On Veterans Day we pay tribute to all American veterans, living or dead, and reflect on the sacrifices and service of veterans and our commitment to programs that support them. President Obama proclaimed, “Our grateful Nation must keep our solemn promises to these brave men and women and their families. They have given their unwavering devotion to the American people, and we must keep our covenant with them.” It is absolutely right and essential to honor our veterans and to focus on the support our government and communities provide them. However, I think this singular focus neglects one of the larger themes originally envisioned for Veterans Day—peace.
Veterans Day was originally Armistice Day, commemorating the armistice between the Allies and Germany that ended fighting on the Western Front in World War I on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918. 16 million people (military and civilians) died in World War I, of which 118,000 were Americans. H.G. Wells called it the war that will end war, a phrase later adopted by President Wilson. But in the aftermath of the war, Armistice Day was intended to promote the ideal of perpetual peace as much as to honor veterans. President Wilson first proclaimed the holiday in 1919 saying, “To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”Congress first recognized it in 1926 as a day “to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations” and later in 1938 made it a legal holiday “dedicated to the cause of world peace.”
There were 63 million deaths in World War II (419,000 from the United States), and 4.5 million deaths in the Korean War (37,000 from the United States). World War I had not, in fact, been the war to end all wars, and world peace remains an ideal rather than a reality. In 1953 an Emporia, Kansas, shoe store owner had the very reasonable idea that Armistice Day should commemorate all veterans and not just those of World War I. Congress agreed and in 1954 Armistice Day became Veterans Day.
Many would say that perpetual peace is impossible. My hope is that it is not. There are many different ideas on how to ensure peace, including peace through strength. At least for the near future military power is a reality and, if used judiciously, can further the cause of world peace and security. In that sense, it is important to honor veterans and have in place systems to support them.
My worry is that in focusing solely on these issues on Veterans Day we are implicitly and silently giving our consent to the idea that there will always be war and combat, that we will always need more soldiers to fight more wars and more systems to support them. My hope is that we do not consent to this, and that we also acknowledge a sincere hope for peace. In 1969 in his Silent Majority Speech President Nixon said regarding the Vietnam War, “Fifty years ago, in this room and at this very desk, President Woodrow Wilson spoke words which caught the imagination of a war-weary world. He said: ‘This is the war to end war.’ His dream for peace after World War I was shattered on the hard realities of great power politics and Woodrow Wilson died a broken man. Tonight I do not tell you that the war in Vietnam is the war to end wars. But I do say this: I have initiated a plan which will end this war in a way that will bring us closer to that great goal to which Woodrow Wilson and every American President in our history has been dedicated-the goal of a just and lasting peace.” In recent years Dennis Kucinich has been largely ridiculed for proposing the creation of a Department of Peace (an idea first proposed by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, in 1793). It seems now that we may not even believe in a just and lasting peace.
It is fashionable and seems a prerequisite when running for elected office to proclaim American exceptionalism, that America is the greatest nation on Earth, or is ordained by God to do good. Leaving aside the merits of those claims it seems that, at a minimum, for them to be true we should hold peace as an ideal and work toward achieving it. If we as a nation do not believe in peace, then those claims are certainly not true and never will be. On Veterans Day I hope that in addition to honoring veterans, we also recommit to our desire for peace and encourage our leaders to use military power wisely.
