The Evening Star (November 22, 1945)
Editorial: Thanksgiving, 1945
The first Thanksgiving free of war in six years is an occasion which all Americans will appreciate to the full. As President Truman said in his proclamation, the whole people won the “victory, absolute and final” over the Axis powers. It therefore should be the entire community of the United States which today acknowledges the beneficence of Almighty God “with the humility of free men.”
Mr. Truman likewise suggested to his fellow citizens a rededication to the principles “for which so many splendid Americans have recently given all.” Such repeated consecration is as necessary for the future as it was in the past. The great human problems which remain to be solved will require a practical unity as strong as that developed during the vast global conflict recently closed. The president was well within his responsibility when he wrote for the country at large:
“Triumph over the enemy has not dispelled every difficulty. Many vital and far-reaching decisions await us as we strive for a just and enduring peace. We will not fail if we preserve, in our own land and throughout the world, that same devotion to the essential freedoms and rights of mankind which sustained us throughout the war and brought us final victory.”
It happens that the words here quoted have the added value and significance of being akin to those which one of Mr. Truman’s most notable predecessors employed with regard to Thanksgiving at the close of the First World War. In 1918 also, Woodrow Wilson said, “we have special and moving cause to be grateful and to rejoice.” Providence had granted a “cessation of arms,” but not peace alone was offered. “The confident promise of a new day as well” was to be had for the taking. An era “in which justice shall replace force and jealous intrigue among the nations” was forecast. Obviously, “new and greater duties” were involved.
So it is in 1945. The murderous fighting in Europe and in Asia no longer rages as it did twelve months ago. Thousands of men and boys who then were scattered over thirty different fronts now have come home. Still others soon are to return. Meanwhile, a universal agency for the control of aggression has been created in the United Nations Organization based on the San Francisco Charter. There is at least a chance that never again will a contest of planetary dimensions occur. Civilization has been reaffirmed in terms of atomic power. The impact of the event is felt in every heart, the challenge of it appeals to every thoughtful mind. It is against this tremendous background that President Truman asks America to pray today.