06-05-2025
Opinion: Remembering VE Day — 80 years on from victory in Europe
'Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.'
Benjamin Franklin
Recently, I have often found myself thinking of my grandparents, Kenneth Seth (U.S. Army) and Barbara Fernelius Spiekerman (USMC). I think my thoughts have been partially drawn to them because it has been 80 years since the end of World War II — a war they both served in. I, however, think it is mostly because the peaceful, prosperous world they fought, bled and sacrificed so much to create is rapidly vanishing.
As we mark the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, I believe it is our duty as the beneficiaries of their sacrifice to take stock of and defend the many hard-won gifts that were given to us. I believe it is time for us to renew our commitment to the aims of that war, the Four Freedoms.
As my grandparents were individually making their decisions about whether to serve, I am sure they were scared. I am sure they were nervous. The war was intense and bloody, with thousands dying daily and many more suffering from injury. If they would die or be injured was an unknown. They had no idea where or in what capacity they would serve. What they did know was that service would require enormous sacrifice. The economy, which had been in the doldrums for much of their life, had come roaring back to life. Well-paying jobs were plentiful. This would be a perfect chance for them to escape the poverty that gripped much of the country during the Great Depression. I can only guess as to the calculus behind their decision. However, I know for a certainty that they knew what they were fighting for. Unlike many wars, the aims and stakes of this war had been spelled out plainly, clearly and repeatedly. It was a fight for freedom at home and abroad.
What are the Four Freedoms?
Even before the United States entered the war, President Franklin D. Roosevelt spelled out what was at stake in a speech given on Jan. 6, 1941, known from that point on as the Four Freedoms Speech. In this speech, Roosevelt tackled the pressing issue of the seemingly unstoppable rise of militant autocracy. In this context, the Four Freedoms laid out by Roosevelt served as a vision of a future and democratic antidote to the malaise and foreboding that had enveloped the world. Roosevelt's contention was that long-term peace could only be ensured by the guarantee of individual freedom at home and abroad.
These four freedoms are fundamentally Christian and American ideals that lay at the heart of America's long-held aspirations. The speech advocated for a renewed commitment to these freedoms both domestically and internationally.
The first freedom is speech, or the right to speak up for causes without fear of government retribution. The second of the four freedoms is the freedom of worship. This freedom, as FDR intended, is meant to ensure that no government can interfere or intercede in an individual's ability to worship who, where and what they may. The next two are the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. The former is a guarantee against hunger and destitution, and the latter is a guarantee against fear of state-sponsored violence without due process.
The price of victory and liberty
President Roosevelt's speech would animate America's war effort and the reconstruction of much of the world and the international system that followed the war's end. Victory did not come cheap. It required over 16 million young people to sacrifice the best years of their life and 407,316 to sacrifice all. The commitment of these young people to seeing through the promise of these ideals did not end with the war. They put them into action and transformed America and the world, blazing the trail for the expansion of human rights and flourishing on a scale unimaginable before the war. All with the belief that freedom brings security, a belief that has been proven out by the historically unprecedented period of peace that followed the war.
We now find ourselves 80 years out. The memory of the war and those that fought in it are starting to fade. Autocracy seems ascendant, and all of the things that my grandparents and so many millions of others fought for appear as though they might be lost. Before this happens, we may want to consider not only the value of their sacred efforts, but also a warning FDR borrowed from Benjamin Franklin in his Four Freedoms speech: 'Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.'
