From Conservative HQ:
Veterans Day is one of two American holidays that has never been moved to a Monday to accommodate a long weekend, the other one is the Fourth of July Independence Day celebration.
Veterans Day remains on November 11 because it grew out of the commemoration of the Armistice ending World War I – the war to end all wars – that came into effect at 11:00 a.m. on November 11, 1918.
The bloody stalemate in the trenches of the Western Front scared a generation of soldiers who served there, especially in Europe where millions died in futile battles for a few yards of “no man’s land” directed by generals who had no concept of the effects of modern weapons and little regard for the lives of those whom they commanded.
America was slow to enter the war and did so after many provocations by Germany and only after a congressional debate lasting four days that saw leading figures of both major political parties come out against war.
While the exploits of Americans on the Western Front, such as the Battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood and the exploits of the Lost Battalion in the Argonne Forest have remained in the American military lexicon and live on in the names of ships and battles studied at the military academies and war colleges the fact that Americans were at best reluctant participants in World War I has been strangely redacted from popular culture.
Yet, when World War I was fresh in the public mind the emphasis was not on celebrating war and the martial spirit – it was on remembering the cost of war and the dead it left.
The two best movies about World War I; “Sargent York” and “All Quiet on the Western Front” are hardly jingoistic calls to war.
Both have strongly pacifist themes, although the leading character of Sargent York, the real life Alvin York, eventually chose to set aside his strict pacifism and become a reluctant and humble hero of the American Army in Europe.
Read more: ConservativeHQ.com
