Most Americans born after 1950 will not remember the holiday called Armistice Day. That’s because Armistice Day, which was celebrated to honor the end of the First World War, the conflict that President Woodrow Wilson called “the war to end all wars”, was changed to Veterans Day by act of Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on 1 June 1954. Thereafter, not just the service of veterans of the “Great War,” as it was called then, but that of all veterans of the armed forces of the United States would be honored on that date: November 11, the date in 1918 when the armistice was signed between the victorious Western Powers and a defeated Germany. In Europe, the United Kingdom and several other nations continue to celebrate Armistice Day.

Subsequent history has shown how naively aspirational President Wilson’s hope was. The United States, which until its entry into World War I was temperamentally isolationist, has become inextricably involved in global affairs, and has frequently had to project military force, wisely or unwisely, to protect its vital interests, deter aggression, and maintain a liberal world order that seeks to establish the rule of law and promote democracy. That project has not always worked out, as the Vietnam War and the wars in the Middle East have shown. The world is a complex place. There are so many variables to consider: history, society, economy, language, culture, religion, as well as international alliances and rivalries. It is quite difficult to get it right. It is often the case that we get it wrong. The practice of diplomacy and statesmanship requires intelligence, rational reflection–and patience. And faith in our American values doesn’t hurt.

Over the years, since the change from Armistice Day to Veterans Day, there have been critics who strenuously objected to the replacement of Armistice Day by Veterans Day. One critic, a former US Army ranger who left the military as a conscientious objecter, wrote, in an article in The Guardian on Veterans Day in 2014, that the holiday placed its emphasis on military valor and war heroes rather than on the establishment of peace and remembering the pain and suffering of war. The latter, he said, had been the focus of Armistice Day. Writer Kurt Vonnegut, a World War Two veteran, also criticized the change to Veterans Day. In 2018, he said, “Armistice Day has become Veterans Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ Day is not. So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder.”

Each individual can choose for themselves how to interpret the significance of Armistice Day versus Veterans Day. One might lean more toward honoring the making of peace and the grief that accompanies the end of bloody and brutal military conflict; another might prefer to emphasize the courage and sacrifice of the warrior who has often had to assume a fearsome duty. Whichever alternative one values in finding the “meaning” of such commemorations, it cannot be denied that all those who have stood the watch on remote frontiers or borne the burden of perilous conflict deserve our praise and our gratitude. For without their willigness to serve and defend our freedom, we would be a lesser nation, and meekly subject to the will of authoritarian and totalitarian entities whose belligerence and predations have defined international relations since ancient times. Freedom is not free. As Thomas Jefferson said, “the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.”

On this day, whether you prefer Veterans Day or Armistice Day, let all Americans, united in the dream that has inspired us since the founding fathers declared that we “are, and of right ought to be, free and independent states,” express our pride and gratitude for the faithful service of the men and women, past and present, of the Armed Forces of the United States of America. God bless the USA.