[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]

 
               THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF NORMANDY INVASION

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. President, I had the most distinguished honor and 
pleasure in August of 1991 to visit Normandy and lay a wreath on the 
tomb of a Wyoming soldier's grave. Just today, I returned from Normandy 
again where I was able to mark the 50th anniversary of the now famous 
D-day invasion, which was the beginning of the end of World War II.
  Through these visits, I truly realized why it is so vitally important 
for us to honor the memories of the hundreds of thousands of Americans 
and Allied soldiers who suffered and died during World War II. For that 
reason, I would simply like to reflect for a few moments about just how 
deeply that event changed the course of history and how important the 
actions taken that day--June 6, 1944--remain in our world today.
  My own recollections of this time in our history are vivid beyond 
imagination. I was a young boy of 13 and I had charts on my bedroom 
wall and I knew where every unit of the Allied Forces were moving--from 
the beaches of Normandy to the interior of the beast--until our forces 
eventually pierced the black heart of the monster in Berlin, itself. 
That all occurred. I happened in an astonishingly short range of 
months. I shall never forget listening to the crackling of the radio 
and then watching ``Movietone News'' with Lowell Thomas telling us that 
our boys were moving forward. Indeed, they were moving forward.
  Fifty years ago, 153,000 American, British, and Canadian troops 
stormed across the English Channel and hit the beaches of northern 
France, launching a final push that within 11 months crushed the Nazi 
Germany Army. Their goal was the liberation of Europe and the 
preservation and restoration of freedom, liberty, and dignity in the 
western world.
  The D-day assault involved 5,000 naval vessels and 11,000 sorties of 
Allied aircraft. Three divisions of airborne troops, the 82d and the 
101st of the United States and the 6th of Britain, dropped inland and 
captured key military outposts, preventing German reinforcements from 
reaching them. I think of our beloved colleague, Strom Thurmond, and 
how he was demonstrating his leadership even then as he led forces of 
the 82d Airborne through enemy lines in the most extraordinary act of 
courage. What a man.
  I am a veteran of the end of that era and I served in Europe with the 
occupation forces in Germany. It was also the birth of a new era. The 
largest amphibious invasion in history laid the foundation for the 
Marshall plan, the recovery of Europe, and the birth of the Atlantic 
Alliance--and NATO.
  What we must always remember is the absolute awesomeness of it all. 
As I looked over the vast expanse of white crosses and Stars of David 
in the American cemetery, I was deeply moved. As one U.S. veteran said: 
``That represents freedom and blood.'' Because our collective national 
memory is often too short, it is of the deepest importance that we 
commemorate what took place in Normandy 50 years ago.
  Today, few wars seem to be based on so just a cause as the struggle 
against the Nazis. But, let us always keep faith with the virtues that 
have not changed--valor and sacrifice in the defense of freedom. In 
honoring them, we will keep their spirit alive. Of course, in the end, 
the most heroic challenge is not to win future wars, but to avoid them 
altogether. The task is to ensure that the horrors and evil which made 
World War II necessary do not arise again--and that our youngest and 
finest and brightest and strongest men and women never fight again--on 
any foreign or domestic shore.

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