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00:00 Andy Hillier is also with me here on set from our International Affairs desk. Andy, as we continue to watch these pictures, one thing that I know you've been looking at is the importance of the D-Day commemorations as well and how they've changed over the years because they've almost become more and more poignant as time has gone on, haven't they?
00:18 That's right, Stuart. Of course, the D-Day ceremonies really have, I think, grown in importance over the last 80 years. In the first 10 years, for the first decade, there were commemorative events, but a lot of it happened on a local level, if you like.
00:39 Ten years after D-Day, the French President René Côté, he did attend the commemorations. He himself was a native of Lavre, so he was from Normandy. So for him, of course, what happened on D-Day and what happened during the Battle of Normandy, that lasted for three months, of course, really resonated with him.
01:00 Famously, of course, Charles de Gaulle in 1964, not present for the D-Day commemorations. There was at the time, I think, this debate about whether or not the French had been partially sidelined during D-Day by the British and Americans.
01:18 But the big turning point, definitely, I think, in 1984, that was when we first saw D-Day as an international commemorative event with world leaders attending. This was when the French President at the time, François Mitterrand, he invited six heads of state, including the US President, Ronald Reagan, and the UK's Queen Elizabeth.
01:42 The French President at the time used the event to underpin the importance of the transatlantic partnership. This was in the context of the Cold War, of course.
01:51 And this was also a very important event for Ronald Reagan. This came during a re-election campaign for Ronald Reagan, and he made what many have come to consider perhaps one of the most defining speeches of his presidency, which practically launched his re-election campaign in 1984.
02:12 It was a speech he gave at the Pointe du Hoc, of course, that cliff, those series of cliffs that were taken by US troops from German soldiers.
02:25 And he, during his speech, he evoked this idea of shared memory, this idea of moral sentiment, and he tied it to the present, to the present day at the time struggle of the US against the Soviet Union in the context of the Cold War.
02:44 And of course, Joe Biden will have that, will be bearing that in mind when he himself gives a speech at the same location at the Pointe du Hoc, which he's scheduled to do tomorrow.
02:54 Of course, 20 years later in 2004, the symbolism of D-Day changed yet again.
03:00 This was the year when, for the first time, Russian President Vladimir Putin was invited to the ceremony.
03:07 There was also, for the first time, a German Chancellor, also President Gerhard Schroder.
03:12 We had those very memorable images of the French President Jacques Chirac embracing Gerhard Schroder, the pledges of friendship.
03:22 So you can see how it's evolved over time and changed in meaning.