PARIS − The war that engulfed Europe had already been raging for three years when Joe Biden was born on Nov. 20, 1942.
The kid from Scranton, Pennsylvania, was just a baby when Allied forces descended upon France by air, land and sea in an extraordinary demonstration of military might.
Before it was over, the United States would send more than 16 million of its men – roughly a third of those eligible for combat – to fight the Nazis, build the world’s top arms supply and liberate concentration camps where millions of Jews were facing utter extermination.
Biden and other people of his generation would grow up hearing stories of the brave men who had fought and faced death on the other side of the Atlantic. People like his uncle Ambrose J. Finnegan, who disappeared somewhere off the north coast of New Guinea.
All in the name of freedom.
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For the rest of his life, Biden’s view of the world and the United States would be shaped by the events of World War II and by the heroism of the men and women who were part of what is now known as “the Greatest Generation.”
For him and other Americans of a certain age, World War II served as a collective moral compass and defined what the nation could – and should – be. America’s role in the war is so deeply ingrained in the public psyche that it is still celebrated in books, on film and at events like this week’s ceremonies in France marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
“We’re all products of our environment − we’re products of how we were raised,” said former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who served alongside Biden in the Senate. “President Biden is no different from the rest of us. His perceptions of the world and in particular foreign affairs – government and the responsibilities of leadership – were very much honed by a post-World War II Europe.”
But nearly eight decades after the war ended, those beliefs are again under attack by forces abroad and at home.
Ukraine is fighting for survival after it was invaded by Russia in the largest incursion of a European country since World War II. Israel, formed after the war to establish a homeland for the Jewish people, is engaged in a deadly conflict with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. And in the United States, the most basic tenet of democracy – the free election – is under assault by supporters of former President Donald Trump, who falsely claims the race he lost to Biden in 2020 was rigged against him.
Biden will offer more than reflections on a war that ended eight decades ago when he heads to Normandy on Thursday. He is expected to double down on his support of NATO and again insist the U.S. and its allies are strongest when they stand together, like they did 80 years ago. But maybe even more significant is what he will say about the future.
The man with a political career spanning five decades – and who has served as senator, vice president and president – will stand on the hallowed ground where more than 9,000 of the nation’s fallen soldiers forever rest and urge Americans to again meet the moment.
He will issue a call to action.
'An incredible education'
The war in Europe taught Biden that the world was big and small.
Big in the sense that things like war often unfolded in lands that seemed so far away. Small in the sense that what happened on the other side of the ocean could still hit close to home.
“He grew up at a kitchen table in Scranton with parents who really instilled in him tremendous respect for members of the military and a profound understanding of the sacrifices made by men and women of our armed forces,” said Jeff Peck, who was an aide to Biden through several phases of his political career.
In 1973, Biden entered Congress as a senator from Delaware. Just two years later, he landed a slot on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a rare position for someone who was still considered a freshman legislator.
Just 33 at the time, Biden had little foreign policy experience. Even so, he was already getting to know world leaders and issues, not only in Europe, but in other countries as well, he wrote in his 2007 memoir, “Promises To Keep: On Life and Politics.”
Before joining the committee, Biden had traveled to Europe in 1974 with Sen. Hubert Humphrey, a Minnesota Democrat who had been the party’s presidential nominee. On that trip, he met British and European parliamentarians who would go on to become leaders of their own countries.
His work would take him abroad many other times through the years and would result in meetings with other foreign leaders, such as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and Xi Jinping of China, who now is the country’s president.
“He got an incredible education,” said Ted Kaufman, who was Biden’s chief of staff when he was in the Senate.
Biden has often told the story about an eye-opening encounter with Meir, who grew up in Milwaukee, worked to help establish the Jewish state after the war and later led her country through a turbulent period in the early 1970s. Biden has called the meeting “one of the most consequential” he has ever had. It took place in Israel, about five weeks before the 1973 Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.
Though Biden has told variations of the story, most of the key details have been consistent. As they sat in Meir’s office, Biden recalled during another trip to Tel Aviv last October, Israel’s first and only female prime minister flipped through maps and painted a dark picture of the security situation in the Middle East. Later, after they walked out of her office and posed for photographers, Meir remarked that Biden looked worried.
“Don’t worry, senator, we Israelis have a secret weapon,” Biden recalled her saying. “We have nowhere else to go.”
The remark was a revelation for Biden, who has always been keenly interested in history. On his early trips overseas, Kaufman said, Biden always took along history books. Spending time with foreign leaders greatly affected his views about foreign policy, “not just about his experience with history and what he knows about it, but what he has learned about history and learned about the personalities,” Kaufman said.
Hagel, who later served on the committee and traveled the world with Biden, recalled that Biden took a similar approach whenever they went overseas. Whether they were heading to Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan or somewhere else, Biden would spend hours prepping, Hagel said.
During committee meetings or briefings, Biden would remain in the room long after all other committee members had departed, Hagel said. He would sometimes question a witness for three or four hours. “He wasn’t beating up on a witness – he never did that,” Hagel said. “He was very respectful. But he wanted to learn more every time.”
Biden, who would remain on the committee for years and later serve as its chairman, was an incessant note taker, Hagel said. “He took notes all the time, on everything,” he said. “I never saw another senator do it quite like that. … He didn’t leave it up to one of his top assistants. He did it.”
'A very dangerous world'
Inside the paneled walls of the White House situation room, the nation’s top political and military leaders deliberated over what to do about Afghanistan.
The United States had been at war with al-Qaida in Afghanistan’s rugged, mountainous terrain for over a decade after the group’s 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington. Gathered for the meeting on the West Wing ground floor were President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Michael Mullen, CIA Director Leon Panetta – and Biden, who was now vice president.
The discussion, which Panetta said happened in 2010 or 2011, eventually turned to whether the U.S. should boost its troop presence in Afghanistan. Biden spoke up. The most effective way to go after the enemy, Panetta remembers him saying, would be to target al-Qaida’s leaders.
“That resonated with a lot of people,” Panetta recalled. “It certainly resonated with me because I was involved in leading that effort.”
Biden’s response demonstrated his ability to get to the heart of complicated issues and help others see things more clearly, Panetta said. In almost every national security meeting he attended, Panetta said, Biden was often the voice that reminded everyone of America’s history and what it had been through.
“He could speak to that,” Panetta said, “because he lived it – the role the United State has played in terms of world policy.”
Biden would always remind people that, in the end, the United States had to be a leader “and had to work with our allies closely to make sure we were providing the kind of leadership essential to deal with the adversaries we were confronting.”
It was a lesson learned from World War II – and one that still resonates today.
“We’re living in a very dangerous world, with a lot of flash points,” Panetta said. “Probably more flash points than I've seen since World War II. From Russia, China, North Korea, Iran – from terrorism. And to deal with that kind of world requires that the United States be a world leader. If the United States isn't a world leader, nobody else will be.”
'Global peace, security and prosperity'
A flag-waving crowd of thousands gathered in the gardens of Warsaw’s Royal Castle, which had once served as home of Polish monarchs. The palace, in ruins after the Nazis bombed and destroyed it during World War II, had been meticulously rebuilt decades later and turned into a state museum.
On this day, Feb. 21, 2023, Biden, now president, had chosen the castle gardens to rally NATO allies in defense of Ukraine just days ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion. A day earlier, he had made an unannounced trip to Kyiv and promised to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.
Back in Warsaw, Biden warned that Russia’s invasion had amounted to a test for the entire world. But the U.S.-led coalition of allies that had banded together to back Ukraine had stood firm and would continue to stand guard over freedom, he said, because the “appetites of the autocrat cannot be appeased. They must be opposed.”
It was a line that could easily have been delivered in 1943.
Growing up after the war, Biden is acutely aware of the parallels between what happened eight decades ago in Europe and what is happening today in Ukraine, Peck said. Adolf Hitler’s desire to make Nazism the dominant form of government around the world is eerily similar to what Russian President Vladimir Putin is trying to do in Ukraine, he said.
“It was a coalition of allies that defeated the Germans, and it’s a coalition of allies that’s standing firm with Ukraine to defeat Putin,” Peck said. “Joe Biden understands both ends of that historical spectrum.”
Jon Finer, one of Biden’s top national security advisers at the White House, said Biden remains a firm believer in the system put in place after the war to maintain international peace. Biden believes organizations like NATO have demonstrated they are “a force for security and prosperity of the wider world” and have “stood the test of time,” Finer said.
“This president is one who starts from the perspective that this stuff is fundamentally important to global peace, security and prosperity,” Finer said. At the same time, in an era when technology and the world are in a state of rapid change, Biden believes “institutions have to evolve to seize that moment” and be prepared “to deal with the challenges of today, not just the challenges of yesterday.”
Back home, Biden is facing challenges on multiple fronts.
His support of Israel in its war against Hamas has wounded him politically in the middle of a tough re-election battle with Trump. The Democratic Party’s left flank, furious over how his administration has managed the war and the humanitarian crisis it has created in Gaza, has pummeled Biden over his refusal to demand an immediate cease-fire. Biden is pushing an Israeli-proposed cease-fire and hostage release plan, but he has refused to back away from his support of America's longtime ally.
Besides Israel, Biden has had to battle the Republican-led Congress for more Ukraine funding. He also continues to sound the alarm that democracy is in peril after the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, and after Trump’s vow to be a dictator on “day one” if voters return him to office.
Answering the call
Biden’s visit Thursday to the hilltop overlooking the Normandy beaches where Allied troops landed on D-Day will be a tribute to the men whose bravery helped end the bloody campaign of an oppressor.
As he looks onto the crowd of centenarians and their families to celebrate the victories of the past, he’ll also nod to the challenges of the present.
At its heart, his message will be the same as it was then.
What is America? Who are we going to be?
Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @mcollinsNEWS.
