Keeping Faith With America’s Fallen Heroes

Each Memorial Day, I set aside time for prayerful reflection on the servicemen and women who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. I remember the soldiers I served with during my time in the Army who were later killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and the beloved families they left behind. I think of the millions of patriots throughout American history who have given their lives for this great nation.

But on this day of solemn remembrance, I also ask: Are we striving each day to ensure that those patriots did not give their lives in vain?

From Bunker Hill to Fallujah, American soldiers have fought and died to protect not just American lives, but the American way of life. In our country’s infancy, that enterprise was focused on securing our independence from Great Britain and our right to self-government. In the Civil War, we nearly destroyed ourselves to save the Union, protect our constitutional order, and end the evil institution of slavery.

As our country grew and the world became increasingly interconnected, America’s global engagement naturally increased – reaching an inflection point with our entry into the Second World War in 1941. As the recent 80th anniversary of VE Day reminds us, the world we inhabit today would not have been possible without the extraordinary bravery of the Allied troops who saved the world from the darkest tyranny.

Their victory wasn’t limited to defeating the Axis powers; it laid the foundation for the American-led post-war world order that created unprecedented prosperity and freedom. Working with our democratic allies, America became the leading architect of the rules that contained – and ultimately defeated – the Soviet Union and ushered in a new era of freedom and opportunity. Today, former Warsaw Pact members are NATO allies; the tech revolution that began in America is transforming the world; and the free-market economy has generated unprecedented human flourishing.

Without American leadership, none of this would have been possible.

These achievements are easy to take for granted and just as easy to destroy. The security and economic partnerships that advance and protect American interests must be tended, and the forces of evil must be deterred.

Today, we face an array of adversaries intent on crushing our way of life and the hard-won freedoms that America’s fallen soldiers made possible. The Chinese Communist Party is intent on supplanting us as a global superpower. Iran remains intent on acquiring a nuclear weapon and committed to the destruction of Israel. Vladimir Putin will continue his war on Ukraine for as long as it serves his purposes, and he will not stop there if he does not face punishing consequences.

Four years of appeasement and strategic drift have left these adversaries emboldened in their intent to fracture the resolve of the free world. Whether we like it or not, American global leadership is crucial to ensuring that our hard-won victories are not undone.

In his own reflections on Memorial Day in 1982, President Reagan remarked, “If words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.” As we pray for the families of the fallen, let us rededicate ourselves to uphold the values these soldiers laid down their lives to defend and protect the achievements that made our country great.