Remembering Armstice Day

Happy Veterans Day Everyone!

Of course in much of the world it's Armistice Day today. And it used to be in the United States until 1954, Congress declared that the holiday would be changed to Veteran's Day. Why was this done?

In theory to recognize all veterans rather than just those of WWI. But this of course raises some of it's own questions. Was Armistice primarily about honoring WWI veterans or was it more? Or was it more about remember the end of WWI in its entirety, the living and the dead? Could the old Armistice Day have been extended to a celebration of all peace treaties where a war has come to an end? If Congress wanted to create a Veteran's Day, was it necessary to replace Armistice Day in order to do so?

I admit, that I'm taken a bit by some of the things done around the world in celebration of Armistice Day. For example many parts of the world a two minute silence is observed at 11 am. Why can't we in the US, share this with the rest of the world?

Apparently much of the change was motivated by the desire of some WWII veterans to "get their share" of what they perceived as a holiday for the WWI set. Of course, creating a "all veteran's holiday" was not a bad idea in itself-much as some people complain about too many holidays in the US. But I do question the perception of those WWII veterans who saw the Armistice Day as something that was *for* WWI veterans. In fact, it was more than that. It was a Remembrance of all those involved living and dead on an international basis. And also of the peace which ended it.

In today's world it would seem strange to have a remembrance for a war that most at the time felt was essentially over nothing. These days it is often seen as an insult to even suggest that might be the case. But in past generations, many people felt differently. Maybe it was partly because "The Great War" was believed to be the "war to end all wars" rather than the first in a sequence. (Which officially only goes to 2, but where many speculate about 3, 4, and even 5.)

However, one thing that become painfully apparent is how little WWI, is seriously remembered except as a prelude to WWI. And how it's legacies have never been taken seriously. For example people often talk about the Vietnam generation as having WWII veterans for fathers, but less is said about the generational relationship of the many Korean Vets and other member of the "Silent Generation" with their parents who lived through WWI. A lot is said about how during the early buildup of the Nazi Empire, that people who were reluctant to engage Hitler militarily had an "isolationist" mentality. But little is said about how fresh the memories of WWI were at the time. How some of the blame can be placed on WWI era propaganda about how the Germans were gassing prisoners. Or thd fact, that supposedly rearming was not in Germany's economic interest and nor were any additional war. Which is to say, that the conventional wisdom about how and why nations become aggressive CONTRIBUTED to the tendency to not take Hitler or Nazi ideology seriously. And how fundamentally those same paradigms have not changed much in terms of how geopolitics is analyzed.
Other overlooked realities involve talk about support for the Vietnam War by age. Often we are taught to think about it as young spoiled baby boomers opposing the war, unlike their wise parents who had been so hardened by WWII and The Depression. But in reality, support for the Vietnam War was higher among those under 30 than those over 49. Looking at the figures presented, those over 49 would have been born by 1916 in 1965, and by 1922 in 1971. I don't know what the breakdown of age cohorts would be within that older group, but I can't help but wondering how the many still living WWI veterans looked upon the Cold War and Vietnam War as it started, turned sour, and eventually left a nation profoundly disillusioned. I've never found much on the topic. And sadly, since the number of living WWI veterans is now down to three, I fear it may end up another largely untold and perhaps overlooked story.

Perhaps the bottom line as to why Veteran's Day ended up replacing Armistice Day (as opposed to finding another date for Veteran's Day), is that American society both in the 1950's and now, is much more willing to celebrating the making of war, than the making of peace. And that's a shame. Especially in these times, when Americans could have shared that 20 minutes of silence with so much of the world.

Say Goodnight Readers.