This week marks the 69th anniversary of the D-Day invasion. The sixth day of June 1944 should live in the annals of history for all the days that the lights are burning and the Stars and Stripes are waving over this great Republic. The landing on the beaches of Normandy was just the first of many bloody battles that would ultimately allow the Allies to march triumphantly into Berlin and remit the terror of Nazism to the past tense.
WWII consisted of two wars separated by great oceans thousands of miles apart. The assault by U.S. forces on Guadalcanal in the SW Pacific in August of 1942 was a step in the trek toward Tokyo. And when the Axis forces were defeated, the United States of America was hailed as helping liberate millions of people who were threatened by tyranny and the vast numbers who lived under severe oppression.
Since the courageous men of the Allied Nations died on the shores of Anzio, Iwo Jima, Normandy, and other infamous contested locations, our country and the world has changed. Both Germany and Japan, our principal adversaries just 69 years ago are now some of our most valuable and esteemed trading partners. The number of people on planet earth has increased to 7 billion people from an estimated 2.1 billion in 1944. The United States has grown to 316 million residents from about 139 million in 1944.
Our people had been sent into battle, as they are now, to protect our interests and our foreign trading partners and friends. Some of these ‘friends’ we were protecting or saving were not even known to us. For example, the people of Germany were mesmerized by Hitler and were stifled by a vicious jack-booted military who themselves were induced to carry out the gruesome orders from above. Congressional passage of Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s European Reconstruction Plan ignited hopes for extended peace.
However, not long after WWII, forces of dissent arose regarding the Korean Peninsula, that contest ending in a ‘draw’ to the extent that North Korea is now an avowed communist nation while South Korea is a republic. This war lasted a little over three years from June 1950 to July 1953; the two Koreas being divided at the 38th parallel. The Vietnam War lasted nearly 20 years from November 1955 to May 1975 and ended up with the creation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, a nation of about 91 million people. As in the game of poker, sometimes it is better to fold than hold.
Although the Iraq conflict began in 2003, most military personnel were removed from Iraq in 2011 with some troops remaining in the country. The Afghan conflict, closely associated with the Iraq hostilities, began in 2001; a withdrawal agreement was reached in 2011.
The U.S.A. has military deployments in 29 foreign countries; apparently our country has become the default ‘hall monitor’ throughout the world. The League of Nations, designed to prevent future wars was created in 1920 and, unable to prevent WWII, closed its book of failures in 1946. Succeeding the League of Nations is the United Nations, founded in 1945. The UN is best known for the ability of members to debate serious issues, agree on proclamations and threatening messages of reprimand to rogue nations and generate more than $17 million in unpaid parking tickets in NYC.
Remember that the destruction and deaths and injuries of our valiant warriors never resulted from an assault on our homeland. It seems reasonable to assume that war is inherent in the DNA of mankind while peace is the grudging reward for the dreadful destruction and loss of life. God Bless the U.S.A. and all those nations promoting peace.
– Dick Baynton