CNN
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The president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced on Thursday that he wants to change the name of veterans day – a federal holiday held on November 11 – to “world war I victory Day” with the objective of, supposedly, “resume the celebration of our victories”.
He also said he wants to celebrate on May 8, who is not a federal holiday, such as the “World War II Victory Day.”
“We won both wars; no one approached us in strength, courage or military brilliance, but we never celebrated anything. That is because we no longer have leaders who know how to do it!” Trump published in Truth Social, Thursday night.
Trump did not specify whether he wants May 8 to become a federal holiday, as is the day of veterans.
All federal holidays have been created by Congress laws, but states are not obliged to adhere to them, according to the Congress Research Service.
Veterans Day originated as a commemoration of the end of the fighting of World War I, which took place on November 11, 1918. However, not even then was conceived as a celebration of an American victory.
The Congress originally approved a law in 1938 that established that November 11 would be Armisticio Day, “a day dedicated to the cause of world peace” and in honor of the veterans of the First World War, according to the Department of Venaries of US veterans.
After the participation of the United States in World War II and the Korean War, in the 1940s and early 1950s, groups of veterans asked the Congress to change the Armistice Day for Veterans Day to dedicate it to honoring all US veterans. That law was promulgated in 1954.
Currently, veterans Day is a day to honor veterans of all American wars, including modern wars in Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places. Trump’s publication on social networks did not mention how veterans of those conflicts could honor.
Another federal holiday, the day of the fallen, is celebrated on the last Monday of May to honor those who gave their lives for the country. It was originally established by Congress in 1888 as the day of the award, a holiday for federal employees of the Columbia district and one day to decorate the tombs of the Civil War veterans. However, he is more commonly known as the day of the fallen and was proclaimed Federal Holiday in 1968.
As for Trump’s idea to convert on May 8 the “Victory Day in World War II”, the date has a delay of three months.
It is that although on May 8, 1945 he marked the end of the war in Europe, also known as Victory Day in Europe, the fighting continued in the Pacific for three more months, including atomic bombings against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan.
“Many of our allies and friends celebrate May 8 as Victory Day, but we did much more than any other country to achieve a victorious result in World War II,” Trump said on social networks.
However, historians consider September 2, 1945, on which Japan signed the surrender documents aboard the battleship US Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, Victory Day on Japan and the official end of World War II.
