Ronald Reagan at Normandy: The D-Day Speech That Defined a Presidency
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 737 Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2025
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, in June of 1984, President Ronald Reagan visited the cliffs of Pointe du Hoc to mark the 40th anniversary of D-Day. Before him stood the surviving Army Rangers who had scaled those cliffs under constant fire to help turn the tide of World War II.
Often called the Great Communicator, he delivered one of his most powerful speeches, linking the courage of the men who fought at Normandy to the enduring promise of freedom. Listen to one of the defining moments of Reagan’s presidency and his moving tribute to those who fought in World War II.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.3 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:14.0 | And we return to our American stories. |
| 0:18.0 | West of an overlooking Omaha and Utah Beach is Pointe de Hoc, a rocky 110-foot |
| 0:24.7 | cliff in Normandy, France. Besides being the site where Germans place some of their heavy guns |
| 0:30.0 | along the Atlantic Wall, it was also the location of one of the second Ranger battalion's |
| 0:36.1 | finest moments, one of our armed forces greatest moments too. |
| 0:41.2 | Capturing Pointe Hawk was critical to ensuring the security of the main landing force to its east. |
| 0:47.6 | It was up to 225 men to take it and ensure the liberation of Europe. |
| 0:53.4 | Take it they did, climbing up ladders over the rocky cliffs to do so. |
| 0:58.3 | Here's President Ronald Reagan giving a speech at Pointe to Huck, |
| 1:01.5 | honoring those men and all the men who fought in World War II back in 1984. |
| 1:07.6 | Let's get into it. |
| 1:09.4 | We're here to mark that day in history when the Allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent to liberty. |
| 1:18.6 | For four long years, much of Europe had been under a terrible shadow. |
| 1:24.6 | Free nations had fallen. Jews cried out in the camps millions cried out for liberation |
| 1:30.4 | Europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue here in Normandy the rescue began |
| 1:37.7 | here the allies stood and fought against tyranny and a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. |
| 1:46.0 | We stand on a lonely wind-swept point on the northern shore of France. |
| 1:52.0 | The air is soft but 40 years ago at this moment. |
| 1:56.0 | The air was dense with smoke and the cries of men, |
| 1:59.0 | and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire and the roar of cannon. |
... |
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