President Biden will mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy on Thursday, saying the allied effort to resist Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a direct extension of the battle for freedom that raged across Europe during World War II.
Mr Biden, 81, who was a toddler when Americans stormed the beaches in 1944, will almost certainly be the last US president to speak at a commemoration in Normandy who was alive at the time Allied forces began to drive Adolf Hitler from Europe.
Now, eight decades later, Mr. Biden is leading a coalition of European and other nations in a very different war on the continent, but over a very similar principle: opposing the attempted seizure of Ukraine by the Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. .
In his speech at the Normandy American Cemetery, the president will draw a direct line between the two, linked by the defense of a rules-based international order.
“Today, in 2024, 80 years later, we see dictators once again attempting to challenge the order by attempting to march into Europe,” said Jake Sullivan, the president’s national security adviser. He told reporters that Mr. Biden would argue that “liberty-loving nations must come together to oppose this, as we have.”
Mr. Biden’s remarks at the cemetery, where 9,388 members of the US military are buried, will mark the start of a four-day visit to France, which will include a second speech on Friday and a state dinner hosted by the president Frenchman Emmanuel Macron. SATURDAY. He will return to Europe a few days later, for a meeting of Group of 7 leaders in Puglia, Italy.
After his speech at the cemetery, Mr. Biden will join Mr. Macron and others at Omaha Beach, site of some of the fiercest and deadliest fighting between U.S. forces and the German occupiers in France.
U.S. officials said the grim backdrop of Normandy – where allies helped turn the tide after more than four years of war – is meant to highlight what’s at stake for Europe and the world if the United States and its compatriots lose their resolve and let Mr. Putin win.
Mr. Biden said months of Congress refusing to approve funding for Ukraine set back the war effort there, giving Russian forces the opportunity to advance along the battle lines in the north and east of the country.
Mr. Sullivan said the president will deliver a speech “that will speak, in the context of the war in Europe today, about the sacrifices that these heroes and these veterans made 80 years ago and how it is to our obligation to continue their mission to fight for freedom.”
On Friday, his aides said Mr. Biden would return to the beaches of Normandy to deliver a second speech, this time at Pointe du Hoc, where Army Rangers scaled huge cliffs in an effort to secure positions critical military held by the Germans.
The officials said the president would use this context to make a broader point about the dangers of isolationism and the need to protect and nurture democracy. John F. Kirby, a retired Navy admiral and White House national security spokesman, said the speech would be different from Mr. Biden’s previous speeches on the theme of protecting democracy.
“You can cite real lives that were affected at Pointe du Hoc,” he said. “You can point to the real blood that was shed in pursuit of this higher goal. And you can tell stories about real men who scaled real cliffs and faced real bullets and real dangers in pursuit of something much bigger than themselves.
