Posted on 06/14/2025 12:33:19 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
While the idea might be novel for many Americans, military parades are common spectacles in many parts of the world.
President Donald Trump is set to realize on Saturday, as he turns 79, one of his long-standing ambitions: to host a major military parade in Washington.
While the idea might be novel for many Americans, military parades are common spectacles in many parts of the world. Trump was so taken by France’s Bastille Day ceremonies in 2017 that he vowed to match or top them. “It was one of the greatest parades I’ve ever seen,” Trump told reporters of the French festivities.
Under authoritarian regimes and strong democracies, as part of centuries-old traditions or to celebrate new victories, uniformed soldiers, horses, tanks and even missiles roll down thoroughfares in displays of might bound up in power projection and national identity. Earlier Saturday, the British royal family attended the Trooping the Colour parade, a celebration of the king’s birthday that ended this year with a flyover by the Royal Air Force aerobatic team, also known as the Red Arrows.
“Americans aren’t used to seeing these kinds of parades,” said David Kieran, historian of war and society in contemporary U.S. culture at Columbus State University in Georgia.
Ceremonial military reviews and parades celebrated wartime victories when the United States was a young republic through World War I, but the U.S. doesn’t have a modern tradition of public military parades.
Since the end of World War II, the United States has put on only one major military parade: The National Victory Celebration in Washington after the 1991 Gulf War, under President George H.W. Bush. Troops marched and tanks rolled down Constitution Avenue.
Celebrations for the war lasted longer than the war itself, said David Fitzgerald, historian...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Yes, that is the parade. My Father was in the 101st/502nd during the war and in the 82nd after. He was a great admirer of Gavin and told of how well the troops thought of his leadership. Thanks for that.
In theory nothing, but this parade was an embarrassment. I wonder what the Chinese thought of that marching.
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