June 6 is one of the most important and consequential days in global history — the day when the free people of the world launched a counterassault that would claw the planet back from genocidal tyranny.

Four decades ago, Ronald Reagan spoke eloquently to the significance of that date at a memorial marking one of the most significant parts of it:

These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc. These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war.

Gentlemen, I look at you and I think of the words of Stephen Spender's poem. You are men who in your "lives fought for life . . . and left the vivid air signed with your honor."