Jennifer
Keene provides us four strong reasons for why the United States entered the
first world war. The most evident being that during the first year of the war,
the United States carried out policies of neutrality; however, behind the scene,
the U.S. smuggled supplies to the English and Allied powers. On the 7th
May 1915, a German U-boat patrolling off the coast of England, fired and sank a
British passenger liner named the Lusitania,
killing American citizens. This has become the most reproduced reason for why
the U.S. entered the first world war. Although this was a rallying call for
entrance into the conflict, Keene provides a more complete picture of the
international social, political, and economic landscape that characterized the
beginning of the 1900’s. Jennifer Keene in addition to the above point also
gives historical accounts for the German’s use of unconditional submarine
warfare in the waters surrounding England, and the correspondence between
Germany and Mexico pertaining to the famous Zimmerman telegram. The telegram
being the last event leading up to the U.S.’s declaration of war on Germany,
was shared with the United States after it was intercepted by the British and
the code was deciphered. Lastly, “the Russian revolution contributed to the
American decision to enter the war.”[1],
Lenin’s grab of political power made possible by German backing and the
people’s removal of the czar were worrisome at best to the U.S. government and
its foreign policies pertaining to American influence on European nations. Arguments
that this laid the groundwork for the Cold War in later years have significant
evidence supporting them. President Wilson was by no means excited to lead
America into the world conflict; however, by 1918, the war left little if any
choice to be made against such a decision.
President
Woodrow Wilson, by the standards of the time, was a democratic, progressive,
internationalist. When viewing the “Fourteen Points”, we can see that his want
for a “Just Pease” between nations was critical to him. Many excerpts can be
viewed as forming a lasting peace with such policies as “self-determination”,
“disarmament of nations”, and the formation of a “League of Nations”. Wilson
also argued that the Treaty of Versailles should not be based on retribution of
the victors against those of losers, meaning that there should be a sense of
fairness in the demands against Germany. Other heads of state did not agree
with Wilson on this point, and not only forced the German people to take full
credit for starting the war but also levied unrealistic economic repayment
plans to the countries which the war had leveled to the ground. Overall, the
Allie powers were open to Wilson’s fourteen points at first; however, as time
progressed and the policies became more concrete, many of the western countries
could not help but hold Germany at fault and wished to reclaim the means to fix
their countries’ infrastructure and economies. The problem being, was that no
one nation could have meet the demands made by the treaty and furthermore; many
persons of the time knew that the peace which finally existed, would not last.
One such person was the Economist John Maynard Keynes who was removed from the
economic council and once he returned home to the United States, wrote his
book, “The Economic Consequences of the
Peace” which outlines a great deal of what was about to come leading up to
the Second World War. As for the American populace’s reaction to Woodrow
Wilson’s “Fourteen Points”, they were not overly enthused by the prospect of
international entanglement with the European nations. Before the war, the United States had some colonial
if not imperial policies; however, with the conclusion of World War 1, the
question of American identity needed answering. Would the U.S. become an
international world leader, and keeper of the peace, or would the U.S. return
to past policies of isolationism? President Wilson argued passionately for his
case to the American people but due to a seizure, the president was not able to
generate enough public support and congress never ratified the treaty or joined
the League of Nations. In Jennifer Keene’s book, she argues that the primary
reason for why the U.S. did not join the League of Nations was because of the
European entanglement problem. She specifically cites the clause that would
require that American troops could be used by other nations in militaristic
form if the need to reestablish the peace or squelch a belligerent nation
threatening the peace was necessary. Americans who had just won the war and by
doing so held a sentiment of U.S. superiority did not wish to inter into any
foreign policy that might require the sending of U.S. soldiers back across the
ocean with the possibility of death. The American people returned to a
nationalistic and isolationist ideology and would remain there until the second
world war.
The
United States’ economy in the early 1900’s was one that would unquestionably
redefine American power. Industry was increasing and the militarization of
American factories was exceptional. This was in part do to industrial
innovation, but it was also achieved through social means. A foothold for the
woman’s suffrage movement can be found here in the hiring of women to replace
the men who were drafted into military roles. Leading up to the war, a need for
organization was fulfilled by the Council of National Defense. This
organization was in charge or managing the U.S.’s resources for national
defense. This council oversaw the making of deals with businesses thereby
controlling the flow of goods. This ultimately allows for the government to
control the distribution of goods in both the military and civilian markets. As
stated in Keene’s book, “To manage these competing interest, the government
used incentives, threats, direct action, and patriotic appeals to ensure that
industrialists and labor served the nation’s war needs”[2].
The Council of National Defense in 1917
became the War Industry Board and was “charged with managing the wartime
economy”[3]. Later, these organizations would serve as the
model for social welfare programs such as those implemented under the First New
Deal. Connections can also be drawn to the idea of Total War found in World War
II. Government and business relations
only grew after the war with the federal government siding with businesses over
backing the labor promises that they had made during war time.
Throughout
the war, free speech and the right to assemble was suppressed almost entirely
by the federal government and even the American people. In her book, Keene
outlines a piece of legislation that had a tremendous impact on all those who
lived through wartime. The Espionage and
Sedition Act was designed originally to cover acts of spying and espionage (i.e. blowing up a navel yard). However,
the legislation, much like any other law, receives amendments and begins to
take on a life of its own. The Acts were most aggressively used as a control
over the free press and what information was being kept in the main stream. An
example is provided in the document section showing us a pro war poster that
was approved, showing a German soldering being portrayed as a hun[4].
In addition to this, the legislation was
written in such a way that almost any negative viewpoint about the war effort,
the war, or the U.S. government that was publicly expressed would be chargeable
as a crime of Espionage or Sedition. Events that prompted the creation of the
acts were fueled by “The Red Scare” and this also led to a reexamining of the
United States’ immigration policies.
Although
the U.S. did not enter the war until 1918, the impact of their presence was
almost immediately felt. After four years of trench warfare and the western
front barely moving, both sides of the conflict were utterly spent and progress
was at a standstill. The influx of new military supplies, fresh men, and new
machinery that came along with the United States was exact what was needed to
break the stalemate. Although the fighting was much harder than anticipated,
with the new added troops, the war only lasted another year. Although the
American public saw this as the American military being the most superior in
comparison with those of Europe, this was simply not the case. Keene points out
that Germany, England, France, Austria-Hungry all had large and well-built
militaries; however, they were ravished and destroyed by the first four years
of the war. As the author describes it, the war was at a standstill and with
the U.S. entry, this provided the allies the upper hand and pushed the war past
the tipping point in favor of the allied powers. Basically, the argument that
is presented in the book was that it was America’s timing that was key to the
victory, not their training or fighting power. This is backed up with evidence
of poor organization, poor troop movement, and poor supply lines in the first
critical battles that took place. Keene’s arguments on this point are strong
and are supported by a great deal of evidence she supplies within the chapter.
The
“meaning” of the First World War, according to the author, was found in the
national change that occurred socially, politically, economically, and
psychologically. She presents changes such as “women’s suffrage, prohibition,
and immigration restrictions”[5].
In addition, she poses questions such as, “Did the government use its power
appropriately during the war?”[6],
and “Was the First World War a just war for the United States?”[7].
Keene closes the book by stating that the mistakes that the U.S. makes in the
First World War influences policy decisions for the rest of the 20th
century, up to and including the Cold War. This was a time of American growth
and the U.S.’s first step onto the international stage. A time in which the
country was still developing an identity that would grow and become an
intricate part of the world as the remaining years of the 20th century
passed. As Keene states in her closing, “The First World War therefore was the
first, but not the last, war to shape the American nation in the twentieth
century.”[8]
No comments:
Post a Comment