Customer Reviews

The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day, and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion

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"The Boys of Pointe du Hoc" offers an intriguing book idea: a book about a speech about one historic day in WW II. Douglas Brinkley ("Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War") weaves together the events of June 6, 1944 (D-Day) on Omaha Beach with President Ronald Reagan's speech on the 40th anniversary of the assault (June 6, 1984).

Reagan's speech on the boys of Pointe du Hoc is perhaps his second most memorable next to his "Mr. Gorbochav, tear down this wall!" speech. Brinkley goes behind the speech, inside the speech, and after the speech.

Behind the speech, he skillfully recounts that faithful day when more than half the Rangers scaling the hundred-foot Omaha Beach cliff were casualties. Inside the speech, he traces the thinking of Reagan and his talented speech writer, Peggy Noonan. After the speech, Brinkley shares the impact it had on a nation (the revival of respect for "the Greatest Generation") and on relatives of the boys of Pointe du Hoc.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming, "Sacred Companions: A History of Soul Care and Spiritual Direction."

The speech that Ronald Reagan gave on the fortiety anniversary of D-Day was perhaps the greatest talk in recent memory. He gave it to only a few who remained from the Second Rangers. At that spot, forty years earlier to the day, 225 'boys' mostly 19-20 years old landed and climbed the hundred foot cliffs. They were to destroy cannon that would have had the ability to disrupt and possible prevent the D-Day landings. They were to be releived by noon. Instead the Second Rangers were there for four days. At the end of that time there were only 99 left. There were 66 present at Point Du Hoc forty years later.

There was plenty of background material for a speech and the speech that Reagan gave was supurb. It is included in the book, it's a short speech, five pages. It's not as memorable as the speech given at Gettysburg, but almost.

This is a book about a moment that changed our history.

Aside from some of Lincoln's and Washington's grand orations, you won't find too many books dedicated to political speeches. But Reagan's eloquent paeans to the World War II generation at Normandy in `84 certainly merit the treatment historian Douglas Brinkley has provided here.

Along with his Challenger Disaster and Berlin Wall remarks, the "Boys of Pointe du Hoc" tribute is the Great Communicator's most famous, poignant and moving oratory. Brinkley provides a behind-the-scenes look into how the Pointe du Hoc speech - as well as the equally powerful D-Day remembrance delivered on Omaha Beach - came into being.

No statesman of our time could deliver a line or a story like Ronald Reagan. But Reagan had a big assist from his masterful speechwriters - Peggy Noonan (Pointe du Hoc) and Tony Dolan (Omaha Beach) - who crafted elegant prose and vivid imagery, often overcoming "practical" objections from State and NSC staffers. Noonan, especially, intuited that Reagan was at his best when he related stories about real people and spoke directly his audience. So she has Reagan addressing his stirring tribute directly to the Army Rangers assembled in the front row, an emotional formulation that brought French President Mitterrand (whom Brinkley calls "one of the original stone faces") to near tears.

Likewise, Dolan forms his Omaha Beach narrative around a young woman's testimonial to her late father, a D-Day survivor who never realized his ambition to someday return with his family to Normandy's shores. The woman, Lisa Zanatta Henn, exchanged friendly letters with Reagan for several years after their meeting at Normandy, and she maintains adoration for Reagan to this day.

The D-Day anniversary speeches were integral, Brinkley says, in kindling a New Patriotism across America, and touched off renewed veneration of World War II veterans - the Ambrose books, Brokaw's Greatest Generation, "Saving Private Ryan," etc -- that continues to this day. Restoring American pride and native optimism, Reagan knew, were keys to exorcising post-Vietnam defeatism and bringing a successful end to the Cold War. "Reagan knew the best way to roll back Woodstock nation," Brinkley writes, "was to trump it with Normandy nation."

The author does a very unique job mixing the ability of Ronald Reagan to tell a story and the actual events that changed the world. The author skillfully explains how Reagan's amazing penchant for telling a story in the right way at the right time changed a nation a second time. I'm only 33 years old, but my father joined the Navy during the war, so I have an interest in the times. Yet I didn't realize the "Greatest Generation" had modestly shunned the war. That was until the 1980's when Reagan turned the black eye into a badge of honor. I have read a lot about the war, but never had such an eye opening experience that also greatly contributed to my appreciation for storytelling.

I bought this book because I love Ronald Reagan and wanted to know more about these great speeches. This book provides all of the insights, including both of his D-Day speeches in the appendix section. It's interesting to hear how Peggy Noonan put the Pointe du Hoc speech together and the back and forth editing that goes on with presidential speeches. I was most impressed by how the story of Peter Zannata got into the speech. I always wondered how this happened and this book provides the information. It's not a history book about D-Day but focuses on how Ronald Reagan helped to create new interest in today's younger generation in the greatest generation--our WWII heroes. It's very easy to read, too. A very good book.

This extremely well-written book goes along two tracks: the story of the Rangers who scaled the steep cliffs of Pointe du Hoc on D-Day, and the speech given by President Reagan on the 40th anniversary of the invasion. Both tracks are covered quite well, and the bravery of those young men shows through their particular section. When it comes to President Reagan, the book reveals how he identified himself with those men, because they were from his generation. His admiration for their courage knew no boundaries, and his speech touched the hearts of everyone who heard it. There is no doubt that this speech will go down as one of the best speeches given by a sitting president, and rightfully so. This is a book well worth reading by eveyone interested in World War II and the brave men who saved the world from tyranny.

Whether or not it was a silly idea for Brinkley to try to yoke together such disparate events over such a long period of time I leave for others to say. At first I thought it facile, but his writing is so good that I was almost persuaded. But no one can doubt that there is some really interesting material in here.

I never knew, for example, that Peggy Noonan had never even met Reagan, not even to shake his hand, when she began to write his speeches for him. She testifies that she was aware of a feeling in the corridors of the west wing, a feeling of resentment that she, a woman, should have been entrusted with such a potentially important speech.

Brinkley's most controversial thrust remains the finger of J'Accuse he drags in the direction of the late Cornelius Ryan, crack reporter and author of the D-Day classic THE LONGEST DAY. Brinkley accuses Ryan of "botching" the story Reagan and Noonan honed in on, the story of Rudder's Rangers, the men who scaled the cliffs of Pointe de Hoc and somehow found the Nazi's guns, jamming some of them up with plastic explosive, thus disabling the enemy fire for good and supposedly saving thousands of American lives. Ryan, alleges Brinkley, didn't go far enough in his reportage, assuming stupidly that just because the guns were missing from the cliff casemates, they weren't ever an important dangger in the rest of the battle. Well, think about it, Ryan!

Maybe I'm dumb, but does Brinkley ever explain why the Germans actually removed the guns from the casemates and rolled them ll that distance away to sit in the cornfield while they conferred and smoked (thus giving the Rangers time to destroy their workings)? It's one of those mysteries which probably has a simple explanation, but until I know it, i'm going to think that the German officers had an Allied double agent in their midst, hauling the guns out of the place where they might have, indeed probably almost certainly, done some good.

This book has potential for greatness, but unfortunately it falls short of the target. Douglas Brinkley makes a valiant attempt of comparing the importance of the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaling Pointe Du Hoc during the D-Day invasion with the creation and delivery of Ronald Reagan's 40th anniversary speech at the same location. While this approach makes for an interesting read, it simply does not work. Reagan's speech that day (and the one at Omaha Beach) was excellent, but it does not come close to what the Rangers accomplished 40 years earlier.

Having said all that, I like this book. The topic is interesting, and the material is solid. It is also pretty short which makes for a nice summer read. But, it just contains too much about Ronald Reagan's White House staff, and not enough details about the brave Rangers who inspired the speech. Of course, my opinion is probably tainted since I enjoy military history a lot more than I do political history.

Also, I do not think this book adds anything to the history of the actual event - attack on Point Du Hoc. Brinkly basically compiles details found in many other books. Given his background I was expecting more from him.

I recommend this book if you are interested in learning more about Reagan's speech at Point Du Hoc. If you want to discover details about the men who made the brave attack - look elsewhere. RLTW!

Douglas Brinkley has written two books in one and both are wonderful.

The first is the inside story of Ronald Reagan's magnificent speech on the cliffs of Normandy in 1984. It was perfect political "theater" that ushered in a glowing fondness for the heroics of the WW2 effort by our "boys." Soon Americans were reading The Greatest Generation, seeing Saving Private Ryan, building a WW2 Memorial in Washington, asking uncles and fathers about their service, and now watching The War.

But Brinkley also weaved in the actual heriocs of the US Army Rangers, under James Rudder, who scaled those cliffs and "helped free a continent."

Great history. Easy read.

"We stand on a lonely windswept point..."

When Brooklyn native Peggy Noonan heard that the rangers who had heroically scaled Pointe Du Hoc on June 6,1944 were going to be front and present at President Ronald Reagan's 40th anniversary speech marking D-Day, she had the perfect line in mind for Reagan to say, "These are the boys of Point Du Hoc." She had stolen the line from Roger Kahn's THE BOYS OF SUMMER. Historian Douglas Brinkley brilliantly combines Noonan, Reagon, Kahn and the boys of Pointe Du Hoc themselves into a swift and powerful narrative.

It was said at the time that as soon as the speech was delivered, the 1984 presidental election was over. Reagon had captured the patriotism of the greatest generation and tied it to a particular point in history. It was morning in America.

The only oddity of the book is the fact that for whatever reason Brinkley did not interview Noonan. He quotes her books and articles endlessly and attributes to her great praise. It would be nice to know why she declined to speak to him offically. But, Brinkley's accuracy and detailed research allows her voice to shine through as if she was interviewed.