Word: bitburg
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Reagan had an ability to console the inconsolable. Witness his speech after the Challenger explosion. He could also explain away the inexplicable. Remember Bitburg? The Iran-Contra scam...
West German officials had a more visceral reaction. Defense Minister Rupert Scholz declared that air shows "will never again take place," though he soon modified the ban to cover only military displays. Shows scheduled later this month in Bitburg and Lechfeld were hurriedly canceled. Many officials expressed doubt that the Ramstein event -- an annual fixture since 1955 -- would ever be held again...
...delivered a now famous speech marking the 40th anniversary of Germany's unconditional surrender, in which he eloquently addressed the moral dilemmas raised by President Ronald Reagan's visit to a Bitburg cemetery which contained the graves of S. S. officers...
...Anyone who closes his eyes to the past is made blind to the present. Whoever refuses to remember the inhumanity is prone to the new risks of infection," the German president said in his Bitburg speech...
...supporters point to his Bitburg speech as a monument in European history because it came directly after President Reagan, and others, had sought to downplay the relevance of the Nazi years. To some, because 40 years have passed since the Third Reich was conquered, and because its successor government is an ally of the United States, the atrocities of the Nazis should not be inveighed so frequently...