chapter 21: war without stint - mr. chung u.s. history ...the war as fighters dogfight attacking...

CHAPTER 21: War Without Stint

Objectives: o We will examine the impact of America’s

involvement in World War I and how it was a major factor for the allies victory in the war.

o We will examine how the Wilson administration financed the war and managed the economy.

o We will examine Wilson’s attempt for a lasting peace and the bitter defeats he had politically in trying to do so.

Ecc_3:8 A time to love, and a time

to hate; a time of war, and a time of

peace.

o World War I was a stalemate

between the two occupants with

both sides sustaining heavy

casualties.

o In the Spring of 1917, Great

Britain suffered heavy losses of

ships from German Submarines.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o Within weeks of joining the war,

a fleet of American destroyers

began aiding the British navy

and its assault on German

submarines.

o Other American warships

escorted merchant vessels

across the Atlantic.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o Americans helped sow

antisubmarine mines in the

North Sea.

o Convoys were better protected

and no American troop ship sunk

at sea during World War I.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o Many Americans had hoped that providing naval assistance alone would be enough to turn the tide of the war.

o But it quickly became clear that American ground forces would also be necessary to shore up struggling allies.

o British and France had few reserves of combat-age men.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o There were only about 120,000 Soldiers in the army in 1917 and perhaps 80,000 in the national guard.

o Only a small number actually had combat experience.

o Instead of the old tradition of civilians becoming officers and recruiting troops, the president and his secretary of war, Newton D. Baker decided only a national draft could provide the needed men.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o Despite the protests, the Selective Service Act was passed through Congress and the draft brought nearly 3 million men into the army and another 2 million joined various branches of the armed services voluntarily.

o Together, they formed the American Expeditionary Force (AEF)

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o It was the first time in American

history that any substantial

number of soldiers and sailors

had fought overseas for an

extended period.

o It was also the first time women

were permitted to enlist who

served in non-combat auxiliary

roles.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o Nearly 400,000 African Americans enlisted or were drafted.

o More than 50,000 went to France.

o Although suffering through racism and prejudice, they fought valiantly when they had the opportunity.

WAR WITHOUT STINT:

o The engagement of these forces in combat was intense but brief.

o Not until the spring of 1918 were significant numbers of American ground troops available for battle.

o Eight months later the war was over.

The Military Struggle:

o American expeditionary forces were commanded by General John J. Pershing who had recently led the unsuccessful American pursuit of Pancho Villa.

o The American military effort lasted only a few months but suffered light casualties compared to the other combatants.


o The experience of American

troops during WWI was very

different from those of other

nations.

o Which had already been

fighting for nearly four years by

the time the U.S. forces

arrived.


o British, French, German, and

other troops had by then spent

years living in the vast network

of trenches that had been dug

into the French countryside.

o Modern weapons made

conventional frontal battles a

recipe for mass suicide.


o Trench warfare that characterized the conflict was necessary because of the enormous destructive power of newly improved machine guns and higher-powered artillery.

o It was no longer feasible to send troops out into an open field, or even to allow them to camp in the open.


o New weaponry would slaughter

them in an instant.

o Trenches sheltered troops

while allowing limited, and

usually inconclusive fighting.


o Instead, the two sides relied on heavy shelling of each other’s trenches that continued the stalemate.

o Occasionally, troops were sent on a murderous assault over no man’s land dividing them.

o Life in the trenches were terrible and was uncomfortable.

o Although the American forces had trench experiences of their own, they were very brief compared to those of the European armies.


o Instead the United States tipped

the balance of power in the battle

and made it possible for the Allies

at last to break out of their

entrenched positions and advance

against the Germans.


o With Machine guns and high powered artillery causing troops to resort to trench warfare;

o Mobile weapons, tanks, and flamethrowers and chemical weapons made it possible to attack entrenched soldiers without direct combat.

The New Technology of Warfare:

o The new weapons technology

required elaborate maintenance.

o The logistical difficulties of supply

became a major factor in

planning tactics and strategy.

o At times Allied forces had to stop

for days for equipment to catch

up to them causing a slowdown of

offensives.


o Airplanes made their debut in the war as fighters dogfight attacking other aircraft, reconnaissance and bombers that bombed enemy positions.

o New Battleships emerged with better engines and weapons, submarines driven by diesel engines terrorized the seas.


o The new technology were to a large degree responsible for the most stunning and horrible characteristic of World War I, its appalling level of casualties.

o The British lost 1.2 million men.

o Germany 2 million suffering the greatest amount of casualties.

o Austria-Hungary Empire 1.5 million.

o Russia 1.7 million.


o The United States entered the war

near its end suffered lightly compared

to others with 112,000 dead, half of

them dying of influenza disease and

not battle.


o By the time the war ended, the

United States government had

spent $32 billion for expenses

directly related to the conflict.

o This was a staggering sum by

the standards of the time.

The War and American Society:

o The entire federal budget had seldom exceeded $1 billion before 1915, and recently as 1910 the nation’s entire gross national product had been only $35 billion.

o To finance the war, the government relied on two devices.

o First, it launched a major drive to solicit loans from the American people by selling “Liberty bonds” to the public.


o By 1920 the sale of bonds to both individuals and institutions accompanied by elaborate patriotic appeals produced $23 billion.

o At the same time, new taxes were bringing in an additional sum of nearly $10 billion-some from levies on the “excess profits” of corporations.

o Much from new steeply graduated income and inheritance taxes that ultimately rose as high as 70 percent in some brackets.


o To organize the economy to meet

war needs, Wilson in 1916

organized the Council of National

Defense (CND).

o Initially it was organized to every

state and locality.


o But progressive social

engineering principles led to a

more efficient structure.

o Where eventually organized the

national economy establishing a

series of planning bodies, each to

supervise a specific sector of the

economy.


o One board would oversee railroads, another fuel supplies another food, etc.

o The central of the effort to rationalize the economy was the War Industries Board (WIB) an agency created in 1917 to coordinate government purchases of military supplies.


o The growing link between the

public and private sectors extended

although in greatly different form to

labor.

Labor and the War:

o The National War Labor Board established in April 1918 to resolve labor disputes,

o pressured industry to grant important concessions to workers,

o an eight hour day,

o the maintenance of minimal living standards,

o equal pay for women doing equal work,

o recognition of the right of unions to organize and bargain collectively.

Labor and the War:

o In return it insisted that workers forgo

all strikes and the employers not

engaged in lockouts.

o One of the most important social

changes of the war years was the

migration of hundreds of thousands of

African Americans from the rural

South into northern industrial cities.

o Known as the Great Migration.

Labor and the War:

o The push pull:

o The push that was the poverty, indebtedness, racism, and violence many black men and women experienced in the South.

o The pull was the prospect of factory jobs in the urban north and opportunity to live in communities where blacks could enjoy more freedom and autonomy.

Labor and the War:

o Labor scarce economy of the war

years, Northern factory owners sent

agents to the South to recruit

African American workers.

o Black newspapers advertised job

openings in the North.

Labor and the War:

o And most importantly, those who migrated sent word back to friends and families of the opportunities they encountered which explains the heavy concentration of migrations from a single area of the South in certain cities in the North.

o This caused the growth of black communities in New York, Chicago, Cleveland, and Detroit.

Labor and the War:

o The government was concerned with

significant minorities who continued to

opposed the war even after the United

States entered the conflict.

o There was a belief that in order for

victory to be gained, that a strong even

cohesive effort to unite public opinion

should be behind the military effort.

Selling the War and Suppressing Dissent:

o The most conspicuous government effort to rally public support was a vast propaganda campaign orchestrated by the new Committee on Public Information (CPI).

o It was directed by the Denver journalist George Creel who spoke openly of the importance of achieving social unity.


o As the War continued, the CPI

tactics became increasingly crude.

o Government-promoted posters and

film became sensationalistic and

lurid portrayals of savagery of

Germans encouraging Americans to

think Germans as savages.


o The Government soon began more coercive efforts to suppress dissent.

o The Espionage Act of 1917 gave the government new tools with which to respond to such reports.

o It created stiff penalties for spying, sabotage, or obstruction of war effort and it empowered the post office department to ban Seditious material from the mails.


o More repressive were two measures of

1918 the Sabotage Act of April 20 and

the Sedition Act of May 16.

o These bills expanded the meaning of

the Espionage Act to make illegal any

public expressed opposition to the war,

in practice, it allowed officials to

prosecute anyone who criticized the

president or the government.


o Socialists and radicals were targeted

with Eugene V. Debs sentenced to

prison for ten years.

o The greatest target of abuse was the

German-American Community.

o Most German Americans supported

the American war effort once it began.

o Still public opinion turned hostile

towards them.


o A campaign to purge all things German quickly spread.

o Sauerkraut was renamed “Liberty Cabbage.”

o Performances of German music was frequently banned.

o German books were removed from the shelves of libraries.

o Courses in German language was removed from school curricula.


o On January 8, 1918, Wilson

appeared before Congress to

present the principles for which he

claimed the nation was fighting.

o The war aims had fourteen distinct

provisions widely known as the

Fourteen points; but they fell into

three broad categories.

THE SEARCH FOR A NEW WORLD ORDER:

o First, Wilson proposals contained eight specific recommendations for adjusting postwar boundaries and for establishing new nations to replace the defunct Austria-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires.

o Those recommendations reflected his belief in the right of all people to self-determination.


o Second, there were five general principles to govern international conduct in the future,

o freedom of the seas,

o open covenants instead of secret treaties,

o reduction in armaments,

o free trade

o and impartial mediation of colonial claims.


o Finally, there was a proposal for a

league of nations that would help

implement these new principles

and territorial adjustments and

resolve future controversies.


o Wilson’s international vision quickly came to enchant not only much of his own generation but also members of generations to come both American and European.

o It reflected ideas of progressivism and efficient government in an international scale that can achieve a lasting peace.


o It was also meant to be a sign to the

Bolshevik regime in Russia that just

overthrew the republican

government that the world would

want to be like the U.S. and not

Russia.


o Wilson was confident as the war

neared its end, that popular

support would enable him to win

Allied approval of his peace plan.

o But there were ominous signs from

both

Early Obstacles:

o Allied leaders resented Wilson’s moral superior tone and preparing to resist him even before the armistice was signed.

o Britain and France suffered enormous losses and had tremendous bitterness towards Germany and was in no mood for a generous peace.

Early Obstacles:

o Wilson encountered problems at

home as the Republicans won

majorities in Congress.

o Wilson unwisely appealed to the

American voters to support his

peace plans by electing Democrats

to Congress in the November

elections.

Early Obstacles:

o This damaged popular support for

his peace plans

o Republicans were angry that Wilson

had tried to make the 1918

balloting referendum on his war

aims, especially since many

Republicans had been supporting

the Fourteen Points.

Early Obstacles:

o Wilson further antagonized them

when he refused to appoint any

Republicans to the negotiating team

that would represent the U.S. at the

peace conference in Paris.

o Wilson thought it was unimportant

because he would personally lead

the negotiations.

Early Obstacles:

o In December 13, 1918, Wilson

arrived in Paris for the Paris Peace

Conference, receiving a heroes’

welcome.

o The principle figures in the

negotiations were leaders of the

victorious allied nations.

The Paris Peace Conference:

o David Lloyd George of Great Britain,

Georges Clemenceau representing

France, and Vittorio Orlando the

prime minister of Italy.

o Russia was unrepresented as it still

was in the midst of a Civil War

between Bolsheviks and white

counterrevolutionaries.


o In a tense and often vindictive

atmosphere, Wilson was unable to

win approval of many of his broad

principles.

o The imperialistic minded nations

still wanted to hold on to their

colonies.


o The allies also insisted that

Germany pay reparations for the

War.

o The president was opposed to

demanding compensation for the

Central Powers but he relented.


o Germany was heavily penalized

with the thinking that Germany

would be weak for the

indefinite future with its

economy crippled from paying

back the damages incurred in

the war.


o Wilson did manage to win some important victories in Paris setting boundaries and dealing with former colonies.

o He secured approval of a plan to place many of the former colonies and imperial possessions among them Palestine in “trusteeship” under the League of Nations the so-called mandate system.


o But Wilson most visible triumph and the most important to him was the creation of a permanent international organization to oversee world affairs and prevent future wars.

o On January 25, 1919, the allies vote to accept the covenant of the League of Nations and with that, Wilson believed the peace treaty was transformed from a disappointment into a success.


o An assembly of nations would meet regularly to debate means of resolving disputes and protecting the peace.

o The U.S. along with Britain, France, Italy, and Japan would be permanent members of a nine member executive council that would implement league decisions.


o Wilson faced opposition to the treaty back home in Washington as many Americans were accustomed to isolation from Europe.

o Wilson’s physical condition was deteriorating he suffered from hardening of the arteries and apparently experienced something of a minor stroke in Paris.

o This may have contributed to his intransigence.

The Ratification Battle:

o Senate had many objections but the

powerful chairman of the Foreign

Relations Committee, Henry Cabot

Lodge a close friend of Teddy

Roosevelt shared Roosevelt’s

hatred for Wilson and was

determined to oppose the treaty.


o Public sentiment clearly favored ratification of the treaty.

o Wilson might still have won approval if he had agreed to some relatively minor changes in the treaty, but he refused to yield.

o He realized that the senate would not budge and he appealed to the public.


o Wilson engaged in a grueling 8,000 mile campaign where he spoke four times a day resting hardly at all and he finally reached the end of his strength collapsing in Pueblo, Colorado.

o Wilson rushed back to Washington where two weeks later he suffered a major stroke.

o Wilson did recover enough to resume a limited official schedule but he was essentially an invalid for the remaining eighteen months of his presidency.


o When the vote came for the Treaty

of Versailles Wilson opposed any

modification or amendment and the

United States Senate decided not to

ratify the treaty.

o Most Americans were more

concerned with what they saw as

pressing concerns back home.


chapter 21: war without stint - mr. chung u.s. history ...the war as fighters dogfight attacking...

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