Ronald Reagan, 1911-2004

摘要

His timing, as always, was perfect Almost exactly 20 years after he stood before the aging soldiers of D-Day on the cliffs of Normandy, saluting the warriors who had saved democracy, Ronald Reagan died, quietly, in his house on St. Cloud Drive in Bel Air last Saturday, ending his long and noble battle against Alzheimer's disease. "It was very peaceful," a family member told NEWSWEEK. "It was time," Word of Reagan's death came as the world was once again commemorating the Allied victory over Nazi tyranny. As presidents and princes, old soldiers and sailors, widows and grandchildren gathered on those same windswept beaches last weekend, they, and America, were hearing Reagan's words as they mourned his death. "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc," Reagan had said on June 6, 1984, hailing the Rangers who helped spearhead the liberation. "These are the men who took the cliffs." Grown men wept that day in 1984; Reagan's voice caught with genuine emotion, "The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right," he said, "faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead-or on the next."