2008 Woodie Awards
The History of Veteran's Day
Steve Fair
Issue date: 11/12/04 Section: Arts & Features
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The United States of America has always been a nation with a proud military tradition. Washington D.C. is replete with memorials and monuments to some of our great military leaders and soldiers. The Department of Veteran's Affairs has a secretary within the President's executive cabin. Government-funded programs have provided our soldiers with educational and employment opportunities. When compared with the rest of the world, the treatment of our soldiers has been nothing short of exemplary. With that in mind, most would find it surprising that Veteran's Day, a national holiday created to honor the bravery and sacrifice of our troops, was created almost by accident.
On November 11th, 1918, World War I officially came to an end when leaders from the Allied Powers - The United States, France, Great Britain and Italy - met in France to discuss the proper way to discipline Germany, as the defeated country. Germany, a country with a strong military, was asked to, for all intensive purposes, dismantle its armed forces. The common thought across the world was that with a weakened Germany, there would never be a need to resort to warfare again. This thought was particularly true in the United States.
By this point in American history, the United States had already advanced its frontier to the Pacific Ocean and seemed like an unlikely candidate for expansion. Up until that point, the majority of American wars involved expansion. For Americans, the end of World War I, or as it was known then, The Great War, signaled the end of warfare and the start of a peaceful country and world.
Immediately after the Great War, the United States experienced a technological, cultural and above all, economic boom, which later came to be known as the Roaring 20's. These times helped to put closure to the Great War. On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution officially ending the war. It stated that "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." The resolution also asked for that date to be marked as a national holiday which "should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace."
On November 11th, 1918, World War I officially came to an end when leaders from the Allied Powers - The United States, France, Great Britain and Italy - met in France to discuss the proper way to discipline Germany, as the defeated country. Germany, a country with a strong military, was asked to, for all intensive purposes, dismantle its armed forces. The common thought across the world was that with a weakened Germany, there would never be a need to resort to warfare again. This thought was particularly true in the United States.
By this point in American history, the United States had already advanced its frontier to the Pacific Ocean and seemed like an unlikely candidate for expansion. Up until that point, the majority of American wars involved expansion. For Americans, the end of World War I, or as it was known then, The Great War, signaled the end of warfare and the start of a peaceful country and world.
Immediately after the Great War, the United States experienced a technological, cultural and above all, economic boom, which later came to be known as the Roaring 20's. These times helped to put closure to the Great War. On June 4, 1926, Congress passed a resolution officially ending the war. It stated that "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." The resolution also asked for that date to be marked as a national holiday which "should be commemorated with thanksgiving and prayer and exercises designed to perpetuate peace."