Today is the anniversary of the 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.  The following day, President Roosevelt gave one of the great speeches of all time.  Here is my list of the greatest speeches of World War II.  (See videos below.)

• Day of Infamy — Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, December 8, 1941
• Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat — Sir Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940
• Finest Hour — Sir Winston Churchill, June 18, 1940
• Japanese Surrender Ceremony — Gen. Douglas MacArthur, September 2, 1945
• The Guns Are Silent — Gen. Douglass MacArthur, September 2, 1945
• The Boys of Pointe du Hoc — Pres. Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984
• Tear Down This Wall — Pres. Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987

What would you add to this list?

Day of Infamy — Pres. Franklin Roosevelt, December 8, 1941

With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding determination of our people — we will gain the inevitable triumph — so help us God.

Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat — Sir Winston Churchill, May 13, 1940

I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.”  We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind.  We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering.  You ask, what is our policy?  I can say: It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.  That is our policy.  You ask, what is our aim?  I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.  Let that be realized …

Finest Hour — Sir Winston Churchill, June 8, 1940 (conclusion only)

Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war.  If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands.  But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.  Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

Japanese Surrender Ceremony — Gen. Douglas MacArthur, September 2, 1945
Note: Many of my generation owe our lives to Gen. MacArthur. He brought our fathers home alive. During the next 5 years, he would prove to be the greatest emperor Japan ever had.

The video left out some of Gen. MacArthur’s introductory remarks, but you can link to complete audio of Gen. MacArthur’s introductory remarks here.  (source)

It is my earnest hope and indeed the hope and indeed the hope of all mankind that from this solemn occasion a better world shall emerge out of the blood and carnage of the past — a world founded upon faith and understanding — a world dedicated to the dignity of man and the fulfillment of his most cherished wish — for freedom, tolerance and justice.  …  Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.

Link to full text of Gen. MacArthur’s remarks here.

The Guns Are Silent — Gen. Douglas MacArthur, September 2, 1945
Immediately after the surrender ceremony, Gen. MacArthur addressed the American public via radio.  We could find no video link but you can link to audio of The Guns Are Silent here.

As I look back on the long, tortuous trail from those grim days of Bataan and Corregidor, when an entire world lived in fear, when democracy was on the defensive everywhere, when modern civilization trembled in the balance, I thank a merciful God that He has given us the faith, the courage and the power from which to mold victory.

Link to audio of The Guns Are Silent.  (source)

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc — Pres. Ronald Reagan, June 6, 1984

Why?  Why did you do it?  What impelled you to put aside the instinct for self-preservation and risk your lives to take these cliffs?  What inspired all the men of the armies that met here?  We look at you, and somehow we know the answer.  It was faith and belief; …

Tear Down This Wall — Pres. Ronald Reagan, June 12, 1987

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!  Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

On this, one of the bleakest days in recent history, I thought it good to share a few quotations from a better, more coherent era.  All of these are attributed to President Ronald Reagan.

Socialism only works in two places, heaven where they don’t need it and hell where they already have it.

Here’s my strategy on the Cold War:  we win, they lose.

The most terrifying words in the English language are, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”

The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.

Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S.  was too strong.

The taxpayer: that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.

Government is like a baby:  an alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.

The nearest thing to eternal life we will ever see on this earth is a government program.

It has been said that politics is the second oldest profession.  I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:  If it moves, tax it.  If it keeps moving, regulate it.  And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Politics is not a bad profession.  If you succeed, there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself, you can always write a book.

No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is as formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.

The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.  (Originally come from Margaret Thatcher, but we’re betting Ronald Reagan quoted her on it at least once!)

If we ever forget that we’re one nation under GOD, then we will be a nation gone under.

A Time for Choosing
by Ronald Wilson Reagan
October 27, 1964

As timely today as it was 48 years ago.

This is the issue of this election: Whether we believe in our capacity for self-government or whether we abandon the American revolution and confess that a little intellectual elite in a far-distant capitol can plan our lives for us better than we can plan them ourselves.
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But beyond that, “the full power of centralized government”—this was the very thing the Founding Fathers sought to minimize. They knew that governments don’t control things. A government can’t control the economy without controlling people. And they know when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. They also knew, those Founding Fathers, that outside of its legitimate functions, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector of the economy.
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For three decades, we’ve sought to solve the problems of unemployment through government planning, and the more the plans fail, the more the planners plan.
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Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.
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No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments’ programs, once launched, never disappear.  Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.
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Now it doesn’t require expropriation or confiscation of private property or business to impose socialism on a people. What does it mean whether you hold the deed to the—or the title to your business or property if the government holds the power of life and death over that business or property? And such machinery already exists. The government can find some charge to bring against any concern it chooses to prosecute. Every businessman has his own tale of harassment. Somewhere a perversion has taken place. Our natural, unalienable rights are now considered to be a dispensation of government, and freedom has never been so fragile, so close to slipping from our grasp as it is at this moment.
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You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.  We’ll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we’ll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.

On this day (June 12) in 1987, President Ronald Reagan stood at the Brandenburg Gate and uttered one of the most memorable phrases of my lifetime.

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate!

Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate!

Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

As it turns out, the “experts” at the State Department deleted this exhortation from the speech on multiple occasions—they thought it would be too provocative—but President Reagan kept putting it back in.  On his way to the Brandenburg Gate, he told an aide, “It’s gonna drive the State Department boys crazy, but I’m gonna leave it in.”  The rest, as they say, is history.

Entire text of speech here.  Video below:

On this day, 68 years ago, thousands of brave heroes invaded France on the Normandy coast.  They parachuted in from planes, they landed in gliders, they waded ashore, and they climed the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc.

If anything should inspire us to work tirelessly to preserve the lives of preborn children today, it is the sacrifice that so many of these young men, barely more than children themselves,  made on those beaches 68 years ago today.

On the 40th anniversary of this day, President Ronald Reagan visited the site and delivered this address:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEIqdcHbc8I

As the Thanksgiving holiday winds down, check out President Reagan’s Thanksgiving greeting from 1985.  It will be a real blessing to you.  I promise!

Hope you had plenty to be thankful for this year.  We sure did!  Even in a terrible economy, we’ve had one of our best years of pro-life activism on campus!  We visited 11 major universities in 7 states, reaching nearly 180,000 students.  I am so thankful for all that God is doing through your generosity.

But I’m not the only one who thanks you.  A few months back, Angel called me to say, “I was going to get an abortion today.  I saw your pictures, and I changed my mind.  You saved my baby’s life.  I guess you saved mine, too.  Thank you for those pictures.”

Anna thanks you too.  She’s displaying CBR “Choice” and GAP signs a few hours each week at George Mason U (GMU).  She wrote me, “Let me tell you, it is moving!  Truly the best part of my week. … Thank you for all you do, and for finding me at GMU last summer.  This has all changed my life.”

I am thankful for so many blessings!  Here are just a few:

• For Anna at GMU and Lisa at Virginia Commonwealth U, who are starting pro-life student groups so they can host GAP at their schools this coming March.
• For GAPs at 11 major universities in 7 states, reaching nearly 180,000 students.  Nationally, we visited 23 schools that enroll more than half a million students!
• For Cracker Barrel. I’ve been to every one along I-75, I-40, and I-81.  I can work that silly peg puzzle blindfolded (which is a surprisingly awesome way to embarrass your wife).
• For Gary Johnson, our “super-duper” volunteer, who made every GAP trip and saved Angel and her baby with the “Choice” signs you provided.
• For hundreds of pro-life students who we trained in pro-life activism.  We are preparing the generation that will overturn Roe v Wade.
• For the Pro-Life Training Academy (PLTA) in 9 cities across 7 states.  Biggest year ever.
• For discounted hotel rooms at Hotwire.com and chicken soup at 35 different Panera Breads.
• For our new promo video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8Rk44gn824.
• For post-abortive women who are Silent No More at every GAP event.
• For Ole Betsy, my 2005 Buick, and every one of her 115,839 miles.  She’s taken me from Pensacola to Providence and all points in between.
• For dedicated staff and volunteers, whose passion is winning hearts, changing minds, and saving lives.
• For you, because God has used you to touch so many lives.
• For all of the great work ahead.

It’s really quite remarkable to add up what you’ve done through your prayers and support.  We thank you for that, and we thank God for you!

O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. (Psalm 95:1-6)

Thank you,

Fletcher

P.S. I wasn’t going to ask, but if you must, click here. Thank you!

Great article by Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review.

Both sides, then, tend to misunderstand the well-springs of Reagan’s achievement. Having grand goals is easy, if you don’t care much about reaching them. Cutting deals is easy, if you don’t care much about where they take you. Knowing how to accommodate reality, when to give way and when to stand firm, while never deviating from your ultimate purposes, is the stuff of statesmanship.

Click here for entire piece.

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A people free to choose will always choose peace.

Facts are stubborn things.

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.

Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.

Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation. You will have opportunities beyond anything we’ve ever known.

Government’s first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives.

Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.