Sixty years ago today in the early morning hours, General Dwight Eisenhower gave the order that commenced the liberation of Europe: "Okay, we'll go." With his death today, Ronald Reagan takes his place in the constellation of the twentieth century's greatest champions of liberty -- Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt, and perhaps Eisenhower himself.

We thrilled to his words and deeds -- to his contribution to the renewal of the entrepreneurial energy of the American people, to his frank denunciation of Soviet tyranny, to his program of strategic defense and military strength, to his audacious vision of victory in the Cold War, to his call in Berlin to Mikhail Gorbachev to "tear down this Wall," to his unflappable good humor.

In his D-Day tribute to "the boys of Pointe du Hoc" in 1984 Reagan said it all:

The men of Normandy had faith that what they were doing was right, faith that they fought for all humanity, faith that a just God would grant them mercy on this beachhead or on the next. It was the deep knowledge—and pray God we have not lost it—that there is a profound, moral difference between the use of force for liberation and the use of force for conquest. You were here to liberate, not to conquer, and so you and those others did not doubt your cause. And you were right not to doubt.

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One’s country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it’s the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. All of you loved liberty. All of you were willing to fight tyranny, and you knew the people of your countries were behind you.

We know we have only begun to take the measure of his greatness. On the occasion of his death, we express our gratitude for his consequential public life and join our prayers to his family's.

HINDROCKET adds: Check out this AP report for the reaction from Eastern Europe. A Romanian sums up Reagan's legacy: "It is due to him that we are free."

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