This Day in History: Fact-Checking D-Day Rumors on Its 80th Anniversary
SnopesJUN 15 2024
Biden and Macron Use D-Day to Rally Support for Ukraine
Image copyright: Jordan Pettitt/Pool/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Veterans and world leaders on Thursday commemorated the 80th anniversary of the Normandy landings in France, the 1944 effort in which 150K Allied troops invaded France by land and sea in order to drive out the occupying Nazi forces.
US Pres. Joe Biden and French counterpart Emmanuel Macron both honored the soldiers who took in the World War II offensive in speeches at Omaha Beach. Both also used their addresses to liken the Allied war effort to Ukraine's current war with Russia.
In a speech where he described Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin as a "tyrant bent on domination," Biden said: "To surrender to bullies, to bow down to dictators, is simply unthinkable. If we were to do that, it means we’d be forgetting what happened here on these hallowed beaches."
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
US Pres. Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron were right to invoke the memory of the Allied defeat of totalitarianism in World War II. Ukraine is fighting the same fight and it needed to be made clear that they will not face Russia alone.
Pro-Russia narrative
Arrogant Western elites are trying to erase the Soviet contributions to World War II from the history books. D-Day would not have been possible without the sacrifice of at least 25M Russian troops whose army went on to hand several defeats to the Germans before that fateful day in 1944.