Today is Veterans Day — or, as Donald Trump now calls it, Victory Day for World War I. But this patriotic holiday was originally Armistice Day, and as Trump’s title indicates, specifically to commemorate the end of the First World War.
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, the Armistice ended World War I. That day became Armistice Day, honoring all the veterans of the global conflict. That is how the day is still celebrated in multiple countries, including England, France, Belgium, New Zealand, and Australia. Later on, America began to use the more generic term Veterans Day to include those veterans who had served in other wars of the 20th century.
America sustained 320,000 casualties, including around 116,000 killed, while the overall casualties for the First World War were 8.5 million, according to Britannica. It was a slaughter such as the world had never witnessed before, the first truly modern war, with new technology making mass killing more possible and more efficient than ever before. The world, especially Europe, was shocked and exhausted. And tragically, it would not be too many years before another world war occurred, due in part to the problematic peace terms at the end of the first one and in part to the unquenchable desire of wicked men for power at all costs.
In November 1919, a year after WWI ended, President Woodrow Wilson designated November 11 as Armistice Day. He addressed the nation, “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 nations.” It is unfortunate that his foolish advice set us up for WWII.
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Today, we know this holiday as Veterans’ Day, but we should never forget the history behind it. Too many Americans now are ignorant of and indifferent towards history, forgetting the sacrifices their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents paid for their freedom. A nation that forgets its past has no future.
Thank you especially to my parents, grandfathers, uncles, brother, and great-uncles who served.
[National Veterans Day Foundation:] Armistice Day was set aside to honor veterans of World War I. But after World War II required the greatest mobilization of soldiers, sailors, Marines, and airmen in the nation’s history, a World War II veteran from Birmingham, Alabama named Raymond Weeks had an idea to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans.
In 1946, Weeks led a delegation to Washington, D.C., to urge then-Army Chief of Staff General Dwight Eisenhower to create a national holiday that honored all veterans. Birmingham hosted the first Veterans Day activities in 1947 which included a World Peace Banquet and a Parade. In 1954, President Eisenhower signed legislation establishing November 11th as Veterans Day.
So today, celebrate our costly victory in WWI, honor all our veterans, and be grateful to those who risked death so we could live in freedom.
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