Editing V sign (section)

==Victory sign==
=== Second World War: V for Victory campaign ===
On 14 January 1941, [[Victor de Laveleye]], former Belgian Minister of Justice and director of the [[Radio Belgique|Belgian French-language broadcasts]] on the [[BBC]] (1940–44), suggested in a broadcast that Belgians use a V for ''{{lang|fr|victoire}}'' (French: "victory") and ''{{lang|nl|vrijheid}}'' (Dutch: "freedom") as a rallying emblem during the [[Second World War]].

In the BBC broadcast, de Laveleye said that "the occupier, by seeing this sign, always the same, infinitely repeated, [would] understand that he is surrounded, encircled by an immense crowd of citizens eagerly awaiting his first moment of weakness, watching for his first failure." Within weeks chalked up Vs began appearing on walls throughout Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern France.<ref name=radio>[https://web.archive.org/web/20050312223729/http://home.luna.nl/~arjan-muil/radio/history/ww-2/v-campaign.html The V-campaign], Virtual Radiomuseum</ref> Buoyed by this success, the BBC started the "V for Victory" campaign, for which they put in charge the assistant news editor [[Douglas Ritchie]] posing as "Colonel Britton". Ritchie suggested an audible V using its [[Morse code]] rhythm (three dots and a dash). As the rousing opening bars of [[Beethoven's Fifth Symphony]] had the same rhythm, the BBC used this as its call-sign in its foreign language programmes to occupied Europe for the rest of the war. The more musically educated also understood that it was the Fate motif "''[[Symphony No. 5 (Beethoven)#Fate motif|knocking on the door]]''" of [[Nazi Germany]].
({{Audio|Beet5mov1bars1to5.ogg|Listen to this call-sign.}}).<ref name=radio/><ref>{{cite book |page=359 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z4XJQD4O_TkC&pg=PA359 |title = Encyclopedia of Radio|isbn = 9780203484289|last1 = Sterling|first1 = Christopher H.|date = December 2003| publisher=Taylor & Francis }}</ref> The BBC also encouraged the use of the V gesture introduced by de Laveleye.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/A11047132 |title=The V sign at BBC's H2G2 website |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=1 November 1990 |access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref>

By July 1941, the emblematic use of the letter V had spread through occupied Europe. On 19 July, Prime Minister [[Winston Churchill]] referred approvingly to the V for Victory campaign in a speech,<ref name="BBC News">{{cite news | work=news.bbc.co.uk | title=Newswatch 1940s | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/newswatch/history/noflash/html/1940s.stm | access-date=27 May 2010}}</ref> from which point he started using the V hand sign. Early on he sometimes gestured palm in (sometimes with a cigar between the fingers).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/images/wc%20outside%20D%20st.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071202022237/http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/images/wc%20outside%20D%20st.jpg |archive-date=2 December 2007 |title=Churchill outside Downing Street |publisher=Number-10.gov.uk |access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref> Later in the war, he used palm out.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/images/WC%20V%20sign1.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613151055/http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/images/WC%20V%20sign1.jpg|archive-date=13 June 2007 |title=Churchill's famous victory sign |publisher=Number-10.gov.uk |access-date=31 October 2011}}</ref> After aides explained to the aristocratic Churchill what the palm in gesture meant to other classes, he made sure to use the appropriate sign.<ref name=iocns/><ref>{{cite web|author=Staff|url=http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/icons-vsign|title=The V Sign|work=The British Postal Museum & Archive (BPMA)|access-date=5 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120406161458/http://postalheritage.org.uk/page/icons-vsign|archive-date=6 April 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> Yet the ''double-entendre'' of the gesture might have contributed to its popularity, "for a simple twist of hand would have presented the dorsal side in a mocking snub to the common enemy".<ref>James Jerman, Anthony Weir, ''Images of Lust: Sexual Carvings on Medieval Churches'' London: Routledge, 2013, page 145.</ref> Other allied leaders used the sign as well.

The Germans could not remove all the signs, so they adopted the V Sign as a German symbol, sometimes adding laurel leaves under it, painting their own V's on walls, vehicles and adding a massive V on the [[Eiffel Tower]].

<gallery class="center" widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Håkon 7. malt i veien.jpg|Resistance graffiti on a Norwegian road, depicting the V-sign, "V" in Morse Code, and the [[H7 (monogram)|royal cipher of King Haakon VII]]
File:Victory, 1941.jpg|1941 postcard from the [[Independent State of Croatia]], as part of the Axis attempt to appropriate the "V" for themselves
File:V... - Wearing different uniforms but we all have the same big job. Let's go everybody - Keep `em firing. - NARA - 534899.jpg|The V-sign (and its Morse code equivalent) incorporated on an American propaganda poster for the [[War Production Board]], 1942 or 1943
File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-2004-0216-500, Paris, deutsche Parole am Bourbon-Palast.jpg|A German V-sign and slogan on the [[Palais Bourbon]] in occupied [[Paris]]. The banner beneath the "V" reads "Germany is Victorious on All Fronts".
File:VEGA Royal Square Jersey.jpg|During the German occupation of [[Jersey]], a stonemason repairing the paving of the Royal Square incorporated a [[V sign#Second World War: V for Victory campaign|V for victory]] under the noses of the occupiers. This was later amended to refer to the Red Cross ship ''[[SS Vega (1913)|Vega]]''. The addition of the date 1945 and a more recent frame has transformed it into a monument.
</gallery>

In 1942, [[Aleister Crowley]], a British occultist, claimed to have invented the usage of a V-sign in February 1941 as a magical foil to the [[Nazi swastika|Nazis' use of the swastika]]. He maintained that he passed this to friends at the [[BBC]], and to the British [[Naval Intelligence Division (United Kingdom)|Naval Intelligence Division]] through his connections in [[MI5]], eventually gaining the approval of Winston Churchill. Crowley noted that his 1913 publication ''[[Magick (Book 4)]]'' featured a V-sign and a swastika on the same plate.<ref>Kaczynski, Richard. ''Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley''. North Atlantic Books, 2010, p. 511.</ref>

===Vietnam War, victory, and peace===
[[File:Turning the Regs Around Cover Page.png|thumb|upright 0.75|GIs using the peace sign on [[Pacific Counseling Service#Turning the Regs Around|''Turning the Regs Around'']] (1973)]]
Protesters against the [[Vietnam War]] (and subsequent anti-war protests) and [[Counterculture of the 1960s|counterculture]] activists in the 1960s adopted the gesture as a sign of peace. Because the hippies of the day often flashed this sign (palm out) while saying "Peace", it became popularly known (through association) as "the peace sign".<ref name=icons-asian-peace>Staff. [https://web.archive.org/web/20080621122852/http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-v-sign/a-harvey-smith-to-you/the-asian-v-sign-in-progress The Japanese Version (the Sign of Peace)] [https://web.archive.org/web/20070623145709/http://www.icons.org.uk/about-us ICONS. A portrait of England]. Accessed 1 June 2008</ref>