PEACE HISTORY This Day
December 23, 1944
General Dwight Eisenhower endorsed the finding of a court-martial in the case of Eddie Slovik, who was tried for desertion, and authorized his execution, the first such sentence against a U.S. Army soldier since the Civil War, and the only man so punished during World War II. Slovik made no secret of his unwillingness to enter combat, but his pleas to be reassigned to noncombatant status were rejected. Eisenhower ordered that Slovik’s execution be carried out to avoid further desertions in the late stages of the war.
December 23, 1961
James Davis of Livingston, Tennessee, was killed by the Viet Cong, the insurgents in South Vietnam, and became the first of some 55,000 U.S. soldiers killed during the Vietnam War. Lyndon Johnson later referred to him as “the first American to fall in defense of our freedom in Vietnam.” Over two million Vietnamese would die before the end of the war. Over two million Vietnamese would die before the end of the war. “Lyndon Johnson told the nation. Have no fear of escalation. I am trying everyone to please. Though it isn’t really war. We’re sending fifty thousand more To help save Vietnam from Vietnamese”
Note: This Day in Peace History material is adapted by Top Pun from This Week in Peace History, a publication of www.peacebuttons.info, and This Week in Peace & Justice History from the San Antonio Peace Center.