May 8 is the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the Allies, but America is hardly commemorating its greatest victory. Why?
Nazi Germany was the greatest scourge in modern history. It successfully conquered or subdued nearly all Europe, murdered many millions, and planned to murder tens of millions more. Its ideology, which seduced and intimidated tens of millions, was passionate, hypnotic, and demonic. The Third Reich developed one of the world’s greatest ever militaries armed with the latest technology, fueled by fanaticism and efficiency.
The Allies were not necessarily predestined to win WWII. France, with reputedly the world’s greatest army, collapsed within weeks. Britain was driven from continental Europe, lost most of its east Asian empire and nearly lost the Middle East. The Soviet Union could have remained in grudging alliance with Germany. Or it simply could have collapsed. Hitler planned to colonize Russia’s vast steppes, enslaving and then exterminating tens of millions of Slavs to gain living space for Germany’s expansion. New German cities in the former Russia would be connected by supersized speed trains with every luxury including swimming pools.
A triumphant Reich could have intimidated Britain into acquiesce without direct military victory. Britain’s democracy could have become subordinate to the Third Reich, and the British Empire interwoven with Germany’s sphere of influence. America could have likewise accepted the new geopolitical reality. Pro-German political parties could have arisen in America. Latin America could have followed this same route. China could have become a colony of Japan, which could have reigned over the wider Pacific, and perhaps India.
It could have been a totalitarian nightmare totalitarian world of cruelty, lies and genocide that endured for many decades, perhaps centuries. The era of democracy and liberty would be recalled as a brief interruption in human history, which is largely the story of the strong subduing and exploiting the weak. Christianity could have been corrupted and controlled by the new regime, with persecuted dissidents driven underground, focused on the next world without hope for the current.
This unspeakable calamity was avoided because a few nations resisted. Their victory would have been impossible without American resolve and economic might. Russia suffered and sacrificed far more than America in WWII, but it could not have survived and prevailed without American materiel. America lost 400,000 men in four years, the equivalent of about 1 million as a percentage of today’s population. America spent $330 billion on WWII, when the 1945 GNP was only $223 billion. Today’s equivalent expenditure would be about $40 trillion dollars.
American defeat of Nazi Germany entailed every sinew of American military, economic, scientific, and political strength. It involved our greatest scientists, greatest industrialists, greatest financiers and economists, our greatest military and political strategists, all of whom focused on the imperative of absolute victory. Nobody doubted the stakes. Few doubted the ultimate victory.
Nazi Germany’s defeat opened a new age of U.S. global leadership with democracy and prosperity for more nations than ever before, including nearly all of western Europe and eventually eastern Europe. That Germany itself became a stable democracy and anchor for the Western alliance was the crowning glory of our victory. Instead of subduing and permanently embittering our enemies, we converted and befriended them, ending the cycle of revenge, in a truly wise and Christian spirit. The 80 years since WWII have been relatively the most stable and peaceful of any era in human history.
It’s true of course that WWII did not end on May 8, 1945, as Japan would not surrender until August 14. But Germany was the more powerful enemy, and its defeat ensured Japan’s doom. Maybe there are big plans for commemorating August 14, although I cannot find an account of them. European nations are vigorously commemorating May 8, especially the British, and including the Germans, who acknowledge it entailed their own liberation from a demonic possession. The U.S. Defense Department had one May 8 tweet about the anniversary. And the U.S. Park Service hosted a small ceremony at the WWII Memorial on the National Mall, as though it were just one more annual event. The U.S. president bombastically proclaimed May 8 a new sort of holiday called “Victory in WWII Day.” But May 8 was specifically victory in Europe, against the Nazis, not WWII victory, which was August 14. This proclamation was not accompanied by any ceremony or any specified plans. It made no mention of the 80-year commemoration.
This anniversary is the last major one in which tens of thousands of WWII veterans, the youngest of them now in their late 90s, will still be alive. Over 16 million Americans served in WWII, or the equivalent of about 40 million in today’s population. Perhaps 66,000 WWII veterans still live, down from 119,000 in 2023. There will be some left for another ten or twelve years, but soon it will be just hundreds, not thousands.
The commemoration of WWII is not just to honor the deserving veterans but to celebrate the nation’s greatest achievement on the world stage. We especially need that reminding today. But of late, America is retreating from the world, discarding its great victories and great responsibilities, returning to the insular attitudes of the 1920s and 1930s that prepared the way for WWII’s avoidable disaster. Frail and fallen nature is perpetually forgetful and ungrateful, determined to repeat mistakes.
Maybe America will recover its sense of greatness and duty in time for the 85th or 90th WWII anniversary, hopefully before our current mistakes enable another avoidable global calamity.
