Veterans Day 2011 is the 93rd anniversary of an event that Americans hoped would establish a world at peace. Nov. 11, 1918, was originally hailed as Armistice Day, marking the end of what was then known as the Great War.
Yet the devastation of World War I was followed in the 20th century by World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. In the 21st century, the war on terror sparked long combat involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It’s no wonder that Nov. 11 was first commemorated in the United States and Europe as a date that symbolized peace made official by the signing of an armistice.
Twenty million people died between 1914 and 1918 during what became heralded by President Woodrow Wilson as “the war to end all wars.”
Nations clamored thereafter for a better way of life, points out David Swanson, who is the author of the new book “When the World Outlawed War.”
He writes: “Even those rejecting the idea that the war could in any way help advance the cause of peace aligned with all those wanting to avoid all future wars - a group that probably encompassed most of the U.S. population.”
The decade following the Great War brought a constant search for ways to end worldwide violence.
American historian Robert Ferrell has noted: “It is no exaggeration to say that where there had been relatively few peace schemes before the World War, there now were hundreds and even thousands.”
According to Mr. Ferrell, “Peace echoed through so many sermons, speeches, and state papers that it drove itself into the consciousness of everyone. Never in world history was peace so great a desideratum, so much talked about, looked toward, and planned for, as in the decade after the 1918 Armistice.”
It resulted in 1928 in the Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international agreement to legally ban all wars. The treaty, which was signed by the United States and over a dozen other nations, is still on the books, in fact.
But the pursuit of peace wasn’t smooth.
America chose not to join and become diplomatically entangled in the League of Nations, a body created in the doomed effort to enforce peace in the world.
In the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations was formed with America’s support. It remains the leading international forum created to promote world peace.
Not until June 1, 1954, did legislation signed by President Dwight Eisenhower change the name of the legal holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day.
Today the more than 20 million living Americans - including 30,000 Staten Islanders - who have served proudly in the armed forces are being honored.
Millions of spectators will watch 20,000 marchers on Fifth Avenue in the nation’s largest Veterans Day parade.
Solemn ceremonies on Staten Island mark the contributions of those men and women who have worn our country’s uniform with pride and dignity.
Amid the pomp and circumstance, Mr. Swanson reminds, let’s “try to revive some memory of that foreign world” of long ago when peace was a fervent hope.
The best way to honor our veterans and the buddies they left behind on the battlefield is by putting an end to war as soon as humanly possible.