[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 69 (Tuesday, June 7, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: June 7, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                          COMMEMORATING D-DAY

  Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, 50 years after June 6, 1944, the words 
``D-day'' and ``Normandy'' bring to mind in every American memories of 
the heroic and selfless deeds of the young men who went ashore on that 
longest day to liberate Europe from Nazi tyranny. The stories of 
courage, dedication, and loyalty to comrades in arms as well as to the 
principles of democracy, liberty, and justice are well known to us all. 
But as we enjoy the fruits of victory which were won with the blood of 
young men spilled on the beaches of Normandy and on the fields of 
northern France, Belgium, Germany, and Italy, let us stop to pay 
tribute to those who carried the torch of freedom back to the people of 
Europe. And let us stop to reflect on what their sacrifices mean to us 
in the midst of this troubled time in which we live.
  D-day was a victory of freedom bought at the price of too much of the 
youth of the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Holland, Denmark, 
Norway, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Russia.
  It was a victory of the human spirit--a ringing affirmation that 
tyranny cannot prevail as long as free men and women are willing to 
confront it.
  It was a victory of military professionalism--without the leadership, 
vision, planning, and dedication of the military men and women of all 
the Allies, Normandy would have remained a beach of Nazi barricades, 
mines, and death.
  It was a victory of sacrifice at home--in Britain where the 
courageous people of the United Kingdom refused to give up even under 
constant attacks from Nazi air forces and weapons of terror; in all of 
the occupied countries where freedom-loving peoples refused to accept 
Nazi domination and fought on through their undergrounds, provided 
invaluable intelligence to Allied planners, and waited for the day when 
help would arrive from the world's great democracies; in Russia where 
ultimately nearly 1 in every 10 Russians died fighting Nazi aggression; 
and in the United States where victory gardens had sprung up when the 
United States entered the war, rationing was imposed and endured 
without grumbling, and children who wanted to do their part to fuel the 
arsenal of democracy bought war stamps and collected scrap metal and 
other vital war materials.
  The landings at Normandy were possible in large part because American 
know how, economic vitality, industrial capability, and energy were 
mustered to build the tools necessary to fight a global war on two 
diverse fronts and to rearm our Allies while simultaneously equipping 
our own growing military forces. We should never forget that in many 
American factories, forges, and mills, it was our mothers and 
grandmothers, sisters and aunts who carried the load while the men of 
America went off to war.
  When Americans stormed Nazi defenses along the Normandy shore on June 
6th 50 years ago, they carried the message to free people everywhere 
that the world's greatest democracy would not stand idly by and watch 
the candle of freedom extinguished by the forces of tyranny, injustice, 
and despotism. We stand for those same principles today. In many ways, 
the world is a more complicated place 50 years after D-day, but the 
core values of America have not changed.
  On this the 50th anniversary of D-day, we should reaffirm our belief 
in our principles and our belief in ourselves. Brave and selfless men 
and women from all over America serve every day in far off places to 
protect our national interests and to bring peace and freedom to all 
corners of the world.
  We are indeed the descendants of those brave men who fulfilled 
America's promise not to abandon democracy in 1944. Fifty years later 
we simply must not forget. As Harold Mohn has said in his poignant 
poem, ``The Headstones White at Saint Laurent'':

     The headstones that stand mute and still
     At Laurent by the sea,
     Remind us of the price we paid
     To bring France liberty.
     Here lie the flower of our youth
     Who never lived to see,
     The peace for which they fought and died
     And hoped would ever be.

                           *   *   *   *   *

     God, grant the sacrifice they made
     So far across the sea,
     Will live within each heart and mind
     And not forgotten be.

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