Second World War (WWII)

This article about the morality and justification of World War II and the Church was originally published in Christianity & Crisis in 1942.

Leading French National Front presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has sparked controversy by claiming France bears no responsibility for French police collaboration in the 1942 Vél d’Hiv arrest of 13,000 Jews, who were shipped to their demise at Auschwitz.

It’s been widely noted that the U.S. missile strikes on a Syrian airbase seem at odds with Donald Trump’s electioneering opposition to American intervention. But there should be little surprise.

With the Middle East on fire, Europe on edge, Russia on the march, and China on the rise, America’s interlocking system of alliances is more important now than at any time since the beginning of the Cold War.

Franklin D. Roosevelt’s policy towards Russia depended on a willful disregard for the Moscow regime’s most brutal acts. The problem for the president—and for the American public—was that he seemed to believe the utterly false portrait of Stalin he helped to create.

The First Marine Division’s paragon of virtue, Chesty Puller, upheld the standards of just warfighting and respect, if not love, of the enemy. We pray his progeny leading the defense of our nation today will do the same.

Seventy-five years ago, on February 19, 1942, FDR issued Executive Order 9066, which authorized the internment of tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans.

If we call any of our honored ancestors the Greatest Generation, we are acceding to the idea that America’s greatness is past. For many of us, America’s greatest days are yet to be lived out.

Today marks the 75th anniversary of the Japanese attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. Here are ten things you should know about the event that propelled the U.S. into World War II.