COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER, France — Joe Biden’s speech on the 80th anniversary of D-Day sounded for the most part like a familiar ode to a historic war victory — but within the speech was a warning to Americans.
Biden checked the names of the World War II veterans who sat in wheelchairs behind him on stage, blankets draped over their laps in the early afternoon chill. He praised their sacrifice in defeating Nazi tyranny. He emphasized the importance of alliances.
But he made a plea to those who will decide in a few months whether he stays in power: democracy is a fragile thing and all these years later the fight for its survival is still in doubt.
“Let us be the generation whose history will be written ten, twenty, thirty, fifty, eighty years from now, and it will be said that when the moment came, we met the moment,” Biden said. “We stood strong, our alliances became stronger. And we also saved democracy in our time.”
Biden never mentioned his Republican rival by name, but his speech offered implicit criticism of Donald Trump’s “America First” approach, which devalues the post-war alliances the US helped build to guarantee his security.
He spoke proudly of how the NATO military alliance has expanded under his watch — Finland and Sweden have joined since he became president — to provide a bulwark against Russian aggression. Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from NATO and some worry he could follow through if elected to another term.
Biden used the speech to argue that despite Trump’s complaint that European allies do not contribute enough to NATO and are not dependent on the US to fill the gap, the alliance is essential to push back the current dictators.
“America has invested in our alliances and forged new alliances,” he said, standing at a lectern above Omaha Beach, where American troops waded ashore under withering fire 80 years ago. “America’s unique ability to bring nations together is an undeniable source of our strength and power. Isolationism was not the answer 80 years ago and it is not the answer today.”
Ignoring the alliances the U.S. helped forge would embolden Russian President Vladimir Putin as he wages a war designed to swallow Ukraine, Biden suggested.
If Russia wins, it will inevitably try to build on its victory by threatening other European states that are members of NATO, he said. That, in turn, could spark a broader war: NATO’s Article 5 states that an attack on one is an attack on all.
“We cannot let that happen — surrendering to bullies, bowing to dictators is simply unthinkable,” Biden said, standing at the graves of more than 9,000 American soldiers killed on D-Day or later.
Just as the U.S. faced a deadly challenge in World War II, the country now finds itself once again “in our hour of testing,” he said. “We live in a time when democracy worldwide is in more danger than at any time since the end of World War II.”
“Now we must ask ourselves: Will we stand against tyranny?” he said. “Against evil? Against the crushing brutality of the iron fist? Will we stand up for freedom as we defend democracy? My answer is yes, yes, and it can only be yes.”
Biden will return to the area on Friday to deliver another speech at Pointe du Hoc, where US Army Rangers scaled steep cliffs to neutralize German guns and open a path for the Allies to retake France. He will hold meetings with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Paris on Saturday and return home the next day.
Although Biden boasted that there is a spirit of unity across NATO’s 32 member states, the rifts have widened. Not all of Europe has supported Biden’s democratic vision or his candidacy.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban is friendly with Trump and has criticized illiberal moves such as weakening the judiciary and undermining the country’s independent media. Orban has also been more skeptical about sending additional aid to Ukraine, unlike Biden, who has spent billions to bolster Ukraine’s battlefield capabilities. He said Thursday that Ukraine’s allies will not “walk away.”
Another European leader, Polish Prime Minister Andrzej Duda, visited Trump in New York in April. A Duda aide later said the prime minister and Trump were “friends” who used the time to reminisce about how they worked together when Trump was president.
Biden returns to Europe next week for a summit meeting of the Group of Seven (G7) of the world’s richest democracies in southern Italy. One question Biden may be asked during private meetings is how confident he is about his reelection prospects.
In an interview with Time Magazine on May 28, Biden emphasized that his counterparts agree that they want Trump to lose.
“There isn’t a major international meeting I attend before it’s over… that a world leader doesn’t pull me aside as I’m leaving and say, ‘He can’t win.’ You can’t let him win,” Biden told the magazine.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
