Executive Calendar

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, last week, the United States and Allied nations observed a significant milestone in world history: the 80th anniversary of D-Day. That day--by land, air, and sea--this massive military operation unleashed the largest amphibious assault known to the world.

More than 18,000 paratroopers dropped onto the beaches of Normandy. More than 14,000 dispatches from Allied Air Forces provided cover. Nearly 7,000 naval vessels participated, including more than 132,000 ground troops who swam ashore amid heavy German artillery.

American families lost 2,500 servicemembers on D-Day alone. All told, as we know, more than 400,000 Americans died during World War II serving their country. These courageous patriots defended America's standing as the beacon of hope and freedom around the world.

The sacrifice of the American people to back the war effort allowed the United States to flex its military superiority alongside the Allied forces. That effort bested the Axis powers, defeating their authoritarian regimes and ending the Holocaust, where 6 million Jewish people lost their lives. They were murdered.

At every opportunity, Barbara and I are honored to greet veterans who have come to Washington, DC, in what we call Honor Flights, to visit the World War II Memorial.

A World War II hero and former Senate majority leader here in the Senate, Bob Dole, came to be my best friend. He took me, a fellow midwesterner, under his wing when I first came to the U.S. Senate.

My departed friend brought uncommon courage to the battlefield, and we all know he brought principled leadership to the U.S. Senate. His mentorship made a lasting impression on me and my work in Congress. That includes a nonnegotiable tenet of America's national security, which is peace through strength.

You see, widespread isolationist sentiment kept the United States from entering World War I and World War II. America stayed on the sidelines until the cost of aggression was too high, and the threat to the United States became obviously more acute.

Separated as we are from Europe and Asia by two vast oceans and wishing no one any harm, Americans would naturally feel that we ought to be left alone and ignore foreign conflicts.

Now, here is the lesson for today. The United States learned this lesson from World War II: Preventing and stopping aggression very early is much less costly in dollars and lives.

We learned what happens when you wait. When unchecked aggression has lit the world on fire, we are forced to fight a devastating world war.

That is why the United States led our allies in creating the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, better known as NATO. This most successful defensive alliance in history turned 75 this year.

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