Veterans Day; Armistice Day
[NOTE: This is a repeat of a previous post.]
Yes, indeed, I am that old—old enough to just barely remember when Veterans Day was called Armistice Day. The change in names occurred in 1954, when I was very small, in order to accommodate World War II and its veterans.
Since then, the original name has largely fallen out of use—although it remains, like a vestigial organ, in the timing of the holiday, November 11th, which commemorates the day the WWI armistice was signed (eleventh hour, eleventh day, eleventh month).
I’m also old enough–and had a teacher ancient enough—to have been forced to memorize that old chestnut “In Flanders Fields” in fifth grade—although without being given any historical context for it, I think at the time I assumed it was about World War II, since as far as I knew that was the only real war.
You can find the story of the poem here . It was written by a Canadian doctor who served in the European theater (there is no separate URL for the discussion of the poem, but you should click on the “John McCrae´s Poppies in Flander’s Fields” link on the left sidebar). It’s not great poetry by any means, but it was great propaganda to encourage America’s entry into what was known at the time as the Great War.
The poem’s first line “In Flanders fields the poppies blow” introduces that famous flower that later became the symbol of Armistice—and later, Veterans—Day. Why the poppy?
Wild poppies flower when other plants in their direct neighbourhood are dead. Their seeds can lie on the ground for years and years, but only when there are no more competing flowers or shrubs in the vicinity (for instance when someone firmly roots up the ground), these seeds will sprout.
There was enough rooted up soil on the battlefield of the Western Front; in fact the whole front consisted of churned up soil. So in May 1915, when McCrae wrote his poem, around him bloodred poppies blossomed like no one had ever seen before.
But in this poem the poppy plays one more role. The poppy is known as a symbol of sleep. The last line We shall not sleep, though poppies grow / In Flanders fields might point to this fact. Some kinds of poppies are used to derive opium from, from which morphine is made. Morphine is one of the strongest painkillers and was often used to put a wounded soldier to sleep. Sometimes medical doctors used it in a higher dose to put the incurable wounded out of their misery.
Now a day to honor those who have served in our wars, Veterans Day has an interesting history in its original Armistice Day incarnation. It was actually established as a day dedicated to world peace, back in the early post-WWI year of 1926, when it was still possible to believe that WWI had been the war fought to end all wars.
The original proclamation establishing Armistice Day as a holiday read as follows:
Whereas the 11th of November 1918, marked the cessation of the most destructive, sanguinary, and far reaching war in human annals and the resumption by the people of the United States of peaceful relations with other nations, which we hope may never again be severed, and
Whereas it is fitting that the recurring anniversary of this date should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace through good will and mutual understanding between nations; and
Whereas the legislatures of twenty-seven of our States have already declared November 11 to be a legal holiday: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), that the President of the United States is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the officials to display the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on November 11 and inviting the people of the United States to observe the day in schools and churches, or other suitable places, with appropriate ceremonies of friendly relations with all other peoples.
After the carnage of World War II, of course, the earlier hope that peaceful relations among nations would not be severed had long been extinguished. By the time I was a young child, a weary nation sought to honor those who had fought in all of its wars in order to secure the peace that followed—even if each peace was only a temporary one.
And isn’t an armistice a strange (although understandable) sort of hybrid, after all; a decision to lay down arms without anything really having been resolved? Think about the recent wars that have ended through armistice: WWI, which segued almost inexorably into WWII; the 1948 war following the partition of Palestine; the Korean War; and the Gulf War. All of these conflicts exploded again into violence—or have continually threatened to—ever since.
So this Veterans/Armistice Day, let’s join in saluting and honoring those who have fought for our country. The hope that some day war will not be necessary is a laudable one—and those who fight wars hold it, too. But that day has clearly not yet arrived—and, realistically but sadly, most likely it never will.
For every twitter hashtag – #SaluteToService the NFL is $25 poorer. Thanks to those who served.
The consequences of the Armistice, which Foch described as “An armistice for twenty years,” were the reason why Roosevelt insisted on unconditional surrender. Without the atomic bomb, we would have had an armistice with Japan. Unless the Navy continued with the starvation plan.
I think of my father, who served in England, North Africa, and Italy, and all his comrades, those who survived and those who did not. Rest in peace, all.
Several yrs ago a friend and I were on a tour (Stephen Ambrose tours) of WWI battlefields. It started in Brussels and went to Verdun. We stopped at the cemetery (small) where the first aid station that Doctor McCrae was when he wrote that poem. Very close to the front lines. Now, it is a quiet place by the road and shaded by trees. He did not survive the war.
My Father in Law was 82nd during the war. Saw lot of combat. My Dad was Navy, and at Pearl Harbor. His was a shooting war too. Miss them both.
Alas, peace is merely a breathing space before the next war. The war against jihad will never end.
RIP all who gave their all. And thank you to those who made it back home again.
Thank you to all who have served and those now serving the cause of Freedom.
——
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
This was a particular spectular example of one being just a breathing space. G.K. Chesterton, like many others, pointed out that after years, no one spoke of the peace — only the armistice.
(There’s an entire book collecting Chesterton’s essays on the breaking out of WWII. A bit of a trick since he died in 1936.)
Ironic, that the modern war that ended most brutally in the eyes of most produced two strong Democracies from the rubble, while the end result of the ones that ended in a negotiated peace had more ambiguous results. And no, I am not forgetting that Eastern Europe, divided Korea, and so forth came out of WWII. Those were negotiated outcomes that were sort of on the periphery of the main stage.
It was the lot of my peers to fight in wars with ambiguous intent, or at least in the case of Korea with ambiguous results. I am old enough to remember the agony of neighbor families who lost their sons in WWII; but I have always felt special anguish for the families of my contemporaries who died in Vietnam for no reason whatsoever.
As Neo indicate, war is very much with us. We can only insist that when this country goes to war, we do so with clear intent, and firm resolve to achieve well understood goals. To sacrifice young blood for anything less is a travesty–although one too often repeated.
“We can only insist that when this country goes to war, we do so with clear intent, and firm resolve to achieve well understood goals. ” — Oldflyer
If only it could be so.
I have always thought that the politicians who maneuver us into war should be required to resign their offices and enlist immediately after passing the declaration.
Those too old to serve should just resign.
Let new elections then bring out the leaders who will work to win the war.
Victor Davis Hanson has often said that when it comes to politics and war the choices are usually between the least worse of bad options.
I have always felt special anguish for the families of my contemporaries who died in Vietnam for no reason whatsoever.
I had this post on my own blog a couple of weeks ago.
Fifty five years ago this week, the Vietnam War was lost,
On October 29, 1963 President John F Kennedy authorized the coup that overthrew Ngo Dinh Diem.
Diem and his brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu, were murdered the next day by a South Vietnamese Army Captain as they sought shelter with loyal troops.
After reading Max Boot’s biography of Edward Lansdale, I think this is true,
They Shall Not Grow Old … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfomV9GrL6c
After reading Max Boot’s biography of Edward Lansdale, I think this is true,
That Kennedy via the ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge instigated the overthrow of the Ngo brothers has been known since the Church-Pike committee investigations in 1975. I think the congressional inquiries concluded that the Administration and Lodge had not anticipated that the plotters would actually assassinate Diem and Nhu. Lodge’s predecessor, Frederick Nolting, published a memoir some years back with included a tribute to Diem and excoriated Lodge.
It was Henry Kissinger’s opinion that the overthrow of the Ngo brothers was a horrid setback for the war effort, the reason being that the overthrow was followed by a purge of the civil service with military officers placed in these jobs to replace them; the military was thus distracted from executing its core tasks.
The trouble which would ensue were the Ngo brothers to be removed was anticipated by Marguerite Higgins, who was a foreign correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune and Newsday. It was Higgins view, incorporated into her reporting, that the opposition to the Ngo brothers in the Vietnamese military was too fractious to assemble an effective government.
In Herbert Hoover’s posthumously published book, Freedom Betrayed, the former president presents a lost chapter out of American history. The book is about Franklin Roosevelt’s foreign policy and America’s role in the Second World War. To understand the war, he suggests, we must first understand Communism and the nature of Soviet power.
too bad he is completely wrong..
i agree with him, so we are both wrong…
In 1938 Hoover traveled to Riga and met with Latvian President Karlis Ulmanis, who was educated at the University of Nebraska and spoke English “in the American idiom,” which Hoover greatly appreciated. The former American president wanted to know why Latvia had become a fascist state. Ulmanis said that Latvia had fallen into “complete chaos” from “weakness and Communist conspiracies.”
To preserve the country, he had turned to the army for help. A key factor driving this process, said Ulmanis, was the Russian “fifth column operators … boring into labor groups and with the intellectuals who believed in personal liberty but who thought you could have economic totalitarianism….”
Ulmanis warned Hoover that the United States had placed itself in danger by adopting the New Deal policies of Franklin Roosevelt. This would open the door to chaos later. When Hoover asked what this chaos looked like, Ulmanis took the American statesman to a window overlooking Riga’s main square, and said:
When you see armed mobs of men in green shirts, red shirts and white shirts coming down different streets, converging into the square, fighting with clubs and firearms, mobs of women and children crowding in and demanding bread, then you know chaos has come
Ulmanis further warned Hoover that the territorial system of electing legislators had “already failed” in the United States because American legislators were “actually chosen” by pressure groups and no longer exercised independent judgment, which was required for statesmanship. Washington was peppered with the offices of 500 different pressure groups, each threatening elected officials in turn. Hoover disagreed with Ulmanis, but the Latvian leader insisted: “America with its ‘Managed Economy’ [under Roosevelt] is well on the road to chaos and the eclipse of democracy; I have been through it….”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Hoover was told by U.S. officials that the whole of German agriculture and industry was being readied for war. Hoover asked Douglas Miller, the U.S. commercial attache in Berlin, when the Nazis planned to attack. Miller presciently replied, “about eighteen months.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
I have shown in this memoir the road down which Roosevelt and Churchill took mankind. I need not again repeat their acquiescences and their appeasements or their agreements with the greatest enemy of mankind [i.e., the Communists].
Their declarations and secret agreements at Moscow in November, 1943, at Tehran in December the same year, at Yalta in February, 1945.
Truman, at Potsdam in august, and his policies in china from 1945 to 1951 are the inscriptions on tombstones which marked the betrayal of mankind.
These peoples wallowing in human slavery in their nightmarish dreams, may somethimes have recollected these Roosevelt promises [of the Four Freedoms] – but only to awaken in a police state.
Communism is a crusading spirit, ruthless of all opposition, and over the years it has evolved beliefs, methods and organization,” Noted Hoover. “Within it is a vehement demand for expansion and a suppression of all such human emotions as piety. It is sadistic and cruel.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Throughout the last century Communist leaders alternated in pretending to be nationalists, agrarian reformers, and/or democrats. The same is true today, only the Communists have grown in sophistication even as their dupes have declined into stupefaction. There is nothing to be gained by talking with liars and tricksters who plot the West’s downfall. Yet we talk and talk as we lose and lose again.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
In November 1920, Lenin said, “We must take advantage of the antagonisms and contradictions between two capitalisms … inciting one against the other….” According to Lenin, “If war is waged by the proletariat after it has conquered the bourgeoisie in its own country, and is waged with the object of strengthening and extending socialism, such a war is legitimate and ‘holy.’” Lenin also stated, “As long as capitalism and socialism exist, we cannot live in peace: in the end, one or the other will triumph – a funeral dirge will be sung either over the Soviet Republic or over world capitalism….”
It was Henry Kissinger’s opinion that the overthrow of the Ngo brothers was a horrid setback for the war effort, the reason being that the overthrow was followed by a purge of the civil service with military officers placed in these jobs to replace them; the military was thus distracted from executing its core tasks.
The reason I mentioned the Lansdale bio is that I had not realized how Lansdale had a relationship with Diem and had tried to use similar methods in Vietnam that had worked in the Philippines. I write more about that in the post on my blog. McNamara blocked Lansdale’s access to Diem and Diem was trying to get him to return right up until the week he died.
It is certainly not assured that Lansdale’s methods would have worked in Vietnam, and they probably would not have for the reasons I listed, but once we got rid of Diem, it was our war and Johnson was 100% committed.
Another changer for Neo to ignore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! John T. Pace
[bet none of you know him, cause at least i live in the real world where history matches history]
Hoover had dealt with two “glaring” Communist plots that threatened the United States.
One was “the so-called ‘Bonus March’ of 1932. The other involved Soviet Russia’s effort to flood the world with counterfeit American money printed in Moscow.
According to Hoover, Army and Navy intelligence had “determined at that time that the [Bonus] ‘March’ had been largely engineered by Communists with the fantastic idea that they would exploit the veterans [of the Great War] to overthrow the United States Government.
At the time of the march, I publicly pointed out its Communist inspiration.
That this was no figment of the imagination was amply confirmed.
At the Seventh Congress of the Communist International in Moscow three years later in 1935, the Communists openly claimed credit for the march.”
go here..
not much mention that the communists admitted the crime..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonus_Army
mention 1:
On July 28 under prodding from the White House the D.C. Commissioners ordered Glassford to clear their buildings, rather than letting them drift away as he had recommended. An Army intelligence report said that the BEF intended to occupy the Capitol permanently and instigate fighting which would be a signal for Communist uprisings in all major cities.
mention 2:
One veteran commented, “Hoover sent the army, Roosevelt sent his wife.”[29] In a press conference following her visit, the First Lady described her reception as courteous and praised the marchers, highlighting how comfortable she felt despite critics of the marchers who described them as communists and criminals
now why peoples dont you know about it, and why is it scrubbed from wiki
by the way, if you read the comnunists you know it!!!!!!!!!!!
It seems to me that the catastrophic error in WWII was Chamberlain’s Polish Guarantee. Pat Buchanan discusses that in his book on “Unnecessary Wars,” which I disagree with in large part, but it is stimulating and he is right on that issue.
The Czechs could have defended themselves, The Poles could not.
In all the animal kingdom, Homo Sapiens are unique in that we have no natural enemies. We are at the top of the food chain and we have learned how to modify our environment. With rare exceptions, humans do not die from being hunted and eaten by animals. And, although it does happen (as we recently saw in Paradise), natural disasters do not kill many of us. Because we are social animals and live in societies, we tend to protect the weaker and slower among us. The only thing that prevents the vast majority of us from procreating is war and man-made disasters, such as famines, and social and economic collapses.
Yet, the human race, as an organism, must be pruned regularly, to remain healthy. It seems to me that humans regularly engage in war as a means to ensure that the species keeps evolving… stronger, faster, smarter. We have to supply our own natural competition in order to improve.
Perhaps, one day, we will take charge of our own evolution, and we will no longer rely on war and famine to remove the culls from our gene pool. However, until that time comes, I suspect that we will keep doing it the hard way.
Oldflyer @10:49. Agree 100%. Bravo Zulu. (Old Naval aviators think alike, and all that.)
Roy:
Counter arguments to natural disasters and threats of mankind.
Flu pandemic 1918. What is the next global pandemic going to be?
Assuming that man being able to control the path of human evolution without undexpected dire consequences is hubristic. Assuming that war serves as a selection process for the good of Homo sapiens “weeding out the weak…” is, well, problematic. Most of the people killed in WWII were noncombatants, too bad they were too weak to thrive in that environment.
W. T. Sherman said “war is hell” but sometimes a necessary evil.
“The Czechs could have defended themselves, The Poles could not.”
That’s been a question which has been mooted around by a number of people who are quite naturally impressed by the productive capacity of the Skoda Works, and the paper strength of the Czechoslovak army. I wondered about that myself but was unable to come up with a definitive answer. I guess I think … after moderately extensive reading … probably not, even if the Sudetenland were not given up without a fight: as the Czech polity and even army, was riven by pro-German elements – as I recall.
In an alternative history, might an allied Poland and Czechoslovakia made a real fight of it? Eh, maybe. Though, they were not friendly, as an outsider like me who would lump all Catholic, Western, and westernized Slavs together might imagine.
However I have no dogmatic view on this and would let the best evidence speak for itself regardless.
It seems to me that the catastrophic error in WWII was Chamberlain’s Polish Guarantee. Pat Buchanan discusses that in his book on “Unnecessary Wars,” which I disagree with in large part, but it is stimulating and he is right on that issue.
No, Buchanan’s just being Buchanan.
There will be no peace in Europe if the States rebuild themselves on th basis of national sovereignty, with its implications of prestige politics and economic protection…..
…. the countries of europe are not strong enough to be able to guarantee prosperity and social development for their peoples. The States of Europe must therefore form a federation or a European Entity, that would make them into a common economic Unit… Aug 5 1943 Jean Monnet
and Thus the EU was born and made…
Even when he had long since been honored as the father of europe, jean Monney had always preferred to work behind the scenes, away from the limelight. he knew that, only by operating in the shadows, behind a cloak of obscurity, could he one day realize his dream? what he pulled off was to amount to a slow-motion coup d’eat: the most spectactular coup d’etat in history – the Great Deception Cristopher Booker and Richard North
the goal was to transform nafta into a european uniuon type customes union, to redefine the border as continental rather than national, and to develop mexico economicallya s a precondition to integration with the larger more developed economies..
the CFR chairmens statement noted that a full report would be ussies following the march 2005 trialateral summet in waco texas…
The late great USA…
[if ya gues kept up with the CFR statements and so on, you would know that Trump was throwing wrenches in a american union of mexico and canada, and a bunch of other things taht were more common talk 24 years ago and more…
but we cant remember 2007 let alone the key people from before that
Wonderful thought & memory stimulating post, Neo. You and I well remember when the reference to “the war” was meant & assumed to be World War Two. Nearly every dad on the block of the steet of the LA neighborhood where I grew up had been in “The War”.
My dad was with the 20th Air Force in the Pacific Theater. His Bomb Group, The 463rd Hellbirds, had a great motto on the nose if all their B-29 Superfortresses:
WITH MALICE TOWARD SOME
Amen.
“The Czechs could have defended themselves, The Poles could not.”
That’s been a question which has been mooted around by a number of people who are quite naturally impressed by the productive capacity of the Skoda Works, and the paper strength of the Czechoslovak army. I wondered about that myself but was unable to come up with a definitive answer.
Like all alternative histories, which is a bit of a hobby for me, we will never know. In 1938, the Czechs might have been a match from the Germans but, as you point out, the Sudeten Germans were a fifth column.
Ergo the slut walks, and more… funny funny funny… (and you don’t know Mrs Snowden.. do you?)
The comparison often times is made by the socialists between the opinions of Bebel, Engels, Deville, Bax and others of the anointed ones of socialism, who in their books and articles in the radical press advocated a loose form of morality …..
Men and women of the future society will possess far more self-control and a better knowledge of their own natures than men and women today. The one fact that the foolish prudery and secrecy connected with sexual matters will disappear will make the relations of the sexes a far more natural and healthful one.
So women will be free, and the children she may have will not impair her freedom; they will only increase her pleasures in life Bebel P 470…
Bebel neglects to state who is to be the judge of what is to be considered a moderate or immoderate gratification of the sexual impulse or when it becomes detrimental to others…
[edited for length by n]
the Sudeten Germans were a fifth column.
There was quite a preference cascade in the Germanophone portions of Bohemia and Moravia after 1933 and that population was pretty thoroughly disloyal. After the war, the Slavic majority got their revenge by expelling the Germans en masse.