U.S. President Reagan sparks outrage with visit to German cemetery containing Nazi SS graves 40 years ago this hour (May 5 1985)


Video: 'Reagan at Bitburg May 5 1985) (Complete)' (coverage begins at 8:30 a.m. EDT)

(Sunday, May 5, 1985, 2:51 p.m. CEST) — U.S. President Ronald Reagan presided over a wreath-laying today at the base of a brick cemetery tower looming over the graves of nearly 2,000 German soldiers, including 49 SS troops.

Alluding to the controversy aroused by his visit to the cemetery, Reagan voiced regret in remarks at an American air base afterward that “old wounds have been reopened.”