Do You Understand D-Day?
If you were to rank the most important days in American history, June 6 would be near the top of the list. Next to some work by the Founding Fathers and Abraham Lincoln, perhaps no event means more in American history than D-Day, the successful Allied invasion of Europe in 1944 that signaled the beginning of the end for Hitler’s evil regime. June 6 marks the anniversary of that amazing surge 65 years ago today.
The majority of the men who made that brave push were young, kids really. Many of them are gone today. The grizzled few that remain reflect only faint traces of the courageously clueless boys who took the next step because they had to. All they did was save the world, an achievement usually reserved for superheroes. 
I never care much for hero sandwich style writing when it comes to sports stars or corporate tycoons, but I don’t know any other way to describe what took place on the desolate beaches of France during that decisive summer.
Twenty-five years have passed since President Reagan commemorated the event at Normandy. In 1984, he spoke on the 40th anniversary of the invasion. He spoke of efforts by groups like the Rangers who climbed the cliffs in the face of machine gun fire and grenades to win the foothold position necessary for advancing through Europe. He spoke of individual sacrifices, those that risked their lives, those that gave them.
You can watch movies like Saving Private Ryan or Band Of Brothers or even documentaries with live footage. None of that does justice to the reality of what those troops faced. We can only listen to the words of those who fought to try to grab onto something we can understand. That will never be enough either though. In the end, all we are left with is how to respond. Like the astounding beauty of the universe we can not understand what it is w
e are seeing, we can only feel the awe that strikes anyone who takes the time to consider this rarest of scenes in a time of challenge that required sacrifice from all, selfishness from none.
Not to inject bitterness into these thoughts, but why is so little done on this day? In America, most people under the age of 40 are clueless until they stumble across a special on TV or see an article in passing. I believe June 6 should be a national holiday.
I’m amazed at how millions of people will spend a day planting trees and thinking about how much they love earth, yet those same people couldn’t find Europe on a map and think Normandy has something to do with wine or fashion. Don’t get me wrong, when the kids come home with baby plants we go nuts and find the perfect spot for it to bathe in the sun and slowly die over the coming weeks. But school is also in session every June 6 in my family when we remember the ultimate sacrifice of thousands.
Maybe it’s all just too grim for modern Americans. Everyone’s so desperate to be happy that focusing on all this terror and sadness can just ruin your day. Certainly the tale is somber and sad. But there is inspiration beyond those tears. Evil was thrust upon the
world, yet good won in the end. The bad guys were conquered. No one escapes terrible things in life; we can only respond in the best possible way.
That’s how the Allied troops responded when duty called them to risk everything. As General Dwight Eisenhower delcared, the eyes of the world were upon them. They did their countries proud.
I have no better way to remember the effort of these amazing heroes than through the closing words of Reagan’s 1984 speech.
“Here, in this place where the West held together, let us make a vow to our dead. Let us show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. Let our actions say to them the words for which Matthew Ridgway listened: “I will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” Strengthened by their courage, heartened by their valor, 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.”
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Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
I agree, I don’t think that most people understand what happened on D-Dy and how important it was. This was one of the most important days in history and we must make sure that we never forget what these men accomplished on that day and the days that followed during the year after. And we must teach the children, they need to understand the pure evil that was in the world and how our brave men triumphed, and that the cause was just.
Thanks for the link, I will be adding a link to your post from mine.
Many thanks. I appreciate it.
I could never argue that history is highly unappreciated — especially by people my age. However, as undeniably, incomprehensibly brave as those beachstormers were, I still can never feel comfortable with the justness of their mission without caveats. Seems to me, the less people know about wars and history, the more comfortable they are using labels like “the good war” and the “just war.” The more I learn about WWII, the less black and white it becomes. Which is life, and yes, the Americans were the “good guys” compared to the Nazis, but we also sided with a country whose head killed as many people as Hitler. I’d like to salute the bravery of those men storming the beaches — and I do — but I can’t help but be distracted by everything else I know about the war.
But yes, let’s remember these people. I always feel like that’s part of my job as a human.
Thanks for the thoughts. Many people often say that war is terrible as if that’s the whole reason we should never fight them. I think most people who believe some wars are necessary still acknowledge that they’re also terrible. One useful thing from the study of history is the realization that every war in American history has faced strong criticisms.
I am glad to see you’re writing such interesting things, so forgive me if I continue to blabber through the keyboard. This is not me trying to nitpick on your words, so forgive me if it sounds that way.
I am fairly anti-war — WWI and Vietnam were definitely mistakes (the last survivor of the trenches who just died answered at one point, “it wasn’t worth one life” to whether the conflict was worth so many lives) but World War II is of course the toughest one. I guess I’m not even trying to say anything about the war its self, only that with many people, it’s a knee-jerk respect for soldiers and a knee-jerk summation of the six years as, “the good war.” A lot of people don’t know much about it, so I would like to have even WWII not cemented forever as justified and nothing else. That’s the way to make it have happened 1000 years ago. Basically, I know YOU have thought about it, but plenty of other people haven’t necessarily. And the men and women who lived through it deserve for it to be known as something real and complex and gray — an insane time in their real lives.
There’s a reason I have been interested in reading Pat Buchanan’s recent book about the war and whether it could have been avoided. I don’t like the man at all, but I like people (besides David Irving type morons) who are not letting history be lamented and tucked away. Even if these people are wrong.
Also, I always remember you talking about D-Day in class and mentioning just trying to imagine what those men were thinking right before they had to walk on those beaches, and not being able to imagine it. I was so relieved that somebody else spent time wondering about things like that.
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