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This morning, At War published an account by Luke Ryan about the day he lost his best friend and three other teammates to a buried explosive in Kandahar Province. They were killed on Oct. 6, 2013, the day before the 12th anniversary of the American-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Publishing this on the Friday before Memorial Day had me thinking about the ways in which the country has commemorated this holiday in the past. I dug through The Times’s archives, looking at coverage that immediately followed the end of American wars. I found the same language, the same calls for enduring peace and the same questions raised about the condition of service members after they return home — talking points that have been recycled for the last century.
Below are some excerpts that stood out to me. Despite the repetition and the hollow promises, I still find a bit of comfort in these words. Maybe 100 years from now, they will actually sink in.
President Woodrow Wilson’s Memorial Day address, published May 29, 1919
Our thoughts and purpose now are consecrated to the maintenance of the liberty of the world, and of the union of its people in a single comradeship of liberty and of right. It was for this that our men conscientiously offered their lives. They came to the field of battle with the high spirit and pure heart of crusaders. We must never forget the duty that their sacrifice has laid upon us of fulfilling their hopes and their purpose to the utmost. This, it seems to me, is the impressive lesson and inspiring mandate of the day.
New York Times editorial, published May 30, 1946
The fact remains that the war which was still going on, in its Pacific phase, a year ago today cost the lives of nearly three hundred thousand young Americans, and we do owe these dead men, and those who were wounded, and those who are still crippled and disfigured, not only honor but thought. They suffered, as those who went before them in the First World War suffered, in the hope that the war in which they were engaged would be the last war. The dead of the earlier war might be bitter indeed if they could know how lightly the cause they defended was thrown away. The living, even though they do not regret the risks they took and the hardships they endured, even though they are proud because what they did they did in purity of heart, have had reason to be bitter, too. We must have no more such bitterness. We must not again give justification for it. We must safeguard the peace this time. We can show our gratitude to those who died, our sympathy for those who still mourn, only if we dedicate ourselves to this purpose.
Tom Wicker’s report on veterans’ mental health after Vietnam, published May 27, 1975
Memorial Day is supposed to honor the dead of the nation’s wars but it also is a better time than most to give some thought to war’s living wreckage. … Dr. Chaim Shatan, a psychoanalyst at New York University who has worked closely with 145 Vietnam veterans, believes that specific and unique psychological hardships were imposed on them by the kind of war they fought. For one thing, he thinks, the public has “no idea of the isolation, the utter isolation that these men experienced.” … Dr. Shatan and others say the Veterans Administration, which provided good psychiatric services after World War II, has not been so alert to the problems of PVS [post-Vietnam syndrome]. Worse, the V.A. does not treat any disorder that occurs two years or more after discharge; and in many cases PVS takes more than two years to affect a veteran obviously enough to require treatment. The result is that many Vietnam veterans are not getting the help and services they need, although they may have been as badly wounded as many of those who suffered physical injuries.
Stephen Kinzer’s dispatch from Dohuk, Iraq, where American troops commemorated Memorial Day, published May 28, 1991
As the sun set over this Kurdish city today, American soldiers gathered on the terrace of an abandoned hotel for perhaps the first Memorial Day barbecue ever held in northern Iraq. Supplies arrived late in the afternoon aboard a Blackhawk helicopter flown from an American base in Turkey. There were hot dogs and hamburgers with all the fixings, steaks in barbecue sauce, chili beans and corn, salad, soft drinks and chocolate cake for dessert. … About 90 American soldiers have been in Dohuk for the last week under an agreement negotiated by United States and Iraqi authorities. The Americans hope that their presence will persuade fearful Kurdish refugees to return to their homes here and in surrounding villages. The strategy is working so far. About a third of the estimated 300,000 local residents have made their way back from the mountain hide-outs and refugee camps to which they fled after an unsuccessful revolt against the rule of President Saddam Hussein. No one knows what will happen here once the Americans withdraw. That was the topic of much discussion at tonight’s barbecue.
More Stories About America’s Fallen Service Members
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