英語演講：This was an emotional day

　　all of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore; the royal winnipeg rifles, poland’s 24th lancers, the royal scots fusiliers, the screaming eagles, the yeomen of england’s armored divisions, the forces of free france, the coast guard’s "matchbox fleet," and you, the american rangers.

　　forty summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. you were young the day you took these cliffs; some of you were hardly more than boys, with the deepest joys of life before you. yet you risked everything here. why? why did you do it? what impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs? what inspired all the men of the armies that met here? we look at you, and somehow we know the answer. it was faith and belief. it was loyalty and love.

　　the men of normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just god would grant them mercy on this beachhead, or on the next. it was the deep knowledge -- and pray god we have not lost it -- that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. you were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. and you were right not to doubt.

　　you all knew that some things are worth dying for. one’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. all of you loved liberty. all of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

　　the americans who fought here that morning knew word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness back home. they fought -- or felt in their hearts, though they couldn’t know in fact, that in georgia they were filling the churches at 4:00 am. in kansas they were kneeling on their porches and praying. and in philadelphia they were ringing the liberty bell.

　　something else helped the men of d-day; their rock-hard belief that providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here; that god was an ally in this great cause. and so, the night before the invasion, when colonel wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them: "do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see god and ask his blessing in what we’re about to do." also, that night, general matthew ridgway on his cot, listening in the darkness for the promise god made to joshua: "i will not fail thee nor forsake thee."

　　these are the things that impelled them; these are the things that shaped the unity of the allies.

　　when the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. there were nations to be reborn. above all, there was a new peace to be assured. these were huge and daunting tasks. but the allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty, and love of those who fell here. they rebuilt a new europe together. there was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies, all of whom had suffered so greatly. the united states did its part, creating the marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. the marshall plan led to the atlantic alliance -- a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom, for prosperity, and for peace.

　　in spite of our great efforts and successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happy or planned. some liberated countries were lost. the great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of warsaw, prague, and east berlin. the soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave when peace came. they’re still there, uninvited, unwanted, unyielding, almost forty years after the war. because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. today, as forty years ago, our armies are here for only one purpose: to protect and defend democracy. the only territories we hold are memorials like this one and graveyards where our heroes rest.