“…these men came here – British and our allies, and
Americans – to storm these beaches for one purpose only, not to gain anything
for ourselves, not to fulfill any ambitions that America had for conquest, but
just to preserve freedom. … Many thousands of men have died for such ideals as
these … but these young boys … were cut off in their prime. … I devoutly hope
we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope, and
pray, that humanity will have learned. … We must find some way … to gain an
eternal peace for this world.”— Dwight Eisenhower, interviewed by Walter
Cronkite for “CBS Reports: D-Day Plus 20 Years: Eisenhower Returns to
Normandy,” air date June 6, 1964, quoted in Carlo D’Este, Eisenhower: A Soldier’s Life (2002)
Though Operation Overlord ultimately proved successful on this day 70 years ago, former
general and president Dwight Eisenhower still felt heavily responsible for
the lives of the 160,000 Allied troops who stormed ashore in France to help
liberate Europe from Fascism. Twelve thousand of these American, British and
Canadian troops were killed or wounded that day. The horror was so beyond
imagination that we can only hope—and work night and day for—the “eternal peace
for this world” that Eisenhower—who endured World War I, World War II, and the
Cold War—deeply yearned for.
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