“God help me, I love it so.” – General George S. Patton on war.

On the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, Germany surrendered to the Allied powers, thereby ending World War I.  To commemorate this final denouement of one of the most devastating conflicts in world history, we Americans created Veterans Day.

Today, of course, Veterans Day is designed to honor the veteran soldiers of all of our wars, which, for all their brutality and destruction, abound with examples of humanity, sacrifice, compassion and adherence to a code of honor that exemplifies the very best of the human spirit.

The war stories citing these virtues are numerous, but one of my favorite examples of the warrior’s bond and military “valor”—understood in the best sense of the word—occurred in the seventeenth century during the reign of the France’s King Louis XIV.  The Sun King, as he came to be known, spent more time waging war than any monarch in Europe up to that point, and on this particular occasion, in the summer of 1667, Louis was engaged in one of his many sieges, this time against the city of Lille, which he would ultimately incorporate into France.

As it happened, the siege occurred during a particularly nasty spell of hot weather, so when the commanding general in charge of defending Lille — the Comte de Brouais — learned that Louis and his troops lacked ice, de Brouais made sure ice was sent to the French King and his army every morning.  After a few weeks or so of receiving this daily ration of ice, Louis asked to meet with the officer who delivered it.  At their meeting Louis told the officer that, given the extreme heat, his troops really could use more ice than de Brouais was providing them, and Louis asked the officer to pass his request along to de Brouais.

Continue reading →

“They shall beat their swords into plowshares … nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.”  – Isaiah 2.4

World peace through collective security has long been mankind’s fondest hope, formally expressed twice in modern history, first through the establishment of the League of Nations in 1919 and later through the United Nations (U.N.), which was established this week (June 26) in 1945 when the U.N. Charter was signed.

Alas, the League of Nations failed miserably at maintaining collective security, as Adolf Hitler proved by plunging the world into war in the 1940s.  But diplomats hoped the U.N. might be more effective because, unlike the League, the U.N. had the United States as a member

In fact, the U.N. was as much America’s brainchild as anyone’s.  In August of 1941, with America soon to enter World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, which outlined how international collaboration could maintain world peace and security.

And two years later Roosevelt and Churchill met with their ally, Soviet leader Josef Stalin, to issue the Moscow Declaration, which called for an international organization to replace the failed League.  That declaration led to the Dumbarton Oaks Conference in Washington, D.C.—China joined the big three at this conference—to outline what the United Nations would look like and do.

What the U.N. would do, it was agreed, was maintain international peace and security, promote social progress and higher standards of living, strengthen international law and expand human rights.

Continue reading →