Merco Press
Saturday, November 15, 2014
The United States of America entered World War I in April 1917 and it is widely believed that turned the tide of the conflict. The wartime leader was Woodrow Wilson, whose progressive accomplishments were significant between 1912 and his re-election in 1916.
However, the Great War was always on Wilson's mind after 1914. While the U.S. was helping to supply the U.K. and France, Wilson did not want direct military involvement. In the election of 1916, the Democratic election slogan was "He Kept Us Out of the War." But this proved unsustainable.
On Feb. 1, 1917, the Germans resumed unrestricted submarine warfare. Two weeks earlier, on Jan. 19, the British intercepted and decoded a message from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman to the German minister in Mexico. It was forwarded to Washington. When the president and the American people learned of the contents of the Zimmerman Telegram, they were irate.
In essence, if Mexico declared war on the U.S., it would be rewarded with its "lost territories": Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. In another intercepted cable, Berlin asked Japan to change sides and when Germany won the war, Japan would be rewarded with American possessions in the Far East.
Strident anti-German sentiment had been building since the sinking of the Lusitania, and on April 6, 1917, Wilson asked for and received from Congress a declaration of war against Germany. It would take nearly a full year to raise and transport the American Expeditionary Force to France. By the spring of 1918, the highly motivated, well-equipped troops started to arrive in great numbers. Needless to say, they were a godsend for the British and the French.
Between the spring of 1918 and the German surrender, the fighting ability of the AEF under the leadership of General Pershing proved to be exceptional. In addition to helping relieve the absolutely exhausted French and British, the very presence of over 2 million fresh soldiers with another 2 million in reserve uplifted the morale of the Allies at the very moment the Germans had run out of steam in the Ludendorff Offensive.
When the AEF returned to the US, they were met with heartfelt thanks, and each major city rolled out the red carpet to greet them. Gen. Pershing was afforded the same adoration given to Washington and Grant, a military hero. After his death, a square in Manhattan was named after him, and Pershing can still be seen on his bronze horse, a daily reminder of how the war began as a horse-drawn affair.
Wilson’s fate was less kind. He was welcomed in Paris as a great hero, but when he returned home getting the Treaty of Versailles approved in the face of Republican opposition proved to be impossible. He went out on the stump to take his case directly to the American people. He was cut-down by a stroke and died in 1924. When he died, each foreign embassy, except Germany’s, lowered its flag.
