David Durenberger: “as the American people celebrate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe, I should like to commemorate the…”

“as the American people celebrate the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Europe, I should like to commemorate the important role played in that historic drama by one of our own colleagues. If one has to choose a defining moment of the 20th century, one could do worse than point to the landing of Allied forces in France on June 6, 1944. The forces arrayed on those Normandy beaches were the key protagonists of our century: On one side, the forces of liberty and democracy, invigorated as never before by economic growth; on the other, a totalitarian despotism strengthened by unprecedented levels of state power. The result of that series of battles foreshadowed the result of our century's history: Freedom was victorious, and tyranny in retreat. Indeed, now that the historical epoch known as the cold war has cone to an end, it has become commonplace to view the victory of freedom as an inevitability of history. In a sense, that may be true; if the nature of the human person is to be free, then political chains cannot be hung upon the human being in any permanent way. The basic desire of the human being will eventually prevail.…”