Armistice Day

Veterans Day's Hidden History

Originally called “Armistice Day,” the holiday began in 1918, celebrating the end of World War I and the idea of ending all war. A 10-year campaign launched that year resulted in the ratification of the Kellogg-Briand Pact which legally banned all war making.

We aren't told this in school, but in January 1929 the U.S. Senate ratified by a vote of 85 to 1 a treaty that is still on the books, still upheld by most of the world, still listed on the U.S. State Department's website — a treaty that under Article VI of the U.S. Constitution is the "supreme law of the land."

We've Forgotten That War Is Illegal

The Kellogg-Briand Pact reads:

"The High Contracting Parties solemly declare in the names of their respective peoples that they condemn recourse to war for the solution of international controversies, and renounce it, as an instrument of national policy in their relations with one another.

"The High Contracting Parties agree that the settlement or solution of all disputes or conflicts of whatever nature or of whatever origin they may be, which may arise among them, shall never be sought except by pacific means."

Tell Congress and the President to read the pact that outlawed war.

The story of how this treaty became the law of the land and how it has influenced history – including the prosecution of Nazis for the crime of making war – is told in the new book "When the World Outlawed War."

Changing the World Begins With You

 Career US Army soldier asks, 
“Why am I carrying an M-16
in the Garden of Eden?”

top