Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg

Ronald Reagan’s inability to sway the American public and press with his speeches at the former site of the infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and, later, at the U.S. Air Force base in Bitburg, Germany, has been marked by many as the first major failure of the Great Communicator’s second term.

Richard J. Jensen highlights the qualities of the speeches that make them, in his estimation,...