Holiday marks end of War to End All Wars

Persico points out any number of World War I warriors who would go on to play leading roles in its sequel. Adolf Hitler was a corporal in the German Army. Winston Churchill was a British colonel. George Patton and Douglas MacArthur fought for the American forces in France, as did Harry Truman, the future president who would authorize the atomic bombs that would finally put an end to World War II.

All these men came trudging home from the Western Front once the clock struck 11 a.m. on the 11th of November 1918.

It was supposed to be the last time, a solemn vow that gave rise both to the War to End All Wars moniker and to the holiday created to acknowledge its demise.

Some countries, such as England and Canada, chose to call it Remembrance Day. America called it Armistice Day. Every year, in the dozens of nations devastated by World War I, bells chimed, flags were lowered to half mast and heads were bowed at precisely 11 a.m.

That lasted for 21 years — until Hitler started the next one.

After World War II killed another 400,000 Americans, and 25 million all told, one of its victorious veterans, Dwight Eisenhower, changed Armistice Day to Veterans Day.

"In order to expand the significance of that commemoration and that a grateful nation might pay appropriate homage to the veterans of all its wars," the president stated.

And neither he nor anyone else dared suggest there wouldn't be another one.

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Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.