind people of the many blessings shed on the great state of california. all who visit here are blessed along with mrs. nancy reagan, family collaborators and generations to come who will see this work and remember the words and work of the 40th president of the us. -- united states. everyone will be blessed. who hear this is and takes it to heart, let us be shy no longer. let us go to our strength.

let us offer hope. let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible, but probable. . [applause] .

[applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you for attending today's ceremony. >> here is a look at our schedule. coming up next, president obama at a ceremony in normandy, france, marking the 60th anniversary of d-day. then more with a joint news conference, and then house

speaker nancy pelosi at a rally remembering the 20th anniversary of the tiananmen square protest in beijing. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," richard wolffe discusses his book. minnesota governor tim pawlenty discusses the economy's impact on his state. "washington journal, live at 7:00 eastern on c-span. >> there is still time to get your copy of c-span is 2009 congressional directory, with information on house and senate members, the cabinet, supreme court justices, and the nation's governors, plus district maps, and how to contact committees and caucuses. it is $16.95.

>> today marks the 60th anniversary of d-day. president obama was in normandy, france to attend a memorial ceremony. joining him was french president nicolas sarkozy. this is just over an hour. >> president obama, your royal highness, prime minister rao, prime minister harbor, presidents are cozy, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, please be seated. -- president sarkozy. -- president sarkozy. it is our privilege to it is our privilege to welcome all the illustrious visitors joining us today. we extend a special welcome to

the d-day and world war ii veterans and family members in attendance to honor us all with their presence. [applause] today we commemorate the 60th anniversary of the d-day landings that took place in the early morning hours of june 6, 1944. today's ceremony will honor the soldiers, sailors, and air man who made the supreme sacrifice so that europe might be liberated. included among those so honored are the 3881 who lost their lives on the day at omaha beach, and the 9387 of our dead who are buried at this cemetery. [speaking french]

[speaking french] >> ladies and gentlemen, please tell your heads in prayer for the invocation delivered by a u.s. army chaplain colonel thomas mcgregor.

[speaking french] >> our gracious loving father in heaven, we ask for the blessing of your presence on the significant event that touches the lives of the families and citizens of the grateful nations here represented. magnify yourself this day, as we pause to fittingly remember those men and women who paid the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of france and the allied nations during the second world war. truly, this is sacred ground, for it holds the remains of those hero warriors whose dreams were cut short and who have entered their eternal rest. many cried out to you as they breathed their last.

hogan, salve now the hearts of those who mourn. timber the memory of those whose loved ones perished in a terrific conflicts at sea and on these bloody fields of battle so many years ago. lovingly support the family members and friends who grieve the loss of a loved one, both past and present. help us look ahead to that grand and glorious day when you shall return, the dead shall be raised, loved ones be rejoined once again, and all wars shall cease. oh god, speed the day of your coming, we ask. guard this day, the soldiers,

sailors, airmen, marines, and coastguardsman of our several nations who fight for liberty and freedom of oppressed peoples. grant each a special measure of your presence, protection, and abiding grace. indeed, years is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. in jesus' name, amen. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the french republic, nicolas sarkozy. [applause] >> mr. president of the united states of america, your royal highness, mr. prime minister of canada, prime minister of the

united kingdom, great britain, and northern ireland, the french prime minister, the presidents of the french senate and national assembly, ladies and gentlemen. there were 135,000 of them in thousands of boats. they formed two armies. one was american and the other army a british canadian army. a few hours before, they had been wished well before they left. they were all silent. what were they thinking about, these young soldiers, as their eyes looked ahead, staring at the thin, black strip of coast that slowly merged out of the fog? what were they thinking of? were they thinking about their lives that had been so short?

were they thinking about the kiss is their mothers had planted on their foreheads whenever young? were they thinking about the tears that their fathers held back when they left, or the tears that were waiting for them on the other side of the ocean? what were these young soldiers thinking of? the soldiers in whose hands history had placed the fate of so many people. what were they thinking of? other than the fact that at 20 years old, it was far too soon to die. their silence was like a prayer, and standing before them on the beaches, 50,000 germans waited for them, also in silence. the evening before, the french resistance had blown up a city with dynamite. the paratroopers from the

united states and from a british division had been dropped behind the first line of defense. between 3:15 and 5:00 a.m., 5000 bombers had bombed the entire coast. that 4:15 a.m., the troops started to be transported to the boats. the guns of warships opened fire. at 6:30 a.m., the disembark and had begun. the winds were very strong. the boats were buffeted by waves that were several meters high. the soldiers were soaked, freezing, sick. they were bailing out their boats with their helmets. those who got out too soon drowned.

the small boats sank, many of them before they even reached their targets. out of the 19 tanks of the canadian division, 15 were lost before they even reached the shore. those who did reach the shore had to step over the wounded and the dead who were floating in the water, being swept away by the tides. that had to step over bodies buried in the sand. one of the first american soldiers who disembarked on omaha beach wrote later, " it seemed entirely unreal, sir real, like a living nightmare. you could walk over the entire beach without ever touching the ground, because there's so many bodies littering the beach." the young german who took his machine gun and started to fire also felt the same nightmare as

he looked at the vast spaces before him, littered with bodies, with hundreds and thousands of lifeless bodies. 120,000 allied soldiers had disembarked in addition to the 32,000 men from the air divisions. among them were more than 10,000 dead, wounded, and missing. on the evening of june 12, after ferocious fighting, the allied soldiers had managed to establish a front that was 90 kilometers in length and 10-20 kilometers deep. the battle of normandy was to last until august 29. on that date, 2 million allied soldiers had disembarked. 38,500 had been killed, 150,000 wounded, and 19,000 were missing in action. on the german side, 60,000 were

dead, 140,000 wounded, 200,000 or taken prisoner, and 20,000 civilians had also lost their lives. the battle of normandy decided the fate of this war, but this battle was won on the beaches and in the fields by the sons of farmers, sons of american workers, whose fathers had also fought in 1918. this battle was won by british soldiers who were the incarnation of the hero of values of our great people that in the darkest period of its history, never gave up. this battle was won by canadian soldiers who, starting from the first few days of the war, volunteered to go to battle, not because the country was threatened, but because the were convinced that it was a

question of honor. the battle of normandy was won by the soldiers of the first polish armored division who were fighting near the cliffs and who provided cover. the battle of normandy was won by check, danish, and norwegian aviators, by belgian and dutch paratroopers, by the ss that were fighting in british uniforms. the battle of normandy was won by 20-year-old soldiers who killed so that they would not be killed. the battle of normandy was won by 20-year-old soldiers who were afraid of dying, but who fought for from their homelands with admirable courage, faced with a merciless enemy, as though the fate of their own homeland was at stake. the battle of normandy was

revenge for czechoslovaks and poland, for belgium and the netherlands, for france, that had been defeated in five weeks. the battle of normandy was the revenge for all those who fell at dunkirk. so today, everyone can understand the motion of france, as we stand before the 9000 american graves in this cemetery where we have gathered today. mr. president of the united states, i wish to pay tribute on behalf of france to those of your children who shed their blood on this ground in normandy and who will rest here for eternity. we will never forget them. mr. president, i would also like to say thank you to the remaining survivors of this

tragedy, those who are present here today alongside us. i would like to say thank you to all those whose courage allowed us to overcome one of the most barbaric periods of our history. you fought for a cause, a cause that you know deep within yourselves was greater than yourself and greater than your own life. not a single one of you, not a single one of your comrades retreated. we owe our liberty to you. we could cite the names of all these heroes to whom we owe so much, but let us say that france will never, ever forget them. it is on this ground, at this very place, where we see a reinforcement of our unfailing french ship between france and the united states, between france and great britain, beef between france and canada.

among these fallen soldiers, there was your grandfather, a sergeant in the american army, and two of his brothers. for all french citizens, mr. president, you are on two levels, through the office that you hold and for the blood that flows through your veins, the symbol of the america that we love, the america that defense the highest spiritual and moral values, an america that fight for liberty, for democracy, and for human rights. you are the symbol of an open, generous, and tolerant america. mr. president, mr. prime minister of canada, american and canadian soldiers have come to fight on two occasions alongside the british and french.

what would have become of the world if you had not come? out of this question, the answer to which is so clear and so tragic, was born in europe. out of so much ruin, out of so many coffins, we all understood that we had to put an end to the infernal cycle of vengeance that in every war planted the seed for the next war and brought european peoples to the brink of annihilation. so yes, we have made peace, and we have billed europe so that peace will always remain. we owe this to all the victims. we owe this to all the young soldiers who sacrificed themselves for us. we owe it to our children to spare them from the same suffering.

we owe it to all the people that you are a drug into this tragedy, all those who fought against nazism and fascism. they did so for a better world. we know there is much ground to cover. we know that the work before us will be difficult, but we know also what a united europe and the u.s., faithful to its values, can accomplish together. the threats that hang over the future of humanity today are of another nature than those of the great totalitarianism of the 20th century. what will happen to the world because of global warming? hundreds of thousands of men and women and children will not have enough food to eat. what will happen if out of cowardice we abandon democracy and leave the door open to terrorism and fanaticism?

what will happen to the world it democracies give up fighting for human rights and the rights of people? out of the fight fought by free people was born the ideal of the united nations. our duty is to ensure that this ideal lives on. if not, what purpose would have served all the blood that was shed here come all the sacrifices that were made here, all the suffering that occurred? the heroic get who will lie here in rest can never be forgotten in our history. the greatest tribute we can ever paid to them, the only one that actually counts, is to try to be worthy of what they accomplished for us. on june 7, 1944, when sergeant bob sutler found himself standing on omaha beach where he had disembarked the evening before, he was overcome by the

vision, the side of all these bodies strewn along the beach, of soldiers and friends he had known since the child. he wrote, we were brothers. we will always be brothers. they died so that we could live, and i thank them for what they gave us. for the rest of his life, he would remain haunted by these austere basis, their mouths wide open, their eyes fixed in the coldness of debt. as the german brigadier wrote later, since that time, i have always and constantly seen in my dreams a loan gi, floating in the great waves of my dreams, as he lands on the beaches, he takes his weapon, and is, and fires. his helmet rolls away in slow motion. he falls face down on the sand, carried away by the waves that

had just brought him to the beach, and then he fades away before my very eyes. just as the american soldier who saw the hallucinated look at beit importee who was stupefied to have survived hell, as this american soldier said, he understood finally why they had fought, and he realized why we never wanted war again. out of all this suffering that your soldiers carry in them and that they can never get rid of, and out of all these wars was born a great dream of justice and peace. your friends, may we never, ever forget the suffering and what it davis. way we never give up on the stream of peace. may we always share the streets with their children, the only

dream that counts, a dream of justice, a dream of peace for humanity. thank you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, the prime minister of canada, stephen harper. [applause]

>> we are standing on hallowed ground. today is quiet, peaceful, serene. but on this day exactly 65 years ago, this 50 mile stretch of coastline was the scene of the largest seaborne invasion in human history. the allied troops from our four great nations across the channel to launch the liberation of europe and rescue civilization from the darkness of fascism had no uncertainty about their purpose or duty. in the words of captain jack fawcett of the first canadian scottish regiment, we were so intent on getting to the beach that even if the engines had stopped or broken down, and sheer will power would have driven the craft a short period driven the craft a short period -- w craft ashore.

[speaking french] the iron will of those troops, the careful planning of their commanders, and the unwavering support of their fellow citizens back home resulted in victory that day and in the eventual triumph of good over evil in the months that followed. this was the most spectacular achievement, what has famously and rightly been described as the greatest generation. the fathers and mothers of today's leaders, the fathers and mothers of my childhood.