Time Today . The D in D-Day
That “History is written by the victors” is often mis-attributed to Sir Winston Churchill. But centuries before him, many a politician, revolutionary, historian or writer said some variant of it, including one Maximillian Robespierre, who went from lawyer and statesman to incendiary leader of the Reign of Terror (1793) during the French Revolution (1789 thru 1795 to 1799).
1. Who does write history?
The answer may just be everyone who has an opinion. This simple quote sometimes appears with the word “winner” in place of “victor” when credited to writer George Orwell, author of 1984.
Robespierre lamented it more personally, as his reputation suffered mightily due to his exploits, and he is thought to have said, “Vanquished — his history written by the victors — Robespierre has left a memory accursed.” as he considered himself deserving of a self-reference status akin to the Royal We.
The quote morphed and made it way beyond English to French, Italian, Scottish, and even made it over the pond to the American Confederacy.
By the time Prime Minister Churchill got a hold of it, he preferred to add his signature humor, and once trotted the saying out at the House of Commons in 1948 to say, “For my part, I consider that it will be found much better by all parties to leave the past to history, especially as I propose to write that history myself.” Not content to be an armchair observer of history, Churchill made quite sure to position both of his national identities— English and British— on the winning side in World War II, so he indeed did claim every right to cast history in the glow of his considerable shadow and power.
2. June 6th is D-Day. What does that mean?
At the end of May, we celebrated a holiday that started out in the U.S. being called “Decoration Day” so that’s not what the D in D-Day stands for.
Given the enormous scale and impact of what occurred on D-Day, one could imagine whoever named it having in mind a D for Destruction or Death or Devastation; even for the Devil getting his Due.
It was none of those. The D in D-Day has no other word cloaked inside it. Neither elite abbreviation, nor enriched by coded emotion, the D is considered by many used to such designations as standing for the word “Day.” D-Day. Just Day-Day.
- When someone wrote to General Eisenhower in 1964 asking for an
explanation, his executive assistant Brigadier General Robert Schultz answered: “General Eisenhower asked me to respond to your letter. Be advised that any amphibious operation has a ‘departed date’; therefore the shortened term ‘D-Day’ is used.”
There was a code name “Operation Overlord” for the plan but that never stuck or went viral as we say nowadays, and was thrown on the ash-heap of forgotten history.
D-Day’s 5-beach invasion strategy was a long time coming. Fraught with risk and likely failure, it was an unlikely convergence of opposites: desperate need and stubborn resistance. Would the Americans ever fully align with entering this war? Our European Allies agonized as they clawed for survival. In fact, by the time the U.S. woke up, and D-Day became real, it was a turning point far more effective than expected, as weather conditions, a highly elaborate misdirection campaign, midnight paratroopers, and ill-prepared German officers and troops, all worked to the Allies’ favor.
Images above of General Eisenhower and Troops, and D-Day Landing, are from the National World War II Museum website.
3. People who lived through WWII did not all see it the same way.
Views diverged dramatically based on whether the cruel terror of violence was on top of them literally, or not. Many had an ocean’s distance, a false sense of security, and it-won’t-happen-here isolationism with blinders left over from the preceding Depression. The U.S. was rife with internal divisions (sound familiar?) and no unified world view until Pearl Harbor jolted President Franklin Roosevelt to lower the enlistment age from 18 to 17, while extending tours of duty from 3 years to the war’s unknown duration.
My Dad was among many who snuck in just under age 17. His baby face looked about 12, but he was determined. So much so, that while he was a terrible swimmer, because his “heavy bones”, dense boxer’s muscles and lack of natural buoyancy caused him to sink underwater the further he tried to swim, his will of iron gave him the solution so he could pass muster and get picked for boot camp. He swam like a bat out of hell, and got to the end of the test pool before he sank. Eureka! The Marines only wanted a few good men, and somehow, his “trick” got him his heart-pumping prize. Like many afflicted with survivor’s guilt by living through the war, he never said a word to me about his time in the service. No stories of any kind. (We did have inspection every night before bed when we were young, though! Once a Marine, always a Marine.) He barely hinted at anything to my brother either. Only to my cousin who enlisted in the Marines himself during the Viet Nam War while a senior in high school, did Dad say anything at all about his missions.
4. What have we learned from history about war?
Anyone could argue that humanity has learned nothing at all from war.
An easy case, laden with evidence, can be made that if we had learned our lesson— and used our Time on this planet wisely— wars would be an ancient footnote of the past, barely anything to write or speak of in modern literary fact or fiction.
One might argue that we’ve learned to make war so horrific that this is what keeps us from indulging in it more than we do these days. Unfortunately, far too many modern wars at all scales make that case unpersuasive.
What we have learned, is that each new generation “forgets”. They encounter older histories that are incomplete, robbed of the details that would grab our hearts— perhaps the gloss of having victors write history is the real problem— students have little visceral sense about how terrifying and destructive those old “primitive “ wars were to us as a species, as well as to the planet as our home.
What does this say about us as a species? Are we cynical, selfish, too lazy to learn?
I say no. Each new generation arrives with two treasures: innocence, and a natural belief in their own immortality woven into the rhythm of their young lives.
What do we older generations owe them? We owe them at least the willingness to recast history to lay a foundation for a better future, and to share whatever generosity of spirit we still have in our hearts and pockets, no matter the challenges that stalk us.
Each new generation will discover challenges on their own journey, just as we did. We can respect and support them best by sharing with them the energy of possibility, and the courage to— as my Dad liked to say — “leave a place better than you found it.”
That we are still here is evidence that we’ve re-written some little corners of history from a more mature perspective than “win-lose”, and those that follow us can, too.
When we step beyond the limited duality of victor and vanquished, we can applaud new generations and their next adventures, while sharing our own modestly with humor. We can rewrite humanity’s history before it even settles in for a sanitized chat.
D-Day is 80 today. Let’s see what we can do to make its history into a turning point. We could all use one these days.
After all, we’ve got Time, in bite-size 24-hour batches, one portion per day. Time, for its part, has nothing better to do than rewrite history with us! Onward!
Cheers, Diane ❤
