Here we are, 79 years later, pausing once again to remember that pivotal episode of the Second World War: the Allied invasion of Adolf Hitler’s so-called Fortress Europe to begin the restoration of a continent brutalized by nazism. The cost has been sufficiently described by many different writers and commentators, but this month The American Legion’s website features an article that recounts an inspiring visit in 1984 by Lieutenant General James Gavin (“Jumpin’ Jim“) to a gathering of veterans of the 82nd Airborne Division on the Normandy battlefield to honor the achievements of the troops who fought there on 6 June 1944. The article, The heart to do what others cannot, by Col. Keith Nightingale, U.S. Army, retired, describes how much General Gavin’s speech meant to the contemporary troopers who attended the gathering. Jumpin’ Jim Gavin led the airborne assault on Normandy on D-Day. The article is an inspiring read, and talks about how today’s battle-hardened airborne soldiers continue to identify with and to be moved by the valor and ingenuity of their predecessors, highlighting the continuity of a tradition shared by brothers-in-arms. I recommend checking it out on the website.

While we’re on the subject, I would like to recommend another article, appearing in the June 2023 edition of The American Legion magazine, intitled, OUT of ORDER: We are at risk of losing all that America and its allies built in the wake of World War II. The author, Alan W. Dowd, a senior fellow with the Sagamore Institute Center for America’s Purpose, describes the foundations of what “some call the ‘rules-based democratic order,’ and others the ‘liberal international order.'” He goes on to say, “These terms may seem esoteric, but they are just descriptions of how America and its allies have tried to make the world work in the decades since World War II.” After describing the goal of the rules-based democratic order the free world was aiming at, he writes, “Contrary to those who dismiss the liberal international order as some gauzy outgrowth of 1990s globalism, key American statesmen considered it an essential part of America’s security throughout the postwar era.” He then reports the efforts of those statesmen and leaders to achieve that goal and what will happen if the enemies of that goal are allowed to have their way. “If the free world proves unable today to follow the example of those men, hostile regimes will replace the liberal order with something less liberal and less orderly.” Dowd then reviews the actions of illiberal regimes like Putin’s and Xi’s, not to mention that of Kim Jong Un, and the threat to world order posed by dictators like them: “…these regimes are working together to destroy the liberal international order.” He goes on to answer the critics of the present world order—most of whom rail against the costs of maintaining our global alliances—and then concludes by citing what those responsible for our defense have said. “There are costs to maintaining a liberal international order. But the costs of a world that’s out of order are higher. As Milley (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley) recently detailed, the collapse of the liberal order would mean doubling U.S. budgets and likely ‘an era of great-power conflict’.” Then he cites Milley’s review of the horrendous cost in lives and destruction that characterized the frequent periods of armed conflict prior to the establishment of the liberal international order, and Milley’s conclusion, “That’s what this international order that’s been in existence for seven and a half decades is designed to prevent.”

Dowd concludes the article with a statement from General James Mattis, “The postwar, rules-based international order is the greatest gift of the Greatest Generation.” Dowd closes with “The free world has the power to preserve this precious gift. What remains to be seen is if it has the will.”

So now, let’s remember what this day truly means. Political activity meant to debate, discuss, and critique different approaches to economic and social issues are welcome. Diversity of opinion envigorates discussion and is essential to solve problems; we eagerly support that. The founding fathers praised and advocated the free martketplace of ideas. But political activity that arrogates to itself alone the right to determine and constrain what others should believe, think, and do, and directs its efforts both rhetorical and actual at dismantling our rules-based democratic system promotes only resentment and chaos and will result inevitably in the destruction of what our Greatest Generation fought so valiantly to defend. Fellow Americans, let’s not let that happen. Let’s not forget.

[In memoriam, Pvt. George A. Marrash, 23 Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, DOW, 17 July 1944]