Biden honors veterans at ceremony marking 80th anniversary of D-Day (2024)

In France on Thursday, President Joe Biden marked the 80th anniversary of D-Day, when U.S. and Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy to begin the invasion that led to the defeat of Nazi Germany and the end of World War II.

As dawn broke on June 6, 1944, Allied forces began a bombing campaign against Germany’s defenses in Normandy, and vessels carrying their troops came ashore across five beaches. At day’s end, nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy — with thousands of casualties, including more than 4,400 Allied forces confirmed dead.

"The men who fought here became heroes,” Biden said. "Not because they were the strongest or the toughest or the fiercest, although they were, but because they were given an audactious mission, knowing -- every one of them knew -- that the probability of dying was real. But they did it anyway."

"They knew, beyond any doubt, there are things that are worth fighting and dying for," he continued. "Freedom is worth it, democracy is worth it, America is worth it, the world is worth it -- then, now and always."

While the war would not end for several months, Biden noted, "here the tide turned in our favor. Here we proved the forces of liberty are the forces of conquest. Here we proved that the ideals of our democracy are stronger than any army or combination of armies in the entire world."

He also said that the men who fought on D-Day also proved "the unbreakable unity of the Allies," celebrating that U.S. forces served alongside those "wearing different flags on their arms," but fought "with the same courage, for the same purpose."

"What the Allies did together 80 years ago far surpassed anything we could have done on our own," Biden said. "It was a powerful illustration of how alliances, real alliances, make us stronger, a lesson I pray we Americans never forget."

Biden hailed the rebuilding of Europe that followed the war and the establishment of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which now stands at 32 member nations with the recent accession of Finland and Sweden.

The president tied the strength of the alliances forged after the war, as well as Nazi aggression in World War II, to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent global response. He also took a thinly veiled swipe at his predecessor and presumptive opponent in November's election, former President Donald Trump, and his "America first" policy of isolationism.

"America is invested in our alliances and forged new ones, not simply out of altruism but out of our own self-interest as well," Biden said. "America's unique ability to bring countries together is an undeniable source of our strength and our power. Isolation was not the answer 80 years ago and is not the answer today."

"We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago," he continued. "They never fade, aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force, these are perennial, and the struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending. Here in Europe, we see one stark example: Ukraine has been invaded by a tyrant bent on domination. Ukrainians are fighting with extraordinary courage, suffering great losses, but never backing down."

Speaking of the alliances formed to check Russia's aggression in Ukraine, Biden vowed: "We will not walk away, because if we do, Ukraine will be subjugated, and it will not end there. Ukraine's neighbors will be threatened, all of Europe will be threatened, and make no mistake, the autocrats of the world are watching closely to see what happens in Ukraine, to see if we let this illegal aggression go unchecked.

"We cannot let that happen," he continued. "To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, it's simply unthinkable. Were we to do that, it means we'd be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches."

“Make no mistake: We will not bow down,” Biden vowed. “We will not forget.”

"We're not far off from the time when the last living voices of those who fought and bled on D-Day will no longer be with us, so we have a special obligation. We cannot let what happened here be lost in the silence of the years to come," he said. "The fact that they were heroes here that day does not absolve us of what we have do today. Democracy is not guaranteed. Every generation must preserve it, defend it and fight for it. In memory of those who fought here, died here and literally saved the world here, let us be worthy of their sacrifice."

“If you want to know the price of freedom, come here to Normandy and look,” the president said, adding: “Remember: the price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave, and their generation, in their hour of trial, the Allied forces of D-Day did their duty. Now the question for us is in our trial, will we do ours?"

The president and first lady Jill Biden arrived at the ceremony with French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, first lady Brigitte Macron.

Delivering his remarks mostly in French, Macron said that “we are linked by the grandeur of a people ready to die on a land that is not their own, but a cause that is theirs.”

“You left everything, crossed the ocean and landed on the coast of France eight decades ago,” Macron said of the soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy. “You left everything and risked everything for our independence, for our freedom. That we will never forget.”

“You came here because the free world needed each and every one of you, and you answered the call,″ he said in English. ″You came here to make France a free nation. You’re back here today at home, if I may say.”

Macron concluded his remarks by the National Order of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest honor, to American veterans. Biden warmly embraced the veterans after Macron presented them with the award.

Guests at the event included foreign dignitaries, U.S. lawmakers, and even celebrities like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the director and star, respectively, of Academy Award-winning World War II film “Saving Private Ryan.”

"Were it not for their choice to do the right thing 80 years ago, you and I would not be standing here," Hanks told NBC News of those who fought on D-Day, adding: "The day is going to come when the last veteran of World War II will go, and perhaps that might be the last veteran of D-Day as well, and when it happens, the good news is that their story will be told by them."

At a separate ceremony at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, France, King Charles III of the United Kingdom said that the Allied forces faced the “supreme test” on D-Day, and that when the time came to face it, “they did not flinch.”

The king’s use of “supreme test” echoed an iconic speech delivered by his grandfather, King George VI, who said in an iconic speech on the eve of D-Day: “Once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time the challenge is not to fight to survive, but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause.”

The current king honored the “remarkable wartime generation,” saying: “It is with the most profound sense of gratitude that we remember them, and all those that served at that critical time.”

“Our gratitude is unfailing, and our admiration eternal,” he added.

The king laid a wreath at the British Normandy Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, and his son, William, Prince of Wales, joined Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to lay a wreath on Normandy Beach during the Canadian commemoration ceremony.

Earlier Thursday, the president and first lady met with D-Day veterans in a location overlooking Omaha Beach, where U.S. and other Allied forces landed 80 years ago as they began their march to defeat Nazi Germany.

Each veteran was announced in turn, brought up by an active service member, according to the White House pool. Those in wheelchairs who could stand got up and stood for the president, who offered a salute and a handshake before posing for a photograph with the commander in chief.

Biden told one veteran that it was “a great honor” to meet them. To another, the president called them “the greatest generation ever, man.” He offered another veteran a simple message: “You saved the world.”

The president handed each veteran a special commemorative challenge coin he had commissioned for the event. According to the White House, the coin bears the image of troops approaching the beaches of Normandy with B-17 aircraft flying overhead, the number “9,388” to honor the number of Americans who rest in Normandy, and a quote from the great poet John Milton: “They also serve who only stand and wait.” It also bears the Presidential Seal, adorned with a blue star and a gold star to reference the service of military families.

One veteran told Biden that his birthday was on Saturday, and the president encouraged everyone — including gathered press — to sing “Happy Birthday.”

“God love ya,” the president said after the song concluded.