Eleven Eleven Eleven Eleven
Most of us have forgotten why we observe Veterans Day on November 11. This might be a good year to remember. Until 1954 the holiday was called Armistice Day, a day set aside to honor the veterans of WWI. The Armistice ending the War to End All Wars was signed in French Marshall Ferdinand Foch’s railway car at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, hence the date. The word armistice connotes a cease fire serving as a prelude to a negotiated peace.
When I was a child ladies in our town would stand on street corners on Armistice Day, handing out poppies to be worn on lapels. The poppies signified the fields in Flanders where some of the most bitter fighting took place. The tradition ended with the name change after the Korean War.
The Armistice was followed in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles formally ending the war and spelling out terms for peace. The terms were harsh but Germany was in no position to resume hostilities and, facing a possible allied invasion, was forced to sign. We would soon come to regret that. Germans resented the loss of sizeable chunks of territory. They resented the forced abdication of the Kaiser. Above all they resented the infamous “War Guilt Clause,” the requirement that Germany admit to full responsibility for starting the war and make reparations far in excess of what they could actually pay. Germans felt wronged. Their army hadn’t been defeated in the field and they hadn’t started the war. A Serbian assassin in Sarajevo did that. It all contributed to the rise of Adolph Hitler 15 years later. The results were catastrophic.
Horrific as WWI was with its 8.5 million or so dead soldiers and another 21 million wounded, the next war would be far worse. We read a lot about the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews, but it is estimated that between 1939 and 1945 20 million people died in Russia alone, most of them civilians and a lot of them from starvation. George Marshall’s insistence that American recovery assistance in Europe be extended to Germany and Italy, and Douglas MacArthur’s decision to treat the Japanese with dignity and conciliation during the post war occupation of Japan contributed heavily to those countries remaining essentially at peace for the next 65 years, and most likely for another 65 to come. Both men learned the lessons of a bad peace and applied them sensibly despite a lot of pressure to repeat the old mistakes. MacArthur never even got a Nobel.
WWI didn’t end war and it isn’t ended yet but that may be closer to reality than it has ever been. With the Cold War over most nations don’t face any existential threat, and none seems likely to appear. Tiny Israel does but the prospect of devastating retaliation is a powerful deterrent. The wars we have seen so far in the 21st century don’t remotely compare in carnage or scope with those of the 20th. Let’s hope they stay that way, and that they become increasingly rare.
Pope Paul VI could have been thinking of The Armistice when he famously said “If you want peace work for justice.” Veterans Day is a day to honor veterans, not to dwell on the mistakes of their leaders. But this year, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the eleventh year of the millennium, it would be worth remembering that historic day almost a century ago, and what went wrong. It would be a great time to pray for peace and justice, and for a little guidance on what we might be able to do to help bring them about.
When I was a child ladies in our town would stand on street corners on Armistice Day, handing out poppies to be worn on lapels. The poppies signified the fields in Flanders where some of the most bitter fighting took place. The tradition ended with the name change after the Korean War.
The Armistice was followed in 1919 by the Treaty of Versailles formally ending the war and spelling out terms for peace. The terms were harsh but Germany was in no position to resume hostilities and, facing a possible allied invasion, was forced to sign. We would soon come to regret that. Germans resented the loss of sizeable chunks of territory. They resented the forced abdication of the Kaiser. Above all they resented the infamous “War Guilt Clause,” the requirement that Germany admit to full responsibility for starting the war and make reparations far in excess of what they could actually pay. Germans felt wronged. Their army hadn’t been defeated in the field and they hadn’t started the war. A Serbian assassin in Sarajevo did that. It all contributed to the rise of Adolph Hitler 15 years later. The results were catastrophic.
Horrific as WWI was with its 8.5 million or so dead soldiers and another 21 million wounded, the next war would be far worse. We read a lot about the Holocaust and the murder of 6 million Jews, but it is estimated that between 1939 and 1945 20 million people died in Russia alone, most of them civilians and a lot of them from starvation. George Marshall’s insistence that American recovery assistance in Europe be extended to Germany and Italy, and Douglas MacArthur’s decision to treat the Japanese with dignity and conciliation during the post war occupation of Japan contributed heavily to those countries remaining essentially at peace for the next 65 years, and most likely for another 65 to come. Both men learned the lessons of a bad peace and applied them sensibly despite a lot of pressure to repeat the old mistakes. MacArthur never even got a Nobel.
WWI didn’t end war and it isn’t ended yet but that may be closer to reality than it has ever been. With the Cold War over most nations don’t face any existential threat, and none seems likely to appear. Tiny Israel does but the prospect of devastating retaliation is a powerful deterrent. The wars we have seen so far in the 21st century don’t remotely compare in carnage or scope with those of the 20th. Let’s hope they stay that way, and that they become increasingly rare.
Pope Paul VI could have been thinking of The Armistice when he famously said “If you want peace work for justice.” Veterans Day is a day to honor veterans, not to dwell on the mistakes of their leaders. But this year, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in the eleventh year of the millennium, it would be worth remembering that historic day almost a century ago, and what went wrong. It would be a great time to pray for peace and justice, and for a little guidance on what we might be able to do to help bring them about.
Labels: Armistice, Justice, Peace, Veterans Day
posted by Onfoot at 6:14 AM
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