Guest Opinion: Our History and the Price of Freedom

— by David Kobrin —

How to mark Veterans Day always raised complicated issues for me during the thirty years I worked as a history teacher.

It’s important to honor the men and women who’ve served in our armed forces. Without them, without the intelligence and foresight of our military leaders, without our willingness to devote tax money to the nation’s defense, it’s not likely that we could have preserved the freedoms we so value. Letters to the editor, worshipping as we see fit, protections from unwarranted arrest or harassment, the right to bear arms, these are all freedoms worth defending. For that we can thank our veterans. What has been earned must be protected.

And yet, as a historian I know there is much more to our (his) story. Think about your life today: the complexities below your surface are often more interesting, and more important, than what appears to others at first glance. The same is true of our history as a nation. Just as it’s important to know about our personal roots, it’s important to know about our nation’s “roots.” That information enables us to be responsible to ourselves, and to our nation. To understand history is to maximize, and protect, our freedoms.

History learned in its complexities, with its nuances and contradictions, is the price of freedom.

To learn history, however, is not so simple: often there are accounts of the same events that are in disagreement. How can we know what actually happened?

There’s a good reason why honest, well-informed historians often disagree. The reason is: all historians are people, and all people have a point of view. Our take on events is strongly influenced by our politics, our class, our ethnic group, gender, and/or life experiences. As long as we have the freedom to think and write there will be disagreements about the past. In fact, that historians disagree is basic to the study of history. To know our own history requires us to go to the information different historians uncover, as well as to the questions historians raise, not just to our favored answer.

Who defeated Nazi Germany in World War II?
Could you answer that question? If so, what would your answer be? Might your answer – your understanding of our nation’s role in World War II — influence your opinion about our nation’s role in the world today?

In Russia (formerly the Soviet Union) World War II is taught as two, largely distinct wars. The Great Patriotic War is the story of how the Russians, first overwhelmed by the rapid, brutal advance of the German armies into their country, finally turned the tide of battle, pushing the Nazis back all the way to Berlin – and defeat. At the height of the invasion, German armies fought around and in Moscow, and laid siege to St Petersburg. During that 900 day siege, one million Russian civilians in the city died, largely from disease or starvation.

But the Russian winter, Russian perseverance (no matter the cost of life), and U.S supplies and technology reversed the German advance. The multi-month Battle of Stalingrad was the turning point. In that battle, more than 500,000 Russians and Germans gave their lives. The total Russian dead in their four-year Great Patriotic War to push the Nazi invaders from their homeland is estimated at twenty million.

Russian historians know that Russia did not act alone, of course. D-Day, the June 6, 1944 allied invasion of France, opened a second front in the west against Germany. The Russian perspective does not deny the importance of the second front. In fact, they considered it crucial. What they do ask is, Why was the invasion delayed almost three years after the United States entered the war with the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor? All those years Russians was fighting, and suffering.

World War II clearly presented a momentous challenge to America’s cherished freedoms and independence. At the time our nation entered the war – with the Japanese attack on our naval base at Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941 — most of western, central and northern Europe was under Nazi (or Soviet) control. American military forces fought in Europe, North Africa, the Pacific, and Asia for four long years. For us, it was a two front war from the beginning. More than five hundred thousand Americans fighting in World War II gave their lives. In addition, without the material and financial aid of the United States it’s highly unlikely that our allies, especially Britain and the Soviet Union (after the German invasion), could have continued to fight. Our enormous industrial base was re-tuned to produce the needed war materials and supplies, from boots to bombers, and all in-between. In fact, by late 1944 we were producing more war goods and material than all the allies on every continent were using up in battle! Some economic historians believe that, whatever setbacks we might have encountered in battle, in the long run American industrial power alone ensured an Allied victory. (The only caveat was if Germany developed an atomic weapon before the United States did.)

Even before the official United States entry into the war, our nation supplied Britain with (older) naval ships and supplies. Through the Lend-Lease Act, the United States “lent” ships to Britain to be used in the war. Unofficially, we were actively at war with Nazi Germany in the North Atlantic before Pearl Harbor.

Who should claim credit for the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II?
Perhaps your answer has changed slightly because of the information you’ve just read. If your conclusions have changed, even a little, might that affect your thinking about the role of the United States in world affairs today?