Peace Thru Victory

Peace Signs

I gave my son a ride to his friend's house this morning, just a couple of blocks away. Saved him five minutes. Boy, I tell you what, kids these days. Sheesh. We won't talk about their parents. When he gets out of the car, by way of saying good bye, he says "peace, man", which got me thinking.

When I was his age, the Vietnam war was in full swing as was the Peace Movement, and we had all the long haired pinko hippies flashing the peace sign.

Not too long before that the "peace sign" meant "V for Victory", and during WWII that meant to keep killing the enemy until they gave up, or they were all dead. So Victory eventually meant peace, but to get there we had war, big time. So I'm wondering how did the sign for war become the sign for peace?

Then there was the song Woodstock with

"And I dreamed I saw the bomber death planes
Riding shotgun in the sky
Turning into butterflies
Above our nation"

I think that was the only song I ever heard that ever talked about just what the military industrial complex was doing for our country. Kind of like the swordsmen in Vatel.

Update January 2017 replaced missing image.