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CAEN, France — For nearly 80 years, the United States and Europe have convinced themselves that a lasting post-war peace was won on six miles of blood-stained shallow water and sand off the coast of Normandy.
On Thursday, the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings, perhaps the last major milestone for the invasion’s countless heroes, the peace in Europe was shattered.
In its place has been fear of a new world war that until recently seemed far-fetched, uncertainty about Washington’s European alliances cemented by the Normandy landings, and questions about the future of the Western alliance itself.
For many, the ideals that D-Day helped win are in danger of disappearing along with the survivors.
“I think freedom and democracy are certainly under threat,” Normandy invasion veteran Harold Terence, 100, told NBC News on Monday.
That day, working as a radio operator based in Yorkshire in the north of England, he contacted 60 P-47 Thunderbolt fighter planes flying over France, of which only 30 returned. Twelve days later, he personally went to Normandy to escort recently liberated American prisoners of war back to Britain and welcome newly captured Germans.
“It’s one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Terence, who lives in Lake Worth, Florida. “Bodies without arms, legs, bodies without heads. War is hell,” he added, a line attributed to General William Tecumseh Sherman, who fought on the Union side in the Civil War.
On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops, including 73,000 Americans, 60,000 British, and 15,000 Canadians, landed in Nazi-occupied France. It was the largest amphibious invasion in history, a meticulously planned attack that changed the course of World War II and the 20th century.
Nearly 4,500 Allied soldiers, including about 2,500 Americans, died in the historic attempt to weaken Nazi Germany’s grip on continental Europe.
And for a few weeks each year, Normandy is transformed into a festival of remembrance, with concerts, parades and ceremonies, and cities, villages and cemeteries decorated with flags (including many American flags flown by French citizens) and even the French flag.
It’s unclear how many veterans remain, but about 150 Americans who took part in the months-long Normandy invasion, including 24 Normandy veterans, plan to travel to France this year, according to the U.S. War Memorials Commission, a government agency that manages overseas cemeteries and memorials.
The main attraction is a ceremony attended by world leaders including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Britain’s Prince William. President Biden is scheduled to deliver a speech in defense of freedom and democracy.
“D-Day is a key moment for President Biden to talk about what our collective security has done since World War II to ensure a largely peaceful Europe,” said Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware), a friend of Biden’s and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “This is a chance for President Biden to demonstrate what he’s always been good at: It’s not just about America. It’s not about America First, it’s about America as a crucial leader and an indispensable nation in the world.”
Still, the main players are the veterans.
NBC News has been traveling for part of this week accompanying a bus carrying 50 American veterans brought by the California-based charity Best Defense Foundation.
Those on the bus will include Richard “Dick” Ramsay, 100, captain of the USS Nevada, who fired artillery shells into the battlefield during the Normandy landings and narrowly escaped a return fire, and Richard Lang, 100, who ferried soldiers from landing craft to Omaha Beach, hosed off the blood of his fellow soldiers.
The youngest of the Normandy invasion veterans are in their 90s, and for many this will be the last major milestone they see as the event fades from public memory.
For the French, the legacy of D-Day is more complicated, with decades of reverence for the Allied liberators but also mourning for the 20,000 Normandy residents who lost their lives in the attack, which reduced cities like Caen to rubble.
Macron says now is the right time to acknowledge those memories, a point he is expected to make Wednesday at a ceremony in Saint-Lô, a city so ravaged by fighting that in 1946 Irish novelist Samuel Beckett dubbed it “the capital in ruins,” a moniker that has since become widespread.
With doubts being raised about the long-term US commitment to Europe, Macron has called for increased defence spending and refused to rule out sending French troops to Ukraine, seeking to position himself as the de facto leader of European security, infuriating Moscow.
It is perhaps not surprising then that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not invited this year.
It’s a tricky combination for all involved: Having a Russian delegation take part at a time when Russian forces are waging an unprovoked war against Ukraine, a battle of attrition with tanks, troops and artillery reminiscent of World War II itself on a scale that is difficult for many to stomach.
At the same time, it is impossible to tell the story of the defeat of the Nazis without including the Soviet Union.
After Adolf Hitler broke the non-aggression pact and invaded the Soviet Union, the Red Army fought back, risking millions of lives, to repel the Nazi advance on the Eastern Front, but the Soviets achieved a Pyrrhic victory.
“Times have changed a lot,” said John M. Koenig, a veteran American diplomat who served as ambassador to Cyprus and served in Belgium and Italy before retiring in 2015. “The perception of Russia, and Russia’s future, is much bleaker than it was when we were inviting President Vladimir Putin to our celebrations.”
“Europe is not what it used to be,” he added, “at least not in the way that we hoped it would be 10 years ago: a Europe of compromise, cooperation and common interests.”
Many in Europe fear that if Moscow’s acts of aggression go unpunished, other countries such as the Baltic states and perhaps Poland will become targets of the Kremlin.
Ukraine has been armed to the teeth with $50 billion in Western aid, including missiles, tanks and air defense systems, but many observers question the future of Western unity.
At stake is the US presidential election between Biden and former president and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, who has previously threatened to withdraw from NATO and many of Ukraine’s allies fear he will cut off support for Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Moreover, this month’s European Parliament elections are set to be won by far-right and nationalist parties, some of which share Trump’s skepticism about the importance of helping Ukraine resist Russian aggression.
“Some people argue that our troops should come home. We made that mistake once after World War I,” John Kelly, a retired four-star general and Trump’s longest-serving White House chief of staff, said in an interview.
“Yes, our allies and partners need to do more for themselves and honor their financial commitments,” added Kerry, who has fallen out with Trump. “But we’ve tried isolationism before and it didn’t work. A rules-based world order works, and for it to work, the United States must lead.”
The war between Israel and Hamas is also testing Washington’s relationships with its historic partners.
Israel faces genocide charges and possible arrest warrants in international courts, and it and its main ally, the United States, have become increasingly isolated on the world stage. Both countries deny the charges.
Israel’s attacks on Gaza have killed more than 36,000 people, according to local officials, and the United Nations estimates the Palestinian territories need $40 billion for post-war reconstruction, the biggest since 1945. Meanwhile, 80 years after the Nazis murdered six million Jews, the deadly Oct. 7 attacks and their aftermath have raised concerns about rising anti-Semitism in the United States and Europe.
But amid the horrors, both historic and contemporary, there is a ray of light among the hedgerows and gravestones of a calm but overcast northern France.
Terence, a radio operator during the Normandy landings, has returned here at the age of 100 to marry his fiancée, Jeanne Swearin, 96.
“Love isn’t just for young people,” he said. “We need to do our bit, too.”
The couple met in 2021, and 40 family members flew in from the U.S. for the June 8 ceremony and parade. But it will be those who can’t be there in person who are most touched.
“Because I’m a spiritual person, I came here to invite all 9,836 soldiers buried at Omaha Beach to the wedding,” he said. “I want them to be there in spirit and know that they are not forgotten.”
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