Joe Biden’s trip to France to celebrate the 80th anniversary of D-Day was a well-orchestrated and well-choreographed reminder of the outsized role that the United States has played in the post-World War II era. American leadership has been and remains indispensable in protecting freedom and promoting democracy in Europe and elsewhere.

But Biden wanted to use his trip to speak to a domestic as well as international audience. He hoped the symbolism of all that America did, and of the heroic sacrifices made by Americans, to rescue Europe from the grip of fascism would rally contemporaries to the cause of saving democracy.

It was a noble ambition, but one that is unlikely to pay big dividends.

Biden’s simple human decency shone through as he toured the Normandy American Cemetery, marked by row after row of crosses and Stars of David, sharing quiet words with some of the few remaining survivors of that fateful day. And, in two speeches, Biden offered plenty of nostalgia, appropriate to honoring those who fought on D-Day and after.

Mixing the evocation of past glories with stern warnings about the present dangers to democracy, the president said on Thursday, “We know the dark forces that these heroes fought against 80 years ago. They never fade. Aggression and greed, the desire to dominate and control, to change borders by force — these are perennial. The struggle between a dictatorship and freedom is unending.”

© The Hill