From Armistice Day to Veterans Day We Thank Our Soldiers, All
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Armistice Day 1918. The end of the war to end all wars.
December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy.
May 8, 1945, V-E Day
August 15, 1945, V-J Day
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Armistice Day 1918. The end of the war to end all wars.
December 7, 1941, a date that will live in infamy.
May 8, 1945, V-E Day
August 15, 1945, V-J Day
The transformation of Armistice Day into Veterans Day is about more than the loss of association between dates and events. We have lost the era when wars had beginnings and ends. When there was a day the fighting stopped. When there was a winner and a loser. When the winner made the rules and the loser accepted them – the Machiavellian definition of victory. When the surviving soldiers and their families could breathe easy.
Korea had an armistice, but American soldiers still guard the line where fighting stopped on July 27, 1953. They wait, lest it start again.
America signed a “peace accord” on January 27, 1973, presaging our withdrawal from Vietnam. Fighting continued until April 30, 1975 when the North Vietnamese entered Saigon. Reunification was in July 1976. A bloody 3 1/2 years.
There is a progression from discrete battles in discrete wars through wars that end in armistice and on to wars that begin with or devolve into terrorism. We are engaged now in a war against terrorists and the states that harbor and support them. When did it start? We aren’t sure. When will it end? We aren’t sure. Nor are we sure HOW it will end – except we believe the forces of freedom will prevail.
Where is the battlefield? New York? Certainly. Iraq? Certainly. Saudi Arabia? Paris? We aren’t sure.
How many soldiers will it claim? We aren’t sure. How many civilians? We aren’t sure. Which are which? We aren’t sure.
Uncertainty is hard, but every war has a learning curve and of some things we are sure: This war, like America’s others, will require military and political skill and (rapid) improvisation. It will require patience and solidarity in the civilian ranks. And in this war, like the others, soldiers will die and soldiers will return home – and they, their families and our country will be changed.
On this Veterans Day, and this Armistice Day, we thank them all and promise them our support as they carry out the hard and often deadly work of ensuring freedom and liberty not only for ourselves but for others as well.