“When we Americans think about our European heritage, we tend to think of your cultural influences and the rich ethnic heritage you gave us. But the Industrial Revolution that transformed the American economy came from Europe. The guiding intellectual lights of our democratic system—Locke, Montesquieu, and Adam Smith—came from Europe. And the geniuses who ushered in the modern industrial-technological age came from—well, I think you know, but two examples will suffice: Alexander Graham Bell, whose great invention maddens every American parent whose child insists on phoning his European pen pal rather than writing to him—and he was a Scotsman— [laughter] —and Guglielmo Marconi, who invented the radio, thereby providing a living for a young man from Dixon, Illinois, who later went into politics. I guess I should explain: That’s me. Blame Marconi. [Laughter] And Marconi, as you know, was born in Italy.” President Ronald Reagan
The President. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. It is an honor to be with you on this day.
We mark today the anniversary of the liberation of Europe from tyrants who had seized this continent and plunged it into a terrible war. Forty years ago today, the guns were stilled and peace began, a peace that has become the longest of this century.
On this day 40 years ago, they swarmed onto the boulevards of Paris, rallied under the Arc de Triomphe and sang the Marseillaise. They were out there in the open and free air. And now, on this day 40 years ago, Winston Churchill walked out onto a balcony in Whitehall and said to the people of Britain, “This is your victory.” And the crowd yelled back, in an unforgettable moment of love and gratitude, “No, it is yours.” Londoners tore the blackout curtains from their windows, put floodlights on the great symbols of English history. And for the first time in nearly 6 years, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and St. Paul’s Cathedral were illuminated against the sky.
Across the ocean, a half a million New Yorkers flooded Times Square and laughed and posed for the cameras. In Washington, our new President Harry Truman called reporters into his office and said, “The flags of freedom fly all over Europe.”
On that day 40 years ago, I was at my post in an Army Air Corps installation in Culver City, California. Passing a radio, I heard the words, “Ladies and gentlemen, the war in Europe is over.” I felt a chill, as if a gust of cold wind had just swept past, and even though fox’ America there was still a war in the Pacific front, I realized I would never forget that moment.
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