My uncle was in the first wave at D Day. His ship was quarantined due to an illness on board, so they were moved forward. By the time the SS shot him while wounded and left him for dead in the Hertgen Forest after the rest of his recon patrol was wiped out, he had three purple hearts. Peasants robbing his body realized he was alive and took him to a wehrmact outfit where he was treated for some weeks then traveled by cattle car to the Dresden slaughterhouses where the allies tried to kill him. And he came to loathe Reagan in a calm, deliberate heat of ten thousand suns sort of way.
He understood Reagan was a dangerous man, "A fool in the hands of malice", to use his own words. When Reagan went to Bitberg my uncle was among the thousands of former and active duty combat veterans who sent letters asking him not to take Kohl's bait. In addition to the thousands of combat veterans who understood the bobbleheaded idiot didn't understand, protests registered by others included 53 US senators and 257 congressmen.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su0Hvt6hTmA"]Ramones - Bonzo Goes to Bitburg - YouTube[/ame]