 at the dying end of 1943, the leaders of America, Britain and the Soviet Union had met in Tehran. There to speak for their peoples, collectively to plan, collectively to devise the great three-front offensive of 1944. As the year began, in the Far East, while the British and Chinese fought in Burma, American power struck in the Pacific. This was quadrillion, up in the marshals. This was, and we talk, westward, ever westward, this was Palau, up from the south as well. This was Biak, into the very strongholds, into pre-war Japanese territory, Saipan. The American bastions that Japan had taken, Guam. The price was paid in dead, in blood, in terror. This man is blinded. We who are alive and have our eyes, a year from now, we must tell him what we have done with the world for which he lost his eyes. 1944, in February and March, the Red Army broke the German lines in the Ukraine and swept forward 300 miles to the Romanian borders. Here are the Germans who will never fight again. Spring, 1944. In their great British bases, the Western armies were massing the guns, the shells, the tanks, the trucks, the planes, the food stocks, the gasoline, spare parts, field equipment, mine detectors, medical supplies, and troops. And the troops, British, Americans, Canadians, Indians, Australians, New Zealanders, South Africans, Dutchmen, Holes, Norwegian, Czechs, and Danes, troops of the United Nations. Troops who are the stuff of any invasion, troops who on their unassuming shoulders carry the whole world's hope for liberty. At Supreme Headquarters, General Eisenhower gave the word on Monday, June 5th. The vast fleet taught for battle puts out into the darkening sea. Now with exaggerated caution, they are going into attack. They are going into the seawalls, the barricades, the trenches, the guns, the vast emplacements that Rommel had called impregnable. They are going into the crossfire in mine beaches between Caen Barfleur on the northern coast of France. Troops have not yet landed on the beaches. This is the landing, this is it. We are going in, and with this stroke, the people of Europe so long mute will speak, kids are down, the first fires are dying. The first thrust in the Great Battle of the West has been driven home. Sands, Nazi-dominated Europe at the start of 1944. But in this one year, the Red Army in the east, the Allies in the south and west have marched from Cassino to Fianza, from Kiev and Leningrad to Budapest and Warsaw, from Cherbourg to the Rhine. And freedom came to people of half a dozen nations. And with freedom, controversy and problems to be solved with their own free hands. Rome, June 5th, 1944. August 22nd, 1944. Forest, August 31st, 1944. The Soviet allies were driving forward. The West again, Brussels on September 3rd, 1944. 1944, 1944 to Athens. Freedom after years of suppressed faiths and shackled hopes. Grace is free. When the guns fall silent, Athens will be ruled by the law and government that Athens chooses. By the summer, the United Nations were able to attack the problems of peace. Their representatives met at Dunbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C. In August at Quebec, Prime Minister Churchill came for a meeting with President Roosevelt. They had to plan new moves, political and military. And in that summer of liberation, the people of Europe spoke so that the whole world listened. It was their war. They put new blood into the meaning of the word freedom. In America, the people spoke. President Roosevelt was re-elected. Both he and his opponents had agreed that America must this time take her place in the Council of Nations. In the factories, the people spoke. Turning out the planes, the guns, the ships, the equipment still needed for the people's war. Well, the war was not yet won. On the 16th of December in Western Europe, the Germans, gathering their remaining power, struck back. It was a sharp blow at the heart of Belgium. It was their answer to six solid months of defeat. But as the year ended, the attack was ground down, pushing against the mass weight of a light power it slowed and wavered. In the new year, the Allied advance will continue. War is not yet won. In the Pacific too, we have come a long way. Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarala, Inuitok, the Admiralties, Biak, the Marianas, Palau, Moratai, and now the Philippines. We attack. Troops landed on Leyte, cutting the Philippines in half, threatening to cut all Japanese communication between her homeland and what remained of her conquered empire. General MacArthur and President Osmeido of the Philippines returned to 44, brought to a fuller realization many of our purposes. Our leaders have met again and again to speak for us, the people. And at the end of this year, President Roosevelt spoke many of our hopes when he said, the tide of battle has turned slowly and inexorably. We pray that with victory will come a new day of peace on Earth in which all nations of the Earth will join together for all time. May that spirit live and grow throughout the world in all the years to come.