June 6, 1964 | D-Day Plus 20 Years: Eisenhower Returns to Normandy

June 6, 1964 - The terror-filled hours of D-Day were recalled with simple eloquence last night by General Dwight D. Eisenhower.
In a 90-minute interview with Walter Cronkite of CBS-TV, the former Supreme Allied Commander told of his own anxieties. The interview was filmed on the Normandy beaches to mark the 20th anniversary today of the Allied invasion of France in World War II.
In an almost matter-of-fact voice, General Eisenhower recalled the fearful decision to go ahead with the landings on June 6, 1944, despite predictions of barely tolerable weather. The destiny of the world’s greatest armada rode on this game, and General Eisenhower admitted, with some show of embarrassment, that he had prepared a statement to be released in the event of catastrophe.In this statement of defeat, General Eisenhower assumed all blame for the decision “because if it did fail, you know this — I was going into oblivion anyway, so I might as well take full responsibility.”
When the general spoke, documentary films of the invasion were shown. On Omaha Beach, where the battle reached its climax, there were scenes of amphibious craft foundering in rough seas that were strewn with the bodies of drowned soldiers, and scenes of men, paralyzed with fear, cowering against a sandbank while German guns raked the beach.
“Everything was going wrong that could go wrong,” said General Eisenhower.“Finally, the thing that pulled this out was the bravery and the courage and the initiative of the American G.I. That’s what did it.”
The closing scene of the program showed General Eisenhower sitting on a bench in the American military cemetery at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach.
As he viewed the 9,000 graves in the cemetery, he said: “I devoutly hope that we will never again have to see such scenes as these. I think and hope and pray that humanity will learn more than we had learned up to that time. But these people gave us a chance, and they bought time for us so that we can do better than we have before.
“So, every time I come back to these beaches or any day when I think about that day 20 years ago now, I say once more that we must find some way to work to peace — and really gain an eternal peace for this world.”

Support this project at patreon.com/realtime1960s