1985: Ronald Reagan Sparks Storm With Visit to German War Cemete

On May 5, 1985, U.S. President Ronald Reagan, in Bonn for an economic summit, made an eight-minute visit to the military cemetery outside the West German city of Bitburg. There, he paid his respects to Germany’s war dead, on the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. His gesture would become one of the most controversial actions of Reagan’s two terms in the White House, sparking a bitter battle with the organized American Jewish community, after it became known that the cemetery held the remains of 49 men who had served in the Waffen-SS.