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D Day Remarks and Materials from Ronal Reagan (1984)
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��june 7 I Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982
the exchange of young students between
their countries which will begin in 19~2.
The two governments agreed to begin
regular meetings to discuss cultural and in·
formation matters with the desire to im·
prove cultural programs and in order to examine means of strengthening relations in
these fields. The first cultural and informa·
tion talks will be held in Washington in
October.
The two sides concluded their talks by
welcoming recent decisions to strengthen
mutual consultations as an expression of the
special and close relationship which Italy
and the United States enjoy.
Address to Members of the British Parliament
june 8, 1982
My Lord Chancellor, Mr. Speaker:
The journey of which this visit forms a
part is a long one. Already it has taken me
to two great cities of the West, Rome and
Paris, and to the economic summit at Ver·
sailles. And there, once again, our sister de·
mocracies have proved that even in a time
of severe economic strain, free peoples can
work together freely and voluntarily to address problems as serious as inflation, unemployment, trade, and economic development in a spirit of cooperation and solidar·
ity.
Other milestones lie ahead. Later this
week, in Germany, we and our NATO allies
will discuss measures for our joint defense
and America's latest initiatives for a more
peaceful, secure world through arms reducti .
Each stop of this trip is important, but
among them all, this moment occupies a
special place in my heart and in the hearts
of my countrymen-a moment of kinship
homecoming in these hallowed halls.
Speaking for~all Americans, I want to say
how very much at home we feel in your
house. Every American would, because this
is, as we have been so eloquently told, one
of democracy's shrines. Here the rights of
free people and the processes of representa·
tion have been debated and refined.
It has been said that an institution is the
lengthening shadow of a man. This institu·
tion is the lengthening shadow of all the
men and women who have sat here and all
those who have voted to send representa·
tives here.
This is my second visit to Great Britain as
President of the United States. My first op·
I
742
portunity to stand on ·British soil occurred
almost a year and a half ago when your
Prime Minister graciously hosted a diplomatic dinner at the British Embassy in
Washington. Mrs. Thatcher said then that
she hoped I was not distressed to find star·
ing down at me from the grand staircase a
portrait of His Royal Majesty King George
III. She suggested it was best to let bygones
be bygones, and in view of our two coun·
tries' remarkable friendship in succeeding
years, she added that most Englishmen
today would agree with Thomas Jefferson
that "a little rebellion now and then is a
very good thing." [Laughter]
Well, from here I will go to Bonn and
then Berlin, where there stands a grim
symbol of power untamed. The Berlin Wall,
that dreadful gray gash across the city, is in
its third decade. It is the fitting signature of
the regime that built it.
And a few hundred kilometers behind
the Berlin Wall, there is another symbol. In
the center of Warsaw, there is a sign that
notes the distances to two capitals. In one
direction it points toward Moscow. In the
other it points toward Brussels, headquar·
ters of Western Europe's tangible unity.
The marker says that the distances from
Warsaw to Moscow and Warsaw to Brussels
are equal. The sign makes this point: Poland
is not East or West. Poland is at the center
of European civilization. It has contributed
mightily to that civilization. It is doing so
today by being magnificently unreconciled
to oppression.
Poland's struggle to be Poland and to
secure· the basic rights we often take for
�Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982 I june 8
Washington in
f their talks by
s to strengthen
xpression of the
'lip which Italy
.h soil occurred
ago when your
hosted a diplo;h Embassy in
said then that
Jed to find starrand staircase a
y King George
t to let bygones
our two counin succeeding
st Englishmen
omas Jefferson
and then is a
· to Bonn and
stands a grim
3e Berlin Wall,
~ the city, is in
ng signature of
neters behind
her symbol. In
is a sign that
1pitals. In one
·oscow. In the
els, headquarangible unity.
listances from
lW to Brussels
: point: Poland
at the center
1s contributed
It is doing so
unreconciled
oland and to
•ften take for
granted demonstrates why we dare not take
those rights for granted. Gladstone, defending the Reform Bill of 1866, declared, "You
cannot fight against the future. Time is on
our side." It was easier to believe in the
march of democracy in Gladstone's day-in
that high noon of Victorian optimism.
We're approaching the end of a bloody
century plagued by a terrible political invention-totalitarianism. Optimism comes
less easily today, not because democracy is
less vigorous, but because democracy's enemies have refmed their instruments of repression. Yet optimism is in order, because
day by day democracy is proving itself to be
a not-at-all-fragile flower. From Stettin on
the Baltic to Varna on the Black Sea, the
regimes planted by totalitarianism have had
more than 30 years to establish their legitimacy. But none-not one regime-has yet
been able to risk free elections. Regimes
planted by bayonets do not take root.
The strength of the Solidarity movement
in Poland demonstrates the truth told in an
underground joke in the Soviet Union. It is
that the Soviet Union would remain a oneparty nation even if an opposition party
were permitted, because everyone would
join the opposition party. [Laughter]
America's time as a player on the stage of
world history has been brief. I think understanding this fact has always made you patient with your younger cousins-well, not
always patient. I do recall that on one occasion, Sir Winston Churchill said in exasperation about one of our most distinguished
diplomats: "He is the only case I know of a
bull who c~es his china shop with him."
[Laughter] t
But witty as Sir Winston was, he also had
that special attribute of great statesmenthe gift of vision, the willingness to see the
future based on the experience of the past.
It is this sense of history, this understanding
of the past that I want to talk with you
about today, for it is in remembering what
we share of the past that our two nations
can make common cause for the future.
We have not inherited an easy world. If
developments like the Industrial Revolution, which began here in England, and the
gifts of science and technology have made
life much easier for us, they have also made
it more dangerous. There are threats now
to our freedom, indeed to our very existence, that other generations could never
even have imagined.
There is first the threat of global war. No
President, no Congress, no Prime Minister,
no Parliament can spend a day entirely free
of this threat. And I don't have to tell you
that in today's world the existence of nuclear weapons could mean, if not the extinction of mankind, then surely the end of
civilization as we know it. That's why negotiations on intermediate-range nuclear
forces now underway in Europe and the
START talks-Strategic Arms Reduction
Talks-which will begin later this month,
are not just critical to American or Western
policy; they are critical to mankind. Our
commitment to early success in these negotiations is firm and unshakable, and our purpose is clear: reducing the risk of war by
reducing the means of waging war on both
sides.
At the same time there is a threat posed
to human freedom by the enormous power
of the modem state. History teaches the
dangers of government that overreachespolitical control taking precedence over
free economic growth, secret police, mindless bureaucracy, all combining to stifle individual excellence and personal freedom.
Now, I'm aware that among us here and
throughout Europe there is legitimate disagreement over the extent to which the
public sector should play a role in a nation's
economy and life. But on one point all of us
are united-our abhorrence of dictatorship
in all its forms, but most particularly totalitarianism and the terrible inhumanities it
has caused in our time-the great purge,
Auschwitz and Dachau, the Gulag, and
Cambodia.
Historians looking back at our time will
note the consistent restraint and peaceful
intentions of the West. They will note that
it was the democracies who refused to use
the threat of their nuclear monopoly in the
forties and early fifties for territorial or imperial gain. Had that nuclear monopoly
been in the hands of the Communist world,
the map of Europe-indeed, the worldwould look very different today. And certainly they will note it was not the democracies that invaded Mghanistan or su-
743
�june 8 I Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982
pressed Polish Solidarity or used chemical
and toxin warfare in Mghanistan and Southeast Asia.
If history teaches anything it teaches selfdelusion in the face of unpleasant facts is
folly. We see around us today the marks of
our terrible dilemma-predictions of
doomsday, antinuclear demonstrations, an
arms race in which the West must, for its
own protection, be an unwilling participant.
At the same time we see totalitarian forces
in the world who seek subversion and conflict around the globe to further their barbarous assault on the human spirit. What,
then, is our course? Must civilization perish
in a hail of fiery atoms? Must freedom
wither in a quiet, deadening accommodation with totalitarian evil?
Sir Winston Churchill refused to accept
the inevitability of war or even that it was
imminent. He said, "I do not believe that
Soviet Russia desires war. What they desire
is the fruits of war and the indefinite expansion of their power and doctrines. But what
we have to consider here today while time
remains is the permanent prevention of
war and the establishment of conditions of
freedom and democracy as rapidly as possible in all countries."
Well, this is precisely our mission today:
to preserve freedom as well as peace. It
may not be easy to see; but I believe we
live now at a turning point.
In an ironic sense Karl Marx was right.
We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis, a crisis where the demands of the
economic order are conflicting directly with
those of the po~itical order. But the crisis is
happening not. .in the free, non-Marxist
West, but in the home of Marxist-Leninism,
the Soviet Union. It is the Soviet Union that
runs against the tide of history by denying
human freedom and human dignity to its
citizens. It also is in deep economic difficulty. The rate of growth in the national product has been steadily declining since the
fifties and is less than half of what it was
then.
The dimensions of this failure are astounding: A country which employs onefifth of its population in agriculture is
unable to feed its own people. Were it not
for the private sector, the tiny private
sector tolerated in Soviet agriculture, the
744
country might be on the brink of famine.
These private plots occupy a bare 3 percent
of the arable land but account for nearly
one-quarter of Soviet farm output and
nearly one-third of meat products and vegetables. Overcentralized, with little or no incentives, year after year the Soviet system
pours its best resource into the making of
instruments of destruction. The constant
shrinkage of economic growth combined
with the growth of military production is
putting a heavy strain on the Soviet people.
What we see here is a political structure
that no longer corresponds to its economic
base, a society where productive forces are
hampered by political ones.
The decay of the Soviet experiment
should come as no surprise to us. Wherever
the comparisons have been made between
free and closed societies-West Germany
and East Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia, Malaysia and Vietnam-it is the
democratic countries what are prosperous
and respqnsive to the needs of their people.
And one of the simple but overwhelming
facts of our time is this: Of all the millions
of refugees we've seen in the modern
world, their flight is always away from, not
toward the Communist world. Today on the
NATO line, our military forces face east to
prevent a possible invasion. On the other
side of the line, the Soviet forces also face
east to prevent their people from leaving.
The hard evidence of totalitarian rule has
caused in mankind an uprising of the intellect and will. Whether it is the growth of
the new schools of economics in America or
England or the appearance of the so-called
new philosophers in France, there is one
unifying thread running through the intellectual work of these groups-rejection of
the arbitrary power of the state, the refusal
to subordinate the rights of the individual
to the superstate, the realization that collectivism stifles all the best human impulses.
Since the exodus from Egypt, historians
have written of those who sacrificed and
struggled for freedom-the stand at Thermopylae, the revolt of Spartacus, the storming of the Bastille, the Warsaw uprising in
World War II. More recently we've seen
evidence of this same human impulse in
one of the developing nations in Central
�Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982 I june 8
rink of famine.
bare 3 percent
mnt for nearly
n output and
-lucts and vege, little or no in. Soviet system
the making of
The constant
wth combined
· production is
· Soviet people.
~itical structure
;o its economic
:tive forces are
~t
experiment
o us. Wherever
made between
Germany
md Czechosloun-it is the
lre prosperous
lf their people.
overwhelming
.11 the millions
the modem
way from, not
Today on the
~s face east to
On the other
>rces also face
from leaving.
·arian rule has
g of the intelthe growth of
in America or
f the so-called
there is one
1gh the intel-rejection of
te, the refusal ·
he individual
m that colleclan impulses.
·pt, historians
acrificed and
:and at Therus, the stormw uprising in
, we've seen
n impulse in
\S in Central
Nest
America. For months and months the world
news media covered the fighting in El
Salvador. Day after day we were treated to
stories and film slanted toward the brave
. freedom-fighters battling oppressive government forces in behalf of the silent, suffering people of that tortured country.
And then one day those silent, suffering
people were offered a chance to vote, to
choose the kind of government they
wanted. Suddenly the freedom-fighters in
the hills were exposed for what they really
are-Cuban-backed guerrillas who want
power for themselves, and their backers,
not democracy for the people. They threatened death to any who voted, and destroyed hundreds of buses and trucks to
keep the people from getting to the polling
places. ·But on election day, the people of El
Salvador, an unprecedented 1.4 million of
them, braved ambush and gunfire, and
trudged for miles to vote for freedom.
They stood for hours in the hot sun
waiting for their tum to vote. Members of
our Congress who went there as observers
told me of a women who was wounded by
rifle fire on the way to the polls, who refused to leave the line to have her wound
treated until after she had voted. A grandmother, who had been told by the guerrillas
she would be killed when she returned
from the polls, and she told the guerrillas,
"You can kill me, you can kill my family,
kill my neighbors, but you can't kill us all."
The real freedom-fighters of El Salvador
turned out to be the people of that country-the young, the old, the in-between.
Strange, .but in my own country there's
been little :if any news coverage of that war
since the election. Now, perhaps they'll say
it's-well, because there are newer strug·
gles now.
On distant islands in the South Atlantic
young men are fighting for Britain. And,
yes, voices have been raised protesting their
sacrifice for lumps of rock and earth so far
away. But those young men aren't fighting
for mere real estate. They fight for a
cause-for the belief that armed aggression
must not be allowed to succeed, and the
people must participate in the decisions of
government-[applause}-the decisions of
government under the rule of law. If there
had been firmer support for that principle
some 45 years ago, perhaps our generation
wouldn't have suffered the bloodletting of
World War II.
In the Middle East now the guns sound
once more, this time in Lebanon, a country
that for too long has had to endure the
tragedy of civil war, terrorism, and foreign
intervention and occupation. The fighting
in Lebanon on the part of all parties must
stop, and Israel should bring its forces
home. But this is not enough. We must all
work to stamp out the scourge of terrorism
that in the Middle East makes war an everpresent threat.
But beyond the troublespots lies a
deeper, more positive pattern. Around the
world today, the democratic revolution is
gathering new strength. In India a critical
test has been passed with the peaceful
change of governing political parties. In
Africa, Nigeria is moving into remarkable
and unmistakable ways to build and
strengthen its democratic institutions. In
the Caribbean and Central America, 16 of
24 countries have freely elected governments. And in the United Nations, 8 of the
10 developing nations which have joined
that body in the past 5 years are democra- ·
cies.
In the Communist world as well, man's
instinctive desire for freedom and self-determination surfaces again and again. To be
sure, there are grim reminders of how brutally the police state attempts to snuff out
this quest for self-rule-1953 in East Germany, 1956 in Hungary, 1968 in Czechoslovakia, 1981 in Poland. But the struggle continues in Poland. And we know that there
are even those who strive and suffer for
freedom within the confines of the Soviet
Union itself. How we conduct ourselves
here in the Western democracies will determine whether this trend continues.
No, democracy is not a fragile flower. Still
it needs cultivating. If the rest of this century is to witness the gradual growth of
freedom and democratic ideals, we must
take actions to assist the campaign for democracy.
Some argue that we should encourage
democratic change in right-wing dictatorships, but not in Communist regimes. Well,
to accept this preposterous notion-as some
745
�june 8 I Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982
well-meaning people have-is to invite the
argument that once countries achieve a nuclear capability, they should be allowed an
undisturbed reign of terror over their own
·
citizens. We reject this course.
As for the Soviet view, Chairman Brezhnev repeatedly has stressed that the competition of ideas and systems must continue
and that this is entirely consistent with relaxation of tensions and peace.
Well, we ask only that these systems
begin by living up to their own constitutions, abiding by their own laws, and complying with the international obligations
they have undertaken. We ask only for a
process, a direction, a basic code of decency, not for an instant transformation.
We cannot ignore the fact that even without our encouragement there has been and
will continue to be repeated explosions
against repression and dictatorships. The
Soviet Union itself is not immune to this
reality. Any system is inherently unstable
that has no peaceful means to legitimize its
leaders. In such cases, the very repressiveness of the state ultimately drives people to
resist it, if necessary, by force.
While we must be cautious about forcing
the pace of change, we must not hesitate to
declare our ultimate objectives and to take
concrete actions to move toward them. We
must be staunch in our conviction that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a lucky
few, but the inalienable and universal right
of all human beings. So states the United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human
Rights, which, among other things, guarantees free elections.
The objective I propose is quite simple to
state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy, the system <>fa free press, unions, political parties, universities, which allows a
people to choose their own way to develop
their own culture, to reconcile their own
differences through peaceful means.
This is not cultural imperialism, it is providing the means for genuine self-determination and protection for diversity. Democracy already flourishes in countries with
very different cultures and historical experiences. It would be cultural condescension,
or worse, to say that any people prefer dictatorship to democracy. Who would voluntarily choose not to have the right to vote,
746
decide to purchase government propaganda
handouts instead of independent newspapers, prefer government to worker-controlled unions, opt for land to be owned by
the state instead of those who till it, want
government repression of religious liberty,
a single political party instead of a free
choice, a rigid cultural orthodoxy instead of
democratic tolerance and diversity?
Since 1917 the Soviet Union has given
covert political training and assistance to
Marxist-Leninists in many countries. Of
course, it also has promoted the use of violence and subversion by these same forces.
Over the past several decades, West European and other Social Democrats, Christian
Democrats, and leaders have offered open
assistance to fraternal, political, and social
institutions to bring about peaceful and
democratic progress. Appropriately, for a
vigorous new democracy, the Federal Republic of Germany's political foundations
have become a major force in this effort.
We in America now intend to take additional steps, as many of our allies have already done, toward realizing this same goal.
The chairmen and other leaders of the national Republican and Democratic Party organizations are initiating a study with the
bipartisan American political foundation to
determine how the United States can best
contribute as a nation to the global cam"
paign for democracy now gathering force.
They will have the cooperation of congressional leaders of both parties, along with
representatives of business, labor, and other
major institutions in our society. I look forward to receiving their recommendations
and to working with these institutions and
the Congress in the common task of
strengthening democracy throughout the
world.
It is time that we committed ourselves as
a nation-in both the pubic and private sectors-to assisting democratic development.
We plan to consult with leaders of other
nations as well. There is a proposal before
the Council of Europe to invite parliamentarians from democratic countries to a
meeting next year in Strasbourg. That
prestigious gathering could consider ways to
help democratic political movements.
This November in Washington there will
�Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982 I june 8
1ment propaganda
pendent newspato worker-con·
:l to be owned by
who till it, want
· religious liberty,
nstead of a free
hodoxy instead of
diversity?
Union has given
md assistance to
1y countries. Of
dd the use of vio·
hese same forces.
ades, West Euronocrats, Christian
ave offered open
•litical, and social
.ut peaceful and
•ropriately, for a
the Federal Re'tical foundations
·ce in this effort.
md to take addi•Jr allies have allg this same goal.
1 ~aders of the na·
1ocratic Party or·
1 study with the
:al foundation to
: l States can best
1 the global cam~
1 gathering force.
\ 1tion of congres1 ·ties, along with
' labor, and other
\ ·Ciety. I look for·
, ecommendations
institutions and
·mmon task of
\ throughout the
1tted ourselves as
. and private sec·
ic development.
: leaders of other
I proposal before
)wite parliameni countries to a
1trasbourg. That
1~onsider ways to
j1vements.
•1gton there will
'"
'
0\
. i,'
take place an international meeting on free
elections. And next spring there will be a
conference of world authorities on constitu·
tionalism and self-goverment hosted by the
Chief justice of the United States. Authori·
ties from a number of developing and developed countries-judges, philosophers,
and politicians with practical experiencehave agreed to explore how to turn princi·
ple into practice and further the rule of
law.
At the same time, we invite the Soviet
Union to consider with us how the competi·
tion of ideas and values-which it is committed to support-can be conducted on a
peaceful and reciprocal basis. For example,
I am prepared to offer President Brezhnev
an opportunity to speak to the American
people on our television if he will allow me
the same opportunity with the Soviet
people. We also suggest that panels of our
newsmen periodically appear on each
other's television to discuss major events.
Now, I don't wish to sound overly opti·
mistic, yet the Soviet Union is not immune
from the reality of what is going on in the
world. It has happened in the past-a small
ruling elite either mistakenly attempts to
ease domestic unrest through greater repression and foreign adventure, or it
chooses a wiser course. It begins to allow its
people a voice in their own destiny. Even if
this latter process is not realized soon, I
believe the renewed strength of the democratic movement, complemented by a
global campaign for freedom, will strength·
en the prospects for arms control and a
world at peace.
I have ;discussed on other occasions, in·
eluding my address on May 9th, the elements of Western policies toward the Soviet
Union to safeguard our interests and protect the peace. What I am describing now is
a plan and a hope for the long term-the
march of freedom and democracy which
will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ashheap of history as it has left other tyrannies
which stifle the freedom and muzzle the
self-expression of the people. And that's
why we must continue our efforts to
strengthen NATO even as we move for·
ward with our Zero-Option initiative in the
negotiations on intermediate-range forces
and our proposal for a one-third reduction
in strategic ballistic missile warheads.
Our military strength is a prerequisite to
peace, but let it be clear we maintain this
strength in the hope it will never be used,
for the ultimate determinant in the struggle
that's now going on in the world will not be
bombs and rockets, but a test of wills and
ideas, a trial of spiritual resolve, the values
we hold, the beliefs we cherish, the ideals
to which we are dedicated.
The British people know that, given
strong leadership, time and a little bit of
hope, the forces of good ultimately rally
and triumph over evil. Here among you is
the cradle of self-government, the Mother
of Parliaments. Here is the enduring great·
ness of the British contribution to mankind,
the great civilized ideas: individual liberty,
representative government, and the rule of
law under God.
I've often wondered about the shyness of
some of us in the West about standing for
these ideals that have done so much to ease
the plight of man and the hardships of our
imperfect world. This reluctance to use
those vast resources at our command re·
minds me of the elderly lady whose home
was bombed in the Blitz. As the rescuers
moved about, they found a bottle of brandy
she'd stored behind the staircase, which was
all that was left standing. And since she was
barely conscious, one of the workers pulled
the cork to give her a taste of it. She came
around immediately and said, "Here nowthere now, put it back. That's for emergen·
cies." [Laughter]
Well, the emergency is upon us. Let us
be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength.
Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that
a new age is not only possible but probable.
During the dark days of the Second
World War, when this island was incandescent with courage, Winston Churchill ex·
claimed about Britain's adversaries, "What
kind of a people do they think we are?"
Well, Britain's adversaries found out what
extraordinary people the British are. But all
the democracies paid a terrible price for
allowing the dictators to underestimate us.
We dare not make that mistake again. So,
let us ask ourselves, "What kind of people
do we think we are?" And let us answer,
"Free people, worthy of freedom and deter·
747
�'
.
.
.
june 8 I Administration of Ronald Reagan, 1982
mined not only to remain so but to help
others gain their freedom as well."
Sir Winston led his people to great victory in war and then lost an election just as
the fruits of victory were about to be enjoyed. But he left office honorably, and, as
it turned out, temporarily, knowing that the
liberty of his people was more important
than the fate of any single leader. History
recalls his greatness in ways no dictator will
ever know. And he left us a message of
hope for the future, as timely now as when
he first uttered it, as opposition leader in
the Commons nearly 27 years ago, when he
said, "When we look back on all the perils
through which we have passed and at the
mighty foes that we have laid low and all
the dark and deadly designs that we have
frustrated, why should we fear for our
future? We have," he said, "come safely
through the worst."
Well, the. task I've set forth will long out-
live our own generation. But together, we
too have come through the worst. Let us
now begin a major effort to secure the
best-a cru~ for
that will
engage the fai an ortitude f the next
generation. or the salCe o peace and justice, let us move toward a world in which
all people are at last free to determine their
own destiny.
Thank you.
}
Note: The President spoke at 12:14 p.m. in
the Royal Gallery at the Palace of West·
minster in London.
On the previous evening, the President
was greeted by Queen Elizobeth II in an
arrival ceremony at Windsor Castle, near
Windsor, England. Later, the Queen hosted
a private dinner for the President.
On the morning of june 8, the President
and the Queen spent part of the morning
horseback riding on the Windsor Castle
grounds.
Toasts of the President and British Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher at a Luncheon Honoring the President in London
june 8, 1982
The Prime Minister. We are here today to
welcome and to honor our great ally, the
United States of America. Mr. President,
Mrs. Reagan, it's a privilege and a pleasure
to have you both here with us. It's rare
enough to have an American President as a
guest at Number 10, but my researchers
have been unable to find out when we last
had the honor of the First Lady at Number
10 as well.
President and Mrs. Reagan, your presence gives me and, indeed, many of our
guests a chance to repay as best we can the
hospitality you bestowed on us when we
were your first official guests from abroad
at the beginning of your Presidential term
of office. I realize, of course, that you've
both become accustomed recently to taking
your meals in rather grander places[laughter)-the Palace of Versailles and
Windsor Castle. As you can see, this is a
very simple house, one which has witnessed
748
the shaping of our shared history since it
first became the abode of Prime Ministers
in 1732.
Mr. President, some of us were present
this morning to hear your magnificent
speech to members of both Houses of Parliament in the historic setting of the Royal
Gallery. It was, if I may say so, respectfully,
a triumph. We are so grateful to you for
putting freedom on the offensive, which is
where it should be. You wrote a new chapter in our history-no longer on the defensive but on the offensive. It was, if I might
say so, an exceedingly hard act to follow.
[Laughter] But I will try to be brief.
Much has been said and written over the
years, Mr. President, about the relations between our two countries. And there's no
need for me to add to the generalities on
the subject today, because we've had before
our eyes in recent weeks the most concrete
expression of what, in practice, our friend-
I
I
I
I
.I
I
�Proprietary to the United Press International 1984
June 2, 1984, Saturday, DC cycle
ADVANCED-DATE: May 28, 1984, Monday, DC cycle
SECTION: International
LENGTH: 788 words
HEADLINE: D-Day: 40 years later;
Rome was the place to be June 6, 1944
BYLINE: By CHARLES RIDLEY
DATELINE: ROME
BODY:
At least once in a war, soldiers strike luck.
It is one of the ironies of World War IT that while troops faced the terrors of the
Normandy landings, American and other Allied soldiers in Italy were enjoying their happiest
adventure.
American armor and infantry of Gen. Mark W. Clark's 5th Army entered Rome on the
heels of tens of thousands of fleeing Germans on June 4, 1944. The capture of the first Axis
capital took place just two days before the June 6 Normandy D-Day and served as a major
morale boost for history's most spectacular amphibious operation.
Few cities can rival Rome in early June. And for various reasons, most of them military,
Rome came through the war almost undamaged.
For the Allied troops who had just endured nearly five months of the war's bloodiest
fighting -- at the German winter defense line pivoting on Monte Cassino and on the Anzio
beachhead -- the contrast was overpowering.
After months of barren battlefield mud, Rome seemed carpeted from ancient wall to
ancient wall with what the troops called "signorinas".
For the citizens of Rome who had faced near-starvation, German reprisals for partisan
bomb attacks and deportations during those same five months, the relief of liberation was
enormous.
For them it was the end of Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini's war, which brought them
nothing but disaster. By the hundreds of thousands they mobbed the American tanks and
-------
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-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
�infantry that poured. at first warily. into the city through the San Giovanni gate in the
southern city walls.
Mark Clark -- who died in Charleston, S.C.• April 17 at the age of 87 -- was not really
supposed to head for Rome when he did. Gen. Sir Harold Alexander. the British commander
in chief of Allied armies in Italy. wanted him to strike inland from the Anzio beachhead to
cut off the German divisions fleeing from the Cassino front after the British-led breakthrough
there.
Alexander's strategy might have ended the war against the Germans in Italy right then. But
among the American, British, Canadian, Indian, New Zealand, Free French and Polish troops
who took part in the battles that led to the liberation of Rome. Clark was a hero because he
spared them a murderous showdown.
It was amazing -- and vital for the preservation of order in the Italian capital -- how closely
the entry of American troops into Rome followed the frantic evacuation of the city by the
Germans.
German army Field Marshal Albert Kesselring ordered the evacuation of Rome on June 3.
The city was untenable because it is surrounded by a coastal plain and could be easily
bypassed by the Allied divisions.
A German officer's account, cited in a recent book on this phase of the war in Italy. draws
a vivid picture of the hectic German withdrawal:
"On the roads we had trucks, guns, horse-drawn vehicles. anti-aircraft units --very often in
three columns, side by side, and mixed in with them soldiers from different regiments. The
shambles was grotesque.
"Columns tried to overtake each other and the anti-aircraft gun crews attempted to take up
firing positions," the German witness said. "Officers on motorcycles tried to get the columns
into order."
At least one German battalion seeking an escape route was involved in a firefight with
American troops. But in general there was no fighting in the city --Germans out on one
side and Americans in from the other.
On the day of the Normandy landings. June 6, 1944, American and other Allied troops
who followed them into the city at breakneck speed were enjoying the adulation of Romans
for whom the terrors of war were over.
Some toured the sights, others enjoyed the nonstop Happy Hours in city bars. And the more
licentious soldiery sought female company.
As I walked down the Via Nazionale with an army friend, hard on the heels of two Roman
girls in wispy summer dresses, we passed two other officers from our regiment following two
�girls in the opposite direction.
''Did you hear they landed in Normandy this morning?" one of the other officers said.
'1t's about time they did," we replied in chorus. The Normandy invasion had been rumored
for weeks.
Many of the British troops in Italy at that time in 1944 had been in front line action since
1940 and most of the Americans and British had been fighting since the North Africa
landings in November 1942.
We thought the Normandy landings would mean a quick end to the war and we might be
home for Christmas.
But the U.S. Sth Army and the British 8th Army in Italy were depleted by several divisions
switched to Normandy or other Allied landings in the South of France.
Another long winter was ahead in the snow of the mountains between Florence and
Bologna before the war was won.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
�The Associated Press
The materials in the AP file were compiled by The Associated Press. These materials may not
be republished without the express written consent of The Associated Press.
onday, AM cycle
ADVANCED-DA
ay 2S, 1984,, Friday, AM cycle
I
,,
SECTION: International News
LENGTH: 1926 words
HEADLINE: Allied Drive to Liberate Rome 40 Years Ago Recounted by Italians
BYLINE: By LETIA TAYLER, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: SALERNO, Italy
BODY:
It began Sept. 9, 1943, with the Allied invasion of southern Italy _ "like a giant serpent
comin out of the sea," as an Italian policeman remembers it and it ended June 4, 1944,
when, An_dreana Stivettl rec Is, "We cried with happiness. ' t was the liberation of Rome m ~
World War IT. An Associated Press reporter retracesTe drive of the Allies as Italians
~
remember it.
Housing complexes and peaceful but littered beaches now mark the landing sites of the
U.S. and British armies. Little is evident today of the Allied invasion that culminated nine
months later in the liberation of Rome from the Germans.
Except for the graves of soldiers who fell here in 1943.
Four-lane highways running north now cover the brush and mountain passes where the U.S.
5th Army under Gen. Mark Clark and British forces led by Gen. Harold Alexander battled
over the 145 miles to Rome _a campaign that killed or wounded more than 300,000 Allied
soldiers and 250,000 Germans.
But the memories of Italian men and women who lived through it remain:
MAIORI, near _§alerno. Sept. 9, 1943
-
Police Chief Gennaro Torrelli awakes to shouts and a low rumbling from the Mediterranean
shore. He pulls on his uniform and and rushes out into this fishing village of pastel-colored
houses and white cliffs to see, he recalls now, "!.line as long as you could imagine, like a
giant serpent coming out of the sea, of tanks, boats and soldiers. "
�He thinks it is the Germans coming to occupy the town in the wake of Italy's surrender to
the Allies even though the Nazi forces still held military control of the country.
A soldier approaches him, a youth whose face and uniform are barely visible in the dark.
The soldier fumbles in his pocket and pulls out a small packet.
"Want a Lucky Strike?" he asks Torrelli in English.
They are Americans.
Torrelli is one of the first citizens on the Italian mainland to witness Operation Avalanche,
the Allied landings in and around Salerno, 35 miles south of Naples, that began the drive to
liberate Rome and Italy.
e says now, sitting at the seafront where the U.S.
("Then ovemi t, coming out of the mist as in a dream, the Americans arrived, bringing us __.hope and stre~ cans of meat, bars of chocolate, good cigarettes."
NAPLES, Sept. 27, 1943
Maddalena Cerasuolo, a shoemaker's daughter who is now 63, remembers the day clearly,
recalling that word had reached Naples of the Allied advance toward the city.
"The Neapolitans wouldn't wait for the Allies," she says. "We threw the Germans out on
our own."
She shows a photograph taken on that day of herself, her black hair pulled back, army
jacket across her shoulders and a belt of cartridges around her supple waist.
On that day she helped spur Italy's only spontaneous popular uprising against the Germans
and fought alongside men during the four-day battle that drove the Nazis out of the city.
She says she sounded the alarm when she overheard a group of German soldiers plotting
to blow up the Ponte Della Sanita bridge, the aqueduct supplying all water to the city and site
of thousands of working-class homes.
She raced toward the bridge with a group of armed men as the Germans prepared to set off
the explosions and "shot those soldiers dead," she says, gesturing with her arms to simulate
the attack.
Within hours, dozens, then hundreds of citizens "took to the streets, battling German tanks
and machine guns with hunting rifles, stolen grenades, rocks and even furniture," she adds. "It
was our victory after months of subjugation."
�None of this would have happened if the people of Naples hadn't known the Allies were on
their way, according to Giovanni Illuminato, who still bears the shrapnel scars he suffered as
a 14-year-old during the uprising.
"We knew the Allies were coming. The sound of their gunfire was closer every day. That
gave us courage," he says.
"Perhaps, if we had waited for them, the Germans would not have killed my brother," he
adds. At least 600 Neapolitans, most of them children, lost their lives in the uprising before
the Allies reached Naples on Oct. I, 1943.
=
Ennio Silvestri says that shout was all the encouragement he needed.
He tore toward the beach from the woods where he had been hiding for four months after
the Germans evacuated Anzio, a seaside resort 3 5 miles south of Rome.
"I was afraid I wouldn't see them before they headed north to Rome, " recalls Silvestri,
now Anzio's tourism director, of the day the Allies landed on the beaches of his hometown.
"Instead, the Allies stayed four months."
For Silvestri, then 25, the war offered adventure: he dressed up as an American soldier
and dodged gunfire to bring wine to the Allied soldiers at the front.
But he is quick to recall that at Anzio, 22,000 British and American troops and 26,500
Germans had died.
·------------"Each day became more grim, and each night the sound of German cannons seemed
louder," he says. "After a few months we all thought the Germans might win."
For Teresa Pallombini, then a 17-year-old girl hiding in a cave near the beachhead, it meant
hope and security.
I
"They set us up in refugee camps away from the fighting, brought us food and let us finally (
hope that our country would be our own again," she recalls. "When they finally left we were
overjoyed for the victory. But sorry to see our new friends leave."
MONTE CASSINO, Feb. 15, 1944
~
�The Rev. Agostino Saccomano is praying for the Allies to make it to the top of the lethal
heights of Monte Cassino to the monastery where he is sheltered.
They do just that _ but with SOO tons of explosives that raze the 6th-century monastery
founded by St. Benedict and one of the most important monasteries in the world. Three
hundred people are killed.
The white-haired Roman Catholic monk is one of the few survivors of the bombing attack
that day. He says now, "It was one of the greatest atrocities of the war." He returned to live
at the monastery 77 miles south of Rome after it was completely rebuilt in 1964.
For Saccomano, the incident transformed the Germans into "comparative heroes."
"The Allies gave us hardly any warning," he says of the attack, designed to break the
German's Gustav Line blocking the Allied advance to Rome.
Like many historians, Saccomano discounts the Allied claim of the time that Germans were
using the monastery as an outpost to shoot down the advancing Allied forces, who had been
staging a bloody battle to scale Monte Cassino since November 1943.
"We were there," he says. "We saw that this was not the truth."
CASSINO, March IS, 1944
Former Mayor Antonio Ferraro of Cassino, on the other hand, was jubilant when, in his
words, an Allied attack one month later "blew the town sky-high."
Ferraro, like most of the men of Cassino, then a sleepy town of low houses nestled at the
foot of the monastery, had been· taken prisoner by the Germans.
He was put to digging trenches when British bombers and the American B-17 Flying
Fortresses struck in waves that obliterated the town in hours.
"My first thought was I'd die," Ferraro recalls, sitting under a jagged cliff that the Allies
had found so difficult to scale they coined it "Hangman's Hill."
"Then I became ecstatic. I realized the Allies might at last be able to drive away the
Germans, who were holding the town."
Freed as the Germans fled the bombing, Ferraro remained in the rubble of Cassino to watch
as Polish forces stormed the heights on May 18 and broke the Gustav Line to speed the
Allied advance toward Rome.
The price for the breakthrough in and around Monte Cassino was a tot8l of 258,000 Allied
dead and missing compared with 20,000 casualties for the Germans.
�AMASENO, May 19, 1944
Twenty-year-old Rosanna Leoni watched the Allies advance north of Cassino from a
chicken coop.
"We wanted to rush into the streets to greet our liberators, but we remained terrified. We
didn't believe it could really be them after all our waiting," she says.
Mrs. Leoni adds that she had passed the entire war in terror. A Jew, she fled toward
Cassino with her husband and 7-month-old son after German forces seized Rome on Sept.
10, 1943.
"We had heard vague rumors of the concentration camps," the small, dark-eyed woman
says, explaining her flight to the hamlet of Amaseno, 25 miles north of Cassino.
"Enough racial laws were in effect at that time in Italy to make it clear what would happen
to the Jews."
Mrs. Leoni says the happiest moment of the war was the march to Rome, where hundreds
of Italians who had hid from the Germans followed the Allies, cheering and singing, to return
to their homes and families in the capital.
But the young woman was greeted in Rome with the news that her parents and sister had
been seized by the Germans eight months earlier in a roundup of about 1,000 Roman Jews.
"They were exterminated," she says.
ROME, June 4, 1944
"The city was empty. We were terrified the Germans would try to hold Rome, forcing the
Allies to bomb the city. But they packed up and left. In the void left by their departure,
thousands of leaflets fell from Allied planes, giving the command that we had all been
waiting for: to clear the way for the Allies' arrival."
Adreana Stivetti, then a 20-year-old member of the partisan movement resisting the Nazis
and Italian Fascists, says now she and fellow Romans got to work quickly, removing
German-built barriers that would block the Allied tanks, safeguarding railroad stations and
post offices.
When the Americans swept into the city, "We cried with happiness, letting ourselves realize
for the first time how scared we had been." she says.
~ Romans still look ypon the Americans as "our liberators\ perhaps more so than the
British, since they arrived first," according to Josette Bruccoleri, then a frail, dark-haired
19-year-old who helped the Vatican hide anti-German Italian partisans and escaped Allied war
prisoners. Although Liberation Day was declared June 5, the U.S. 5th Army entered Rome
�the night before, followed the next morning by the British.
"We went wild," she remembers. "The Americans rode through the town in jeeps, throwing
Life Saver candies to the crowds. The women were screaming with joy and kissing the
soldiers. As a young, sheltered girl I was shocked."
The occupation of Rome had made life "a constant game of cat and mouse, where our
whole existence was to do in the Germans," Mrs. Bruccoleri says.
She recalls slipping past the Germans guarding the Vatican to smuggle in letters from
relatives of the prisoners and partisans.
"Looking back, it seems foolishness to have risked my life and torture for people I didn't
even know," she says. "But at the time all of us felt we had to do it."
For Vera Simone Tham, the Allies' arrival in Rome was "terrible and beautiful at the
same time we had suffered so much."
Mrs. Tham's father, Gen. Simone Simoni, the leading resistance fighter, had been among
334 Italians rounded up and brought to the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome. On March 24,
1944, the Italians were massacred there in reprisal for a partisan bombing that killed 33
German soldiers in Rome.
After the Allies took Rome, Mrs. Tham sorted through envelopes of victims' remains to
ascertain that her father was among those killed in the massacre.
"I came to envelope 44 and recognized a pair of dentures," she says. "We called in my
father's dentist and he placed the dentures into the cast he had made of my father's mouth.
"They fit."
GRAPinC: With Laserphoto
LANGUAGE: ENGUSH
�THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
SENATE/HOUSE CODELS
THURSDAY, JUNE 2, 1994
5:30 P.M.
The Senate delegation has been invited to attend "The Presidents
GREETINGS TO THE CITIZENS OF ROME"
8:30 P.M.
Senators Dole, Pell, Inouye, and Hollings have been invited to
attend the dinner hosted by the Prime Minister at Ville Madama.
FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1994
9-:-1-&-~·.M.
The Senate delegation will be attending the Nettuno Memorial
Ceremony. Senators Dole, Inouye, and Hollings will participate in
a flower laying ceremony at the graves of the Unknown soldiers,
before the ceremony.
SATURDAY, JUNE 4, 1994
10:00 A.M.
The House delegation will be attending the Cambridge Cemetery
Ceremony. Represenatives Montgomery and Michel will be part of
the official greeting party.
MONDAY, JUNE 6, 1994
7:00 A.M.
A group of Senate and House Members will meet the President
aboard the USS George Washington for the Sunrise Ceremony. The
following Senators will attend: Senators Hollings, Nunn, Glenn,
John Kerry, Mathews, Domenici, Warner Smith, and Dole. The
following House Members will attend: Represenative Michel,
Bevill, Edwards, Myers. The Members of the House delegation may
increase, depending on space aboard the helicopter.
10:00 A.M.
Both the House and Senate Delegation will attend the Utah Beach
Ceremony.
2:45 P.M.
The Senate Delegation will be attending omaha Beach Ceremony
5:00 P.M.
Both the House and Senate delegation will attend the
Commemoration Ceremony, Colleville.
u.s.
�
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Don Baer
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Office of Communications
Don Baer
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1994-1997
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<a href="http://clinton.presidentiallibraries.us/items/show/36008" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431981" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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2006-0458-F
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Donald Baer was Assistant to the President and Director of Communications in the White House Communications Office. The records in this collection contain copies of speeches, speech drafts, talking points, letters, notes, memoranda, background material, correspondence, reports, excerpts from manuscripts and books, news articles, presidential schedules, telephone message forms, and telephone call lists.
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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537 folders in 34 boxes
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D Day Remarks and Materials from Ronald Reagan (1984)
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2006-0458-F
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Box 28
<a href="http://www.clintonlibrary.gov/assets/Documents/Finding-Aids/2006/2006-0458-F.pdf" target="_blank">Collection Finding Aid</a>
<a href="https://catalog.archives.gov/id/7431981" target="_blank">National Archives Catalog Description</a>
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Clinton Presidential Records: White House Staff and Office Files
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42-t-7431981-20060458F-028-013-2014
7431981