May 9, 2025 (EIRNS)—The commemorations of the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe against fascism, May 8-9, featured a White House Proclamation “Victory Day for World War II, 2025,” from President Donald Trump, and an extraordinary speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered before 29 other heads of state at the Moscow ceremony. Notably, American veterans were also present there, from various conflicts, including the decorated Vietnam combat veteran Oliver Stone and Ray McGovern, a co-founder of the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), which also issued a “VIPS MEMO: Arms Control—Toward Lasting Peace” published in Consortium News on May 8, which the VIPS Steering Group had asked colleague Scott Ritter to write upon the occasion. President Trump said, in his May 8 statement, “my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker.”
He will most certainly get the chance to prove that, as he now visits Southwest Asia. Reports indicate a rift between Trump and Netanyahu, and certainly the U.S.-Yemen agreement to “stop fighting” seems to have both caught the Israelis by surprise, and to also have potentially positioned the Trump Administration to discuss, both with Iran directly, and also with Iran’s close ally Russia, a non-military, and possibly even physical-economic solution to the four and a half decades of conflict there. Trump has also indicated that the assistance of China may be very helpful in resolving the Russia-Ukraine negotiation impasse. It should also be noted in passing that Zelensky’s attacking Russia at this moment, sending drones to attack Moscow airports exactly when over a score of heads of state were flying in, could not have endeared him to them, including Xi Jinping.
A higher-order dialogue of civilizations and cultures must be initiated immediately, and a new security and development architecture must emerge. The Schiller Institute’s May 24-25 conference, “A Beautiful Vision for Humanity in Times of Great Turbulence!” can successfully catalyze that process worldwide, if it is conceived of, not as a “one-off,” but as a series of conferences; another conference is already being scheduled for Europe. As was the case for the 15th-century diplomat and inventor of modern science and scientific investigation, Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa, our wielding “the most profound conceptions respecting man and nature” even to resolve what may appear to be “small” conflicts, is the only efficient approach to preventing the human race from going over the cliff to thermonuclear war in the short term.
Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene pointed out on May 6: “Vietnam was a pointless war and we lost. There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Afghanistan was a waste. And we gained nothing from any of those wars.” But to end the wars, worldwide, we must reject the hedonistic, pagan culture of money. There is no such thing, for example, as an “amoral” economy. The economic practices of the City of London and Wall Street are in fact no different, in their moral and physical implications for humanity, than the military policies underway in Gaza. Cutthroat monetarism, and its correlate “victimless crimes,” like epidemic drug use, addictive computer use, etc., have, through its Malthusian “cultural freedom” effects, already substantially depopulated Europe and the West more generally.
The just-concluded election of a Pope from the United States may, however, position that institution, as well as the American people, through a new social dialogue, to reverse this. The fact that the just-elected Pope Leo XIV chose that name has caused those unfamiliar with his predecessor, Pope Leo XIII (1878-1903) to revisit that Pope’s work and legacy. Economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche called attention to the work of Leo XIII already 35 years ago.
LaRouche’s 1991 book-length philosophical essay The Science of Christian Economy begins with a preface, “On the 100th Anniversary of Rerum Novarum,” referring to Pope Leo XIII’s famous encyclical, “*Rerum Novarum: Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII On Capital and Labor.”
Compare Section 19 of Rerum Novarum, with a critical passage from the writings of American System economist Henry Charles Carey. First, Pope Leo XIII: “The great mistake made … is to take up with the notion that class is naturally hostile to class, and that the wealthy and the working men are intended by nature to live in mutual conflict. So irrational and so false is this view that the direct contrary is the truth Just as the symmetry of the human frame is the result of the suitable arrangement of the different parts of the body, so in a State is it ordained by nature that these two classes should dwell in harmony and agreement, so as to maintain the balance of the body politic. Each needs the other: Capital cannot do without labor, nor labor without capital.”
Next, Henry C. Carey, from The Harmony of Interests: Agricultural, Manufacturing, and Commercial: “To substitute true Christianity for the detestable system known as the Malthusian, it is needed that we prove to the world that it is population that makes the food come from the rich soils, and that food tends to increase more rapidly than population, thus vindicating the policy of God to man … to approve that among the people of the world, whether agriculturalists, manufacturers, or merchants, there is perfect harmony of interests, and that the happiness of individuals, as well as the grandeur of nations, is to be promoted by perfect obedience to that greatest of all commands, ‘Do unto others as ye would that others should do under you,’—is the object and will be the result of that mission.”
This is the true basis of American economy, and American foreign and domestic policy. It is not the colonial policies of Adam Smith, or the neo-colonial policies of Milton Friedman. It is the policy of a national bank, directed credit, application of advanced high-density energy technologies, and the limiting of speculative banking practices, that always characterized the revolution that was the American System, “the only one that was ever devised, the tendency of which was that of elevating while equalizing the condition of man throughout the world.” This must be the approach to Gaza immediately. No more killing or starvation, but justice and peace through development. The Schiller Institute Oasis Plan for Gaza, and the campaign to bring that to the United Nations discussions on Gaza planned for the beginning of June are a central feature of the May 24-25 conference, which all should attend and build.
