Sixty years ago today, my father, Don C. Smith, and his fellow soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division waited with great expectation near Ludwiglust, about 40 miles northwest of Berlin. On that day, May 8, 1945, World War II in Europe officially came to an end – and set the stage for one of the great success stories in world history, the European Union.
In 2005, people all across the European continent, North America and, indeed, all over the world, commemorate the end of World War II. In the course of World Wars I and II, nearly 60 million people died on battlefields, in bombed-out cities and towns and in Nazi concentration camps.
At the same time, we should take a moment to recognize the success of the European Union, because its formation (originally as the European Economic Community in the late 1950s) set the stage for what has been one of the world’s foremost experiments in former enemies – most notably France and Germany – working together to create a peaceful future.
Despite the Bush administration’s ambivalence toward the EU, the record indicates that it has been successful beyond the wildest dreams of nearly everyone. To put this into perspective, entire generations of young Britons, French, Germans and Russians perished on European battlefields in the first half of the last century. Differences in national priorities were contested through war, not negotiated at the bargaining table. However, since 1945, the European continent – with the exception of a few notable but contained conflicts – has been peaceful and prosperous, and the EU has been central to this outcome.
The United States played no small role in this peace and prosperity, beginning with the leadership of President Harry S. Truman and the creation of the Marshall Plan in the late 1940s. Back then, there was no guarantee that Europe as a whole was going to pursue a democratic, market-oriented future.
Indeed, there were great worries that France and Italy might veer off in a Communist-dominated direction. But that did not happen. Today’s Europe is peaceful and no one remotely thinks of more blood being spilled in Flanders or Normandy or Berlin.
By any measure, the fact that the European continent has enjoyed peace for 60 years is success in and of itself. Moreover, when combined with the fact that democracy and market economies flourish all across Europe, the conclusion can only be that America’s greatest generation helped set the stage for what was to come in the form of revitalization in Europe.
Clearly, the years since 1945 have seen some differences in approach between Europeans and Americans. This has been widely debated by politicians and academics. During the Cold War years, America and Europe united to face down the Soviet Union. However, since the early 1990s, the tone of the relationship has been difficult, particularly since 2001.
But differences of approach are not reasons for either side to reject the other’s attributes and strengths. Rather, on the anniversary of V-E Day, every American and every European should reflect on how much we have in common and how great the two superpowers are when they work in tandem.
Sir David Edward, a member of the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court, from 1992 until 2004, has written that the “why” of European integration should never be forgotten.
“When I first became involved in European affairs as a delegate” to Europe’s Bar Association, Judge Edward wrote, “the older members included one who had lost a leg at Stalingrad; one who had ended the war as commander of a Hitler Youth Battalion and woke every night from the nightmare of hearing the boys’ voices calling for their mothers; two who had been in concentration camps – one of them in Dachau; one who had been in the Dutch Resistance; and a Belgian of Romanian Jewish ancestry who spent six weeks in a hen house in the middle of a field waiting to guide the paratroopers at Arnhem [in the Netherlands]. If that generation were prepared to make the effort of reconciliation for future generations – and it was a great effort for some – why should not I?”
For most of us, today – May 8, 2005 – will be just like the day before and probably much the same as the following day. However, every one of us should pause, if even for only a moment, and reflect on the courage and determination of the soldiers that led to victory in Europe on May 8, 1945, and Europe’s strong and brave leaders who followed thereafter.
As an 18-year-old, my father had fought in D-Day in Normandy, had been part of the Market Garden operation in the Netherlands in the fall of 1944, and had ended that year at the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium. In 1945, he and his fellow soldiers successfully fought their way into the heart of the Nazi’s Third Reich.
On Victory in Europe Day, my father wrote to his parents, “I’m sure glad the war is over. I can stop sweating for a while. If this peace is run right, there won’t be another war. I firmly believe that.”
Don C. Smith Jr. teaches European Union Law & Policy at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. His father,
Don C. Smith, who served four terms as a member of the Kansas House of Representatives and as a Kansas District Court judge, died in 2002.
