and welcome back to american history tv and our special series speeches that define the presidency. this week, our focus is on ronald reagan. president reagan was in office from 1981 to 1989. and we're going to show you this evening, two speeches. his 1981 inaugural address,

which was on the west front of the capitol. a first in this address, he declared that government is not the solution to the problem. government is the problem. after that, we'll show you. his 1984 d-day address at ten duhok in france. this was the 40th anniversary of d-day. and he spoke of the sacrifices made by american servicemen. this is speeches that defined the presidency on american history. tv. governor, are you prepared to take the constitutional. i am. if you place your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand and repeat after me. i, ronald reagan, do solemnly swear. i, ronald reagan, do solemnly swear that i will faithfully execute the office of president of the united states and i will faithfully execute the office of

president of the united states. and will, to the best of my ability. and will to the best of my ability. preserve, protect and defend. preserve, protect and defend the constitution. mission of the united states. the constitution of the united states. so help you god. so help me god. i congratulate you, sir.

that's the president of the united states. thank you. thank you. senator hatfield. mr. chief justice. mr. president. vice president bush. vice president mondale. senator baker. speaker o'neill. reverend boomer. and my fellow citizens. to a few of us here today.

this is a solemn and most momentous occasion. and yet in the history of our nation, it is a commonplace occurrence. the orderly transfer of authority is called for in the constitution and routinely takes place as it has for almost two centuries and few of us stop to think how unique we really are. in the eyes of many in the world. this every four years ceremony, we accept as normal is nothing less than a miracle. mr. president, i want our fellow citizens to know how much you did to carry on this tradition by your gracious cooperation in the transition process. you have shown i'm watching world that we are a united people pledge to maintaining a political system which guarantees individual liberty to a greater degree than any other. and i thank you and your people

for all your help in maintaining a continuity, which is the bulwark of our republic. the business of our nation goes forward. these united states are confronted with an economy like affliction of great proportions. we suffer from the longer and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. it distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift and crushes the struggling young and the fixed income, elderly alike. it threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people. idle industries have cast workers into unemployment. human misery and personal indignity. those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a

tax system which penalizes success for achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity. but great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending for decades. we have piled deficit up on deficit mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the present. the continue this long trend is to guarantee to amend a social, cultural, political and economic upheavals. you and i, as individuals, can by borrowing live beyond our means. but for only a limited period of time. why then should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation? we must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. and let there be no mess understanding.

we are going to begin to act beginning today. the economic ills we suffered have come upon us over several decades. they will not go away in days, weeks or months. but they will go away. they will go away because we as americans have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom in this present crisis. governance is not the solution to our problem. government is the problem. from time to time, we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule or that

government by an elite group is superior to government for by and of the people. well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? all of us together in and out of government, must bear the burden. the solutions we seek must be equitable. with no one group singled out to pay a higher price, we hear much of special interest groups while our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected, it knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. it is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our minds and factories, teach our children, keep our homes and heal us when

we're sick. professionals. industrialists. shopkeeper owners. clerks, cabbies and truck drivers. they are, in short, we the people. this breed called americans. well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all americans. with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. putting america back to work means putting all americans back to work. ending inflation means freeing all americans from the terror of runaway living costs. all must share in the productive work of this new beginning, and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy where the idealism and fair play, which are the core of our system and our strength. we can have a strong and prosperous america at peace with

itself and the world. so as we begin, let us take inventory. we are a nation that has a government, not the other way around. and this makes us special among the nations of the earth. our government has no power except that granted it by the people. it is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed. it is my intention to curb the size and inflow once of the federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the federal government and those reserved to the states or to the people. all of us, all of us need to be

reminded that the federal government did not create the states. the states created the federal government. now, so there will be no misunderstanding. it's not my intention to do away with government. it is rather to make it work. work with us, not over us. to stand by our side, not ride on our back. government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it. foster productivity, not stifle it. if we look to the answer as to why for so many years we achieved so much, prospered as no other people on earth. it was because here in this land we unleashed the energy and individual genius of man to a greater extent than has ever been done before. freedom and the dignity of the

individual have been more available and assured here than in any other place on earth. the price for this freedom at times has been high, but we have never been unwilling to pay that price. it is no coincidence that our present troubles paralleled and are proportionate to the intervention and intrusion in our lives that result from unnecessary and excessive growth of government. it is time for us to realize that we are too great a nation to limit ourselves to small dreams. we are not, as some would have us believe, doomed to an inevitable decline. i do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. i do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. so with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal.

let us renew our determination, our courage and our strength. and let us renew our faith. and our hope. we have every right to dream heroic dreams. those who say that we are in a time when there are no heroes. they just don't know where to look. you can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. you meet heroes across the counter and they're on both sides of that counter. there are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. their individuals and families who take taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church charity,

culture, art and education. their patriotism is quiet but deep. their values sustain in our national life. now i have used the words they and their in speaking of these heroes. i could say you and your because i am addressing the heroes of whom i speak. you, the citizens of this blessed land. your dreams. your hopes. your goals are going to be the dreams. the hopes and the goals of this administration. so help me god. we shall reflect the compassion that is so much a part of your makeup. how can we love our country and not love our countrymen and

loving them? reach out a hand when they fall. heal them when they're sick and provide opportunity to make them self-sufficient. so they will be equal. in fact. and not just in theory. can we solve the problems confronting us? well, the answer is an unequivocally emphatic yes. to paraphrase winston churchill, i did not take the oath. i've just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy. in the days ahead, i will propose removing the roadblocks that have slowed our economy and reduced productivity. steps will be taken aimed at restoring the balance between the various levels of government. progress may be slow, measured in inches and feet, not miles. but we will progress. it is time to reawaken this industrial giant to get

government back within its means and to lighten our punitive tax burden. and these will be our first priorities. and on these principles, there will be no compromise. on the eve of our struggle for independence, a man who might have been one of the greatest among the founding fathers, dr. joseph warren, president of the massachusetts congress, said to his fellow americans, our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. and you depend the fortunes of america you are to decide the important question, which upon which rests the happiness and the liberty of millions yet unborn. act worthy of yourselves. well, i believe we, the americans of today are ready to act worthy of ourselves, ready

to do what must be done to ensure happiness and liberty for ourselves, our children, and our children's children. and as we renew ourselves here in our own land, we will be seen as having greater strength throughout the world. we will again be the exemplar of freedom and a beacon of hope for those who do not now have freedom. to those neighbors and allies who share our freedom, we will strengthen our historic ties and assure them of our support and firm commitment. we will match loyalty with loyalty. we will strive for mutually beneficial relations. we will not use our friendship to impose on their sovereignty. for our own sovereignty is not for sale. as for the enemies of freedom, those who are potential adversaries, they will be reminded that peace is the highest aspiration of the american people.

we will negotiate for it, sacrifice for it. we will not surrender for it. now or ever. our forbearance should never be misunderstood. our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. when action is required to preserve our national security. we will act. we will maintain sufficient strength to prevail if need be. knowing that if we do so, we have the best chance of never having to use that strength. above all, we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. it is a weapon our adversaries

in today's world do not have. it is a weapon that we as americans do have. let that be understood by those who practice terrorism and prey upon their neighbors. i'm. i'm told that tens of thousands of prayer meetings are being held on this day. and for that, i am deeply grateful. we are a nation under god, and i believe god intended for us to be free. it would be fitting and good, i think, if on each inaugural day and future years it should be declared a day of prayer. this is the first time in our history that this ceremony has been held, as you've been told, on this west front of the capitol. standing here, one faces a

magnificent vista opening up on this city's special beauty and history. at the end of this open mall, are those shrines to the giants on whose shoulders we stand. directly in front of me. the monument to a monumental man, george washington, father of our country, a man of humility, who came to greatness reluctantly. he led america out of revolution. every victory and infant nationhood. off to one side, the stately memorial to thomas jefferson. a declaration of independence. flames with his eloquence. and then beyond the reflecting pool, the dignified columns of the lincoln memorial. whoever would understand and in his heart, the meaning of america will find it in the life of abraham lincoln. beyond those moment, those monuments to heroism is the potomac river.

and on the far shore, the sloping hills of arlington national cemetery, with its row upon row of simple white markers bearing crosses or stars of david. they add up to only a tiny fraction of the price that has been paid for our freedom. each one of those markers is a monument to the kind of hero i spoke of earlier. their lives ended in places called belo wood. they are gone. omaha beach, salerno and halfway around the world on guadalcanal. tarawa. pork chop hill. the chosin reservoir. and in 100 rise paddies and jungles of a place called vietnam. under one such marker lies a young man, martin, trapped down, who left his job in a small town barber shop in 1917 to go to

france with the famed rainbow division there on the western front. he was killed trying to carry a message between battalions under heavy artillery fire. we're told that on his body was found a diary on the flyleaf under the heading. my pledge. he had written these words. america must win this war. therefore, i will work. i will save. i will sacrifice. i will endure. i will fight cheerfully and do my utmost as if the issue of the whole struggle depended on me alone. the crisis we are facing today does not require of us the kind of sacrifice that martin tripp down so many thousands of others were called upon to make.

it does require, however, our best effort and our willingness to believe in ourselves and to believe in our capacity to perform great deeds, to believe that together with god's help, we can and will resolve the problems which now confront us. and after all, why shouldn't we believe that we are americans? god bless you and thank you. thank you very.

they're here to mark that day in history when the allied armies joined in battle to reclaim this continent, to liberty.

for four long years. much of europe had been under a terrible shadow. free nations had fallen. -- cried out in the camps. millions cried out for liberation. europe was enslaved and the world prayed for its rescue. here in normandy, the rescue began. here the allies stood and fought against tyranny and a giant undertaking unparalleled in human history. we stand on a lonely, windswept point on the northern shore of france. the air is soft, but 40 years ago, at this moment, the air was dense with smoke and the cries of men. and the air was filled with the crack of rifle fire. and the roar of cannon. at dawn on the morning of the 6th of june 1944, two, 125 rangers jumped off the british landing craft and ran to the bottom of these cliffs. their mission was one of the most difficult and daring of the

invasion to climb these sheer and desolate cliffs and take out the enemy guns. the allies had been told that some of the mightiest of these guns were here and they would be trained on the beaches to stop the allied advance. the rangers looked up and saw the enemy soldiers at the edge of the cliffs shooting down at them with machine guns and throwing grenades. and the american rangers began to climb. they shot rope ladders over the face of these cliffs and began to pull themselves up. when one ranger fell, another would take his place. when one rope was cut, arrange it would grab another and begin his climb again. they climbed, shot back and held their footing. soon, one by one. the rangers pulled themselves over the top, and in seizing the firm land at the top of these cliffs, they began to seize back the continent of europe. 225 came here after two days of fighting.

only 90 could still bear arms behind me as a memorial that symbolizes the ranger daggers that were thrust into the top of these cliffs. and before me are the men who put them there. these are the boys of puerto rico. these are the men who took the cliffs. these are the champions who helped free a continent. and these are the heroes who helped end a war. gentlemen, i look at you and i think of the words of steven spender's poem. you were men who, in your quote, lives fought for life and left to left the vivid heirs signed with your honor. i think i know what you may be thinking right now, thinking we were just part of a bigger effort. everyone was brave that day. well, everyone was.

you remember the story of bill milner, the 51st highlanders, 40 years ago today, british troops were pinned down near a bridge waiting desperately for help. suddenly they heard the sound of bagpipes. and some thought they were dreaming. well, they weren't. they looked up and saw bill mellon with his bagpipes leading the reinforcements and ignoring the smack of the bullets into the ground around him. lord lovett was with him, lord lovett of scotland, who calmly announced when he got to the bridge. sorry, i'm a few minutes late. as if he'd been delayed by a traffic jam, when, in truth, he'd just come from the bloody fighting on sword beach, which he and his man had just taken. there was the power of impossible valor of the poles who threw themselves between the enemy and the rest of europe as the invasion took hold and the unsurpassed courage of the canadians who had already seen the horrors of war on this coast.

they knew what awaited them. there, but they would not be deterred. and once they hit juno beach, they never looked back. all of these men were part of a roll call of honor with names that spoke of a pride as bright as the colors they bore. the royal winnipeg rifles, poland's 24th lancers. the royal scots fusileers. the screaming eagles. the yeomen of england's armored divisions. the forces of free france. the coast guard's matchbox fleet. and you, the american rangers. 40 summers have passed since the battle that you fought here. you were young. the day you took these cliffs, some of you were hardly more than boys. with the deepest joys of life before you. yet you risked everything here. why? why did you do it? well, 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. it was loyalty and love. the men of normandy had faith that what they were doing was right. faith that they fought for all humanity. faith that a just god would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. it was the deep knowledge and pray god, we have not lost it. that there is a profound moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. you were here to liberate, not to conquer. and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. and you were right not to. don't doubt. you all knew that some things are worth dying for.

one's country is worth dying for. and democracy is worth dying for. because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. all of you loved liberty. all of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you. the americans who fought here that morning, new word of the invasion was spreading through the darkness. back home. they fought or felt in their hearts so they could know. in fact, that in georgia they were filling the churches at 4 a.m. in kansas. they were kneeling on their porches and praying. and in philadelphia they were ringing the liberty bell. something else helped the men of d-day. their rock hard belief that providence would have a great hand in the events that would unfold here. that god was an ally in this great cause.

and so the night before the invasion, when colonel wolverton asked his parachute troops to kneel with him in prayer, he told them, do not bow your heads, but look up so you can see god and ask his blessing in what we are about to do. also that night, general matthew ridgeway on his cut, listening in the darkness for the promised god made to joshua. i will not fail the north. forsake thee. these are the things that impelled them. these are the things that shaped the unity of the allies. when the war was over, there were lives to be rebuilt and governments to be returned to the people. there were nations to be reborn above all. there was a new peace to be assured. these were huge and daunting task. but the allies summoned strength from the faith, belief, loyalty and love of those who fell here.

they rebuilt a new europe. together, there was first a great reconciliation among those who had been enemies. all of whom had suffered so greatly. the united states did its part, creating the marshall plan to help rebuild our allies and our former enemies. the marshall plan led to the atlantic alliance, a great alliance that serves to this day as our shield for freedom. for prosperity, and for peace. in spite of our great efforts, the successes, not all that followed the end of the war was happier, planned. some liberated countries were lost. the great sadness of this loss echoes down to our own time in the streets of warsaw, prague and east berlin. the soviet troops that came to the center of this continent did not leave. when peace came. they are still there, uninvited, unwanted. unyielding. almost 40 years after the war,

because of this, allied forces still stand on this continent. today. as 40 years ago. our armies are here for only one purpose to protect and defend democracy. the only territories we hold are memorials, this one and graveyards where our heroes rest. we in america have learned bitter lessons from two world wars. it is better to be here ready to protect the peace than to take blind shelter across the sea. rushing to respond only after freedom is lost. we've learned that isolation is a never was and never will be an accepted evil response to tyrannical governments. with an expansionist intent. but we try always to be prepared for peace. prepared to deter aggression. prepared to negotiate the reduction of arms. and yes.

prepared to reach out again in the spirit of reconciliation. in truth, there is no reconciliation. we would welcome more than a reconciliation with the soviet union. so together we can listen, lessen the risk of war now and forever. it's fitting to remember here the great loss also suffered by the russian people during world war two. 20 million perished, a terrible price testifies to all the world. the necessity of ending war. i tell you from my heart that we in the united states do not want war. we want to wipe from the face of the earth the terrible weapons that man now in his hands. and tell you we are ready to seize that beachhead. we look for some sign from the soviet union that they are willing to move forward. that they share our desire and love for peace. and that they will give up the ways of conquest. there must be a changing there

that will allow us to turn our hope into action. we will pray forever that someday that changing will come. but for now, particularly today, it is good and fitting to renew our commitment to each other, to our freedom, and to the alliance that protects it. we're bound today by what bound us 40 years ago? the same loyalties, traditions and beliefs. we're bound by reality. the strength of america's allies is vital to the united states and the american security guarantee is essential to the continued freedom of europe's democracies. we were with you then. we're with you now. your hopes are our hopes and your destiny is our destiny. here in this place where the west held. let us make a vow to our dead.

let show them by our actions that we understand what they died for. that our actions say to them the words for which matthew ridgeway listened. i will not fail the nor forsake the strengthened by their courage, hardened by their values, and borne by their memory. let us continue to stand for the ideals for which they lived and died. thank you very much and god bless you all. and next week on speeches that define the presidency, george h.w. bush leads the gulf war and bill clinton confronts race relations. a reminder that all of the speeches that we've been showing in this series and all american history tv programs are available to watch online at

c-span dot org. ladies and gentlemen, i plan to speak to you tonight to report on the state of the union. the events of earlier today have led me to change those plans. today is a day for mourning an