Modern Americans may have trouble imagining what it was like to live in the United States at the 11th hour of the 11th day in the 11th month of 1918.
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth PEACE,” said a banner headline in the Deseret News.
Near the bottom of the front page was this short statement from Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States:
“My fellow countrymen,” it began, “The armistice was signed this morning. Everything for which America fought has been accomplished. It will now be our fortunate duty to assist by example, by sober friendly counsel and by material aid in the establishment of just democracy throughout the world.”
That was the optimistic pronouncement of the end to World War I. That was the tone struck on the very first of what later became Veterans Day.
The United States had entered the conflict late, declaring war in April of 1917, only a few months after Wilson had won reelection on a campaign that boasted he had kept the nation out of the great war in Europe.
The United States’ entry in the war proved decisive. Still, America suffered 53,402 battle deaths in World War I in less than six months of actual fighting. It lost another 63,114 from accidents and disease.
The failed promises of WWI
Wilson’s dream of establishing democracy worldwide never came true. Less than 23 years later, the United States was compelled to declare war on two fronts in World War II, where it lost an astonishing 405,399 personnel while saving the world from tyranny. Each death touched at least one family and countless loved ones.
Today, according to the National World War II Museum, just 45,418 of the 16.4 million Americans who served in that war remain alive. Only 535 of those are in Utah.
We wish they were the last soldiers required to put their lives at risk in combat to defend the nation. However, thousands more have been lost in combat since the end of World War II, including 58,281 who died in Vietnam, both in combat and noncombat deaths.
Today, the United States faces threats on many fronts, including hot war zones in Ukraine and Gaza. Some are referring to China, Russia, Iran and North Korea as the “CRINK alliance,” a loosely connected group of nations that cooperate with each other and oppose the United States.
On the granite wall of remembrance at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington is inscribed this simple message: “Freedom is not free.”
War is a gruesome, awful business, but at times it is necessary in order to preserve freedoms, liberties, prosperity and peace. The nation must always enter armed conflicts reluctantly and as a last resort, remembering that its costs are unimaginably high. One can only wonder what the many thousands who died might have contributed to society; what discoveries they might have made and what leadership they might have provided.
And yet, their country needed them.
This must forever be the focus of Veterans Day.
The quiet generation
The World War II generation has been characterized as one that was reluctant to talk about their experiences. Part of this might be due to the virtue that accompanies true heroism. It doesn’t boast. But much of it may have gone deeper than that.
As the New York Times said a few years ago, “Many of the Americans who fought to crush the Axis in World War II came home feeling the same way — so many, in fact, that those lauded as the Greatest Generation might just as easily be called the Quietest.”
They might have seen and experienced things too traumatizing to share. They might have found it easier to return to civilian life if they put those things behind them.
As understandable as this may be, their children and grandchildren remain interested in gathering and preserving the stories of the veterans who served in that war, as do the children of those who participated in the armed conflicts that followed.
It is important that they do. It is important to compile stories and records from all who have served in service of the United States. It is appropriate that these are shared on Veterans Day.
Back in 1918, the Deseret News editorial page said, “After more than four years of cruel, inky darkness, the dawn of a new day has come, the duties of which shall be the beating of swords into plowshares, or spears into pruning hooks.”
Despite the never-ending need for brave warriors, this is the tone of gratitude and optimism that should still accompany all Veterans Day programs as we note the freedoms we enjoy because so many before us were willing to give their all.