THE NATION AT WAR WORLD WAR I (1914-1918)

1. THE NATION AT WARWORLD WAR I (1914-1918) Chapter 24—Part III

2. Bird’s Eye View of the War • 1914—Allied Victories • 1915—Allied Reversals • 1916—Stalemate • 1917—U. S. Entry into the War on April 6, 1917 The U. S. initially remained neutral, i.e., technically allied with neither side.

3. The rise of Paul von Hindenburg (left) and Erich Ludendorff (right) to direct the German war effort made a monumental difference. For the remainder of the war, these two men guided the German war effort and, if not for the eventual participation of the American Expeditionary Force, might well have succeeded in bringing the Kaiser victory.

4. For the first three years of the conflict, Uncle Sam remained relatively detached, observing the family conflict amongst cousins (the monarchs of England, Germany, and Russia shared common ties of blood). On April 6, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress for a Declaration of War and received his request with only six senators and fifty members of the House opposing it.

5. General John “Black Jack” Pershing chats with French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch and British Field Marshal Douglas Haig after the arrival of the American Expeditionary Force in France. Pershing resisted Foch’s efforts to use American troops as replacements for the fallen Allied forces. In so doing, he preserved the identity of American soldiers. Between volunteers and draftees, 24.2 million men entered the U.S. armed forces.

6. Why Did the U. S. Enter the War? • Vindicate the cause of democracy through a crushing victory—realists like Theodore Roosevelt were dismayed over the lack of fighting spirit in the U. S. • Think in terms of using war to gain position for the next war (i.e., they didn't think in terms of a "War to End All Wars" but rather a war to make the world safe for ourselves) • Technological advances made isolation untenable REASONS OF SELF-INTEREST — The "Realists“** 23A-2

7. REASONS OF SELF-INTEREST** Continued Wilson was aware that U. S. prosperity depended on movement of surplus products into the mainstream of foreign commerce—this found expression in U. S. concern over "freedom of the seas," challenged by Germany and thus endangering U. S. capitalism • Under international law, neutral countries could trade non-military goods with all belligerents • Britain blockaded German ports stopping shipments of foodstuffs and most raw materials • The U.S. economy boomed due to sales and loans to the Allies • German submarine warfare violated the principle of “freedom of the seas

8. REASONS OF SELF-INTEREST** Continued Intervention was necessary in the national interests, i.e., for self-preservation • British naval supremacy and the Atlantic community were vital to U. S. security • A German victory was tantamount to invasions of North and South America • Isolationism was made obsolete by unrestricted submarine war—military preparedness was the solution • Idealism was equated with stupidity by the realists • Withdrawal of Russia from the war, tipping balance in favor of Central Powers

9. Lenin actually returned to Russia courtesy of Hindenburg and Ludendorff who sent him home in an armored train car through neutral Sweden to the Finnish-Russian border. They sent him into Russia just as they would send poison gas against enemy soldiers. Their ploy succeeded. Once in power, Lenin’s program of “Peace, Land, and Bread” led to Russian withdrawal from the war through the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

10. REASONS OF SELF-INTEREST** Continued Senator George Norris believed that they U. S. went to war on the command of gold, i.e.: • The money which she had loaned to the Allies was considerable and an Allied victory would ensure its repayment • Munitions makers made money off the war, all the more so if the U. S. was drawn into the fight • In this regard, war “violated the very spirit of progressive reform.”

11. George Norris (1861-1944) served as a Republican Senator from Nebraska from 1913-1943. Trained as an attorney, Norris not only served as a legislator but practiced law and held positions as county attorney and district judge.

12. IDEALISTIC REASONS** Idealism—the belief in the linear development of history in a progressive direction toward a world without war, and with harmony, abundance, and happiness—was a strong current in 19th century U. S. thought. Many cast the explanation in terms of "misguided idealism." • To make the world safe for democracy, rights of man, future peace, world security. Wilson viewed U. S. participation in the war as an opportunity to reform the world order into a liberal-capitalist-democratic system. It took on the dimensions of a holy purpose. • The U. S. entered the war not out for profit but as God's chosen vessel; He made America strong so she could achieve selfless aims in a spirit of sacrifice, a rather self-flattering approach.

13. IDEALISTIC REASONS** Continued • This was a "War to End All Wars" and enforce disarmament • The war was conceived as a struggle of good vs. evil • Autocracy vs. democracy • Imperialism vs. self-determination • Militarism vs. disarmament Germany came to represent an obstacle in the way to peace, all things evil and immoral, a threat to civilization; the Kaiser a symbol of autocracy and militarism.

14. IDEALISTIC REASONS** Continued • Wilson stood on principle for rule of law, international justice, the rights of man • Wilson saw the League of Nations as an independent force in the world capable of overriding old animosities, conflicts as a rallying point of world opinion. • N. Gordon Levin's notion of U. S. liberal exceptionalism

15. Professor N. Gordon Levin argued that the U. S. was unfettered by feudal traditions, power politics, and hence the obvious leader of a new world order based on U. S. values of free trade, liberalism, rule of international law, human rights—Germany threatened the hope for universal democracy. Levin argues that Wilson acted to serve man with a combination of liberal anti-imperialism and missionary nationalism—he equated universal human rights with the U. S. value system. He envisaged a worldwide Liberal-Capitalist system with political liberalism, social mobility, constitutional government, capitalist production. N. Gordon Levin

16. Debate on Whether the U. S. Should Have Entered the War 23A-3 • Common cultural ties and heritage • Resolution of Anglo-American differences • Institutional similarities • Popular ideas about race, i.e., Anglo-Saxon superiority • Common laissez-faire or Smithian economy • Exit of Queen Victoria and Lord Salisbury #1—U. S. was pulled into the war thanks to slick British propaganda** (for which there was no German counterpart) stressing ties of heritage and history as well as German atrocities

17. Queen Victoria (left) and Lord Salisbury (right) were symbolic of the old aristocratic order and the entrance of politicians like Joseph Chamberlain and David Lloyd George with common origins. Edward VII—King in Name

18. The British portrayed the Germans as barbaric invaders, using submarines and poison gas, and fighting in Allied territory); the U. S. was trapped into intervention through British cleverness—it was a battle between British shrewdness and American naiveté, idealism. The British capitalized on the notions cited above.

19. #2—The Pro-British Attitudes of Wilson, Ambassador Page, Colonel House** Wilson with friend and adviser, Colonel Edward M. House (right) and English King George V (lower right). As a student of political science, Wilson was a longtime admirer of the British parliamentary system. He had great respect for the leaders of the British Liberal Party.

20. In assessing the gravity of the European conflict, he observed, “Everything I love most in the world is at stake.” Moreover, “at the deepest level, a majority in the country, bound by common language and institutions, sympathized with the Allies and blamed Germany for the war. Like Wilson, many Americans admired English literature, customs, and law. . . . [Germany] seemed arrogant and militaristic.”

21. Debate on Whether the U. S. Should Have Entered the War** Continued • The U. S. Press created the illusion that the British fought for the rights of small, weak nations against ruthless bullies aspiring to world domination • Submarine warfare was an attempt to save starving people, i.e., those hurt by the blockade, and end the war quickly • The "Devil Theory of War" posited that the U. S. was unwittingly drawn into the war economically until suddenly she had a stake in the outcome; the choice was between entering the war or an economic explosion at home

22. The “Revisionist”** Argument—The American View After the War • Intervention was an avoidable mistake • Germany was no more responsible for the war than others • Wilson was a gullible super villain The Revisionists expressed a post-war disillusionment when the liberal-capitalist-democratic "millennium" failed to follow the war. Their interpretation dominated most of the inter-war period until 1938-1939.

23. A Balanced View No one power bears all the responsibility, and none of the Great Powers are entirely free from responsibility.

24. Debate on Whether the U. S. Should Have Entered the War Continued • House believed if Germany won it would deprive the U. S. of moral leadership so he cast the struggle in terms of democracy vs. autocracy • Statesmen like Lansing saw America's public indignation as a tool to end isolationism • There is no such thing as a "just war" • The Versailles Treaty was unjust Secretary of State Robert Lansing

25. Aspirations of Neutrality • Such a policy conformed to traditional avoidance of foreign entanglements • Given America’s “Melting Pot”—an ethnic and national mix from peoples on both sides of the conflict, neutrality seemed the wisest course to take

26. Election of 1916—“He Kept Us Out of War” Wilson’s campaign slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War,” reflected American enduring sentiment favoring neutrality in the year.

27. Wilson’s opponents attacked him from both directions. “Preparedness” advocates like Theodore Roosevelt charged him with cowardice; pacifists assailed his efforts to prepare America militarily. Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes (right) campaigned for a tougher line taken against Germany. Roosevelt found Hughes little better than Wilson, alleging that he was a “bearded iceberg” who lacked dynamism and wavered on the critical issues. 23B

28. 1916 Election Results Candidate Popular Vote Wilson (D) 91. million Hughes (R) 8.5 million Recently enfranchised women voted heavily for Wilson.

29. Hughes’ success in the East gave the impression on election night that the Republicans had gained the White House. Wilson was surprised the following morning that he had swept the West and won. Some newspapers called the election wrong.

30. The Immediate Casus Belli #1—The Sinking of the Lusitania—May 7, 1915** 23A-1 German Ambassador to the U.S., Count Christian von Bernstorff vilified in wartime propaganda

31. New York Times headline announcing the sinking of the Lusitania by German Unterseeboot U-20. Wilson sharply warned the Germans to cease from such future “deliberately unfriendly” actions. Nevertheless, in August 1915, a German U-Boat sank the British passenger liner Arabic.

32. When President Wilson issued a series of diplomatic notes demanding Germany to change its submarine warfare policies,** Wilson’s pacifist Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, resigned. 23B

33. England blockaded the German fleet and cutoff trade; in response, Germany made U-boat attacks on shipping without warning the targets in advance (a violation of international law). On May 15, 1915 the German government published the warning to the right in the New York World. Less than a week later, it made good on its promise that travelers sailing in war zones did “so at their own risk.” At issue was the “right of Americans to sail on ships of belligerent nations.”

34. May 7, 1915—a German U-boat U-20 sank the Lusitania, a British passenger ship; 128 Americans died, including millionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt (upper left) and popular writer Elbert Hubbard (lower left). The boat sank in 18 minutes. Wilson demanded cessation of U-boat attacks and W. J. Bryan resigned. Not wishing to pull the U. S. into war, Germany suspended her unannounced attacks.

35. Lansing--a lawyer and counselor in the U.S. State Department--had replaced Bryan. Subsequently, Wilson severed relations with Germany. German U-boat Deutschland (left) with commander Captain Koening in November 1916. In February 1917, Germany informed Secretary of State, Robert Lansing (right) that it would sink on sight all boats in waters around England and France.

36. #2—The Zimmerman Note** March 1917—The Zimmerman Telegram This was a secret message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman (left) to German envoy in Mexico. In exchange for Mexican support, Germany promised to restore to them New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The British publicized the note to draw the U. S. into the war.

37. When Wilson divulged the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram, a wave of indignation swept the country. This information, compounded by the fact that German U-boats sunk five U.S. ships between March 12-21 made American entry into the war inevitable.

38. Declaration of War When Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2, 1917, he somberly observed: “It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts,--for democracy, . . . for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal domination of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.” On April 6th, Congress declared war.

39. Americans in Combat • The U.S. Army was far from prepared for war in 1917** • Selective Service Act of May 1917 • Wilson believed conscription to be both efficient and democratic • Some 24.2 million men registered for the draft • Of those, 2.8 million were inducted into the military service #1—Mobilization 23C

40. #2—Americans Engaged 23C-1 • The first American soldiers reached France in June 1917 • American soldiers saw their first action at the Battle of the Marne, March 1918 • They blocked the German advance at Chateau-Thierry (right) Second Battle of the Marne

41. U.S. Marines held their ground at the Belleau Wood, June 6-25, 1918 Country singer Garth Brooks’ Belleau Wood plays fast and loose with historical fact.

42. American and French soldiers drove the German army from St. Mihiel, September 12, 1918

43. “The American contribution. . . was vital. . . . Fresh, enthusiastic American troops raised Allied morale; they helped turn the tide at a crucial point in the war.”**

44. The War at Home “Victory at the front depended on economic and emotional mobilization at home. . . . Wilson moved quickly in 1917 and 1918 to organize war production and distribution. An idealist who knew how to sway public opinion, he also recognized the need to enlist American emotions. To him, the war for people’s minds, the ‘conquest of their convictions,’ was as vital as events on the battlefield.” • Committee on Public Information

45. Committee on Public Information • Espionage Act of 1917**—imposed sentences of up to 20 years for aiding the enemy, obstructing recruitment of soldiers, or aiding the enemy • Trading-with-the-Enemy Act of 1917—Authorized government censorship of foreign language press • Sedition Act of 1918—imposed harsh penalties for using “disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language” about the government, flag, or armed forces uniforms

46. Headed by George Creel (left), the CPI publicized the war. Through use of the film industry, Americans saw Germans depicted as bloodthirsty Huns with plans for world conquest. The campaign went so far as re-naming traditional German items like sauerkraut (which became “liberty cabbage”). The propaganda campaign was quite successful in spawning anti-German sentiment throughout the country. Citizens gave lectures and encouraged the purchase of Liberty Bonds. Even the president himself encouraged repression and promote unity by force.RQ24

47. One editor of the period observed, “We must make the world safe for democracy even if we have to ‘bean’ the Goddess of liberty to do it.” The government took advantage of these wartime sentiments to launch a frontal assault on American socialism, not to mention dispatching some 15,000 American troops to overturn the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia after Lenin orchestrated Russian withdrawal from the Allied war effort. The president authorized an economic blockade against Russia and refused to recognize Lenin’s Bolshevik government. In doing all these things, Wilson and the government helped to promote the “Red Scare” that arose after the war.

48. War Industries Board** 23C-3 Set up in 1917 by Wilson to increase production and control limited resources (rationing). The board’s tasks included: • Oversight of production in all American factories • Determination of production priorities • Allocation of raw materials • Set output quotas for steel • Fixing of prices

49. Bernard Baruch (left) served as director of the War Industries Board. “Working closely with business, Baruch for a time, acted as the dictator of the American economy. . . . As never before, the government intervened in American life. . . . The partnership between government and business grew closer. As government expanded, business expanded as well, responding to wartime contracts.”

50. National War Labor Board 23C-3 • Created April 1918 to prevent strikes during the war • Sided with management some, but more often with workers • The war brought organized labor into partnership with government