The Boys of Pointe du Hoc

Forty years to the day after American troops stormed the beaches of Normandy, the late President Ronald Reagan gave one of his best speeches. Speaking at the spot where members of the Second Ranger Battalion scaled a cliff under murderous German fire to secure a potentially lethal gun emplacement, Reagan paid homage to the valor of these young American warriors. This work tells several stories very well: the story of the Rangers, that of Ronald Reagan's own military service, and that of the writing of the speech by Peggy Noonan. At the end of the production Reagan's actual speech at Pointe du Hoc and one given not long after at Omaha Beach are presented. Brinkley, a noted historian, does a marvelous job telling his multifaceted story. Enthusiastic and winsome in his presentation, he imparts his excitement to the listener. M.T.F. 2006 Audie Award Finalist (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine

May 30, 2005
On the 40th anniversary of D-Day, President Reagan chose the subtitle's battalion as a rhetorical peg on which to hang a commemoration of the entire U.S. war effort, a conceit that worked beautifully. Brinkley (Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War ) begins with the story of the assault Reagan referred to, in which a single company of these elite troops scaled a hundred-foot Omaha Beach cliff to attack what was believed to be a German artillery battery capable of wrecking the landing. The guns were not there; German resistance was; more than half the Rangers were casualties. The narrative then leaps forward to Reagan's search for an appropriate 40th anniversary topic--the topic he chose rose out of his reverence for WWII combat veterans (his eyesight kept him in the U.S.)--and the speechwriting talents of Peggy Noonan. Finally, there is Reagan's fan mail, including a letter from the daughter of a Sergeant Zanetta, who was killed on Omaha Beach on D-Day. All of this is known, but Brinkley clearly and movingly tells the story of how a simple tribute became a milestone in the historiography of WWII and another feather in the great communicator's cap. Agent, Lisa Bankoff at ICM .