U.S. Vice President JD Vance was correct in saying that each main battle in human historical past had ended with a negotiation.
Whereas Vance didn’t specify what he thought of a “main battle” or what “negotiations” entails, his declare was false by most definitions.
Whereas interviewing U.S. Vice President JD Vance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in August 2025, Kristen Welker spoke with Vance at size about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Trump administration’s effort to facilitate a diplomatic finish to the conflict. At one level, Welker requested if it will give a inexperienced mild for China to invade Taiwan and for Russia to invade extra nations if Russia have been allowed to maintain any of the territories it illegally seized.
In response, Vance mentioned that Ukraine will finally make the choice on the territorial strains it attracts. He then continued by saying each conflict ends with negotiations. “That is how wars finally get settled,” Vance mentioned. “When you return to World Struggle II, in the event you return to World Struggle I, in the event you return to each main battle in human historical past, all of them finish with some form of negotiation.”
A clip of Vance’s quote was considered over 25 million occasions on X (archived). The quote was additionally shared, and questioned, on different social media websites, akin to Reddit (archived) and Facebook (archived).
Vance did not elaborate on what he thought of to be a serious battle, however not even WWII ended with a negotiation between the defeated Axis powers and the Allied powers. There are a lot of different examples of wars that didn’t finish with a negotiation. Subsequently, Snopes is score this declare false.
Though each Germany and Japan surrendered throughout WWII in 1945, the 2 nations did so at totally different occasions. Germany signed an unconditional give up in Might 1945. German Basic Alfred Jodl proposed a give up of solely the German forces dealing with the western Allies, however the Allies demanded that Jodl give up all German forces unconditionally, in response to the Truman Library Institute. Jodl replied with an entire acceptance of the Allies’ phrases. The Allied forces finally wrote Germany’s act of surrender, which additionally famous that the United Nations would impose an act of give up on Germany itself.
Equally, Japan’s give up in WWII was unconditional, though Japan did try to barter for at the very least one situation. Japanese Emperor Hirohito introduced his give up to the Allies on Aug. 9, in response to the National WWII Museum. When the Japanese Overseas Ministry transmitted its intent to unconditionally give up the following day, it stipulated its understanding that the Allies’ calls for did not require the emperor to step down as Japan’s head of state. The Allies responded that they might settle for Japan’s give up, however the emperor could remain only in a purely ceremonial capacity. The Japanese Overseas Ministry accepted these phrases, and Hirohito introduced the nation’s unconditional give up to the Japanese folks on Aug. 14.
The Allied powers did negotiate with each other over how they’d deal with the give up of the Axis powers within the Yalta Convention and later the Potsdam Convention. However these conferences, the latter of which occurred after Germany’s give up however earlier than Japan’s, didn’t embrace any of the defeated nations and was strictly between leaders of the UK, the US and the Soviet Union.
There have been speculated to be negotiations to finish WWI, however the Allied delegation basically left Germany “no room for negotiation” in its armistice supply, in response to the National WWI Museum and Memorial. Actually, the Palace of Versailles described the Allies rejecting German makes an attempt to barter the Treaty of Versailles that formally ended the conflict:
Negotiations had proved tough. The treaty had been drafted throughout a peace convention held in Paris beginning on 18 January; however Germany had been shut out of the deal-making, whereas the Allies debated the matter alone, unable to agree amongst themselves: France wished to definitively take away the German menace and cripple the nation, Nice Britain wished to protect its standing, the USA dreamed of a peaceable world with the institution of the League of Nations, and Italy wished to take over the territories it had been promised in 1915. The treaty was finally introduced to Germany on 7 Might. It was very harsh. The counter-proposals submitted on the twenty ninth have been all rejected. Germany refused to signal. On 17 June the Allies gave Germany 5 days to determine or have the conflict resume. Germany accepted the “diktat”.
Extra lately than both of the World Wars, the U.S. backed out of the Vietnam Struggle two years earlier than it formally ended on April 30, 1975. On that day, North Vietnam captured the capital of South Vietnam, Saigon, “and restored peace to Vietnam,” in response to U.S. Department of State under George W. Bush. There was no negotiation or treaty aside from the ceasefire during which American troops exited the battle two years prior and that solely the U.S. abided by. North Vietnam unified Vietnam as an entire beneath its authorities upon conquering South Vietnam.
