Monday, June 6, 2011
On June 6, 1944, 160,000 Allied troops land along a 50-mile stretch of heavily fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany, on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower calls the military operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory” and U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt calls the operation a “mighty endeavor.” More than 5,000 ships and 13,000 aircraft support what would become known as the D-Day invasion, and by nightfall the Allies gain a foothold in Normandy. The D-Day operation—one of the epic military assaults in history—results in massive casualties on both sides. According to D-Day historian, Andrew Whitmarsh, the British wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill told his wife before going to bed the night before the operation, “he was afraid that when they woke up, more than 20,000 people would have been killed.” Today’s experts estimate the number of casualties to be much higher—with an aggregate total for both sides being approximately 450,000 killed.
Last month, Deauville, France, Normandy’s seaside resort town, was the site of the 2011 G8 summit, which included 18 heads of state and 2,500 delegation members. Near the historic beaches, almost synonymous with the Allied force’s D-Day invasion, the group promised $20 billion in aid to Tunisia and Egypt—the two vanguard countries of the Arab Spring—in order to foster the emergence of new democracies in the Middle East, resulting from popular uprisings. G8 leaders expressed strong condemnation for the Syrian government’s killing of peaceful protesters opposing President Bashar al-Assad’s rule. The group also strongly encouraged, now exiled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, to step down and more forcefully stated, embattled Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi, “has no future in a free democratic Libya. He must go.”
