Allies Made D-Day Landing Possible: USA Today

More than 160,000 US and Allied troops landed on the coast of Normandy for the D-Day invasion. World leaders gather in France to commemorate the anniversary, honor veterans and remember the sacrifices. The invasion, a turning point in World War II, offers a reminder about the value of alliances, notes Nicholas Burns, former US ambassador to NATO, in an article by John Fritze of USA Today. Troops from the United Kingdom, Canada, the United States, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland participated in D-Day and the Battle of Normandy with an estimated 15,000 casualties. Fritze points out that “America First” policies run contrary to the cooperative spirit and goals of multinational institutions like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. “Presidents have long used D-Day remarks to link the sacrifices made by the soldiers who landed in France to their own times and to apply lessons from the war to their own foreign policies,” Fritze explains, adding that former President Ronald Reagan embraced “U.S. engagement in Europe” and “vowed that the United States would remain a global force in defending democracy.” Reagan also noted: “We've learned that isolationism never was and never will be an acceptable response to tyrannical governments." – YaleGlobal