“‘O.K., we’ll go,’ (Gen. Dwight D.) Eisenhower said. With that, nearly 3 million men launched a heroic assault against (Adolf) Hitler’s tyranny. Today the invasion is still fresh in the Western imagination. It was the apotheosis of American power and morality, and of common purpose with the Allies. For returning veterans, the Norman countryside evokes crosscurrents of nostalgia, pride and guilt.”

With those words, on May 28, 1984, Time magazine introduced its coverage of the 40th anniversary of the Allies’ D-Day Normandy invasion of June 6, 1944, the major steppingstone that brought closure to World War II in Europe.

Now, today, the 80th anniversary of that massive military operation, it is no less important for the day to be remembered than it was 40 years ago, when there were many of the brave Americans who fought in that battle still alive to reflect on, and feel proud of, their contribution and success.

Those brave soldiers, through their patriotism, perseverance and willingness to give up their lives, if necessary, helped rescue Europe and the rest of the world from that maniacal tyrant Hitler, whose insatiable desire for power and domination were responsible for unimaginable death and destruction.

It is reasonable to reflect on how many other nations and peoples might have come under Hitler’s hideous control if D-Day had not paved the way for the Allies’ decisive victory — and how much more fighting might have been necessary to achieve victory over him.

The death and destruction people of Europe endured in the late 1930s and first half of the 1940s because of Hitler, are in some ways similar to what people of Ukraine and Gaza are enduring at this time, although on a much smaller scale.

Meanwhile, it is necessary to take notice and acknowledge that there are tyrants in today’s world who would love to have America under their control, like Hitler’s control, in order to dominate our way of life.

We must constantly be watchful of those with such intents, to prevent ourselves from becoming victims of their tyranny in any way.

This 80th anniversary of D-Day should be embraced as a helping hand in regard to that critical objective. America always must remain vigilant.

The June 1-2, 2019, edition of the Wall Street Journal, leading up to 75th anniversary D-Day celebrations, printed the following observation:

“Among American martial milestones, D-Day, June 6, holds a reverence in our collective memory equaled only by the Battle of Gettysburg and Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River — an eminence whose warm glow has deepened as twilight falls over the Greatest Generation. Nearly every American president since Jimmy Carter has made the pilgrimage to Normandy’s windswept cliffs to pay tribute to the ‘Boys of Pointe du Hoc’ and thousands of others who launched Western Europe’s liberation on five blood-soaked beaches.

“The battle’s resonance lies not only in its epic scale — history’s largest amphibious invasion — but in its easily comprehended ‘High Noon’ format: democracy versus tyranny, free citizens hurling themselves at an Atlantic Wall studded with cannon, machine guns. …”

Again, this year, ceremonies in Normandy will celebrate the victory and mourn the dead.

The May 28, 1984, Time magazine said the ceremonies that year also would “mourn, almost subliminally, a certain moral clarity that has been lost, a sense of common purpose that has all but evaporated.”

That viewpoint is 40 years old, but still relevant.