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1912-1920
THE GREAT WAR:AMERICA’S FIRST INTERNATIONAL CRUSADE
Woodrow Wilson
Elected in 1912 (because the Republican Party had been split by the Roosevelt-Taft feud) Woodrow Wilson was only the second Democratic President since Lincoln. Wilson was a southerner by birth, a former college professor of history and government, and, as governor of New Jersey, a moderate reformer.
He was also unwilling to admit he could ever be mistaken.
The Money Issue and Taxation
Wilson put his support behind a number of issues that would raise more revenue for the government, prevent major financial panics in the future, and help consumers:•The Underwood Tariff lowered rates on many imported items.
•The Federal Reserve System created a group of Federal banks that would handle the flow of currency, regulate other banks through loans, and try to maintain a steady economy.
•A Federal Trade Commission that could use a tougher anti-trust process to encourage competition in business.
•The 16th Amendment to the Constitution, which permitted the Federal government to collect income taxes.
Civil RightsWilson did NOT have much interest in civil rights. As a child in Virginia in the 1860s he resented the defeat of the Confederacy by Lincoln’s armies. While Roosevelt had invited George Washington Carver to dinner at the White House, Wilson refused to meet with any civil rights leaders.
What was a ‘democracy’ in 1912?
Wilson’s views on democracy were largely “structural” -- a democracy existed because voters could choose those who governed at regularly scheduled elections. This is termed an “electoral democracy” (see Larry Diamond, The Spirit of Democracy (pp. 22-23)
A “liberal democracy” in which religious, social, racial and social equality exists (pluralism) and is protected by law, was not something Wilson strongly supported – he opposed racial equality and was lukewarm about the right of women to vote.
Trouble Abroad
War in Europe in 1914 threatened to interfere with American trade.
The U.S. declared it would be neutral in the war. Wilson saw none of the European powers as ‘right’ or ‘good, and promised that Americans would not get involved in the war.
Neutrality
War and Propaganda
Every nation had secret treaties for obtaining territory from the losers
Every nation sought to convince world opinion that the war was the fault of someone else
US neutrality (until 1917) was based of view that all were at fault
US businesses were selling arms to Britain and France --- and US banks loaned money to both nations
Trade with Allies
Profits
US Loans: to Allies -- $2.3 billion; to Germany, $27 million
US Sympathy for VictimsU.S. groups organized aid for Serbia, Belgium, and other smaller nations caught up in the Great War. Ethnic groups in urban America lobbied for Wilson to do more.
German Threats
Sinking of the SS Lusitania, 1915
Wartime PropagandaActress Geraldine Farrar strikes a pose as Joan of Arc in “Joan the Woman,” Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 film. Critics charged that the French lily and the actress’s raised arms suggested that France was being crucified by German invaders.
In many films, short stories, and news editorials, sympathy for the Allied Powers grew. Germany was increasingly seen as “in the wrong.”
“Kept Us Out of War”
Wilson won re-election in 1916 by campaigning on his success in maintaining American neutrality. But the threat of German submarines and the probable losses to American trade if Germany won, had Wilson worried. He had already consulted the army and navy about preparations for war.
American Entry into War, 1917
U.S. public increasingly angry over German atrocities in Belgium, France
Zimmerman telegram proposes German alliance with Mexico against U.S. Britain gives this decoded radiogram to Wilson
German’s decide to unleash “unrestricted” submarine warfare on all ships
War, April 1917When the US entered the war, Wilson made the main American war aim a “world safe for democracy.”
The Fourteen Points
No secret treaties Freedom of the seas Free trade Armament reductions Self determination of peoples, based on cultural values of nationality
(including an independent Poland, breakup of Turkish empire, adjustment of Austrian empire, restoration of Belgium, and replacement of European colonies by “territories” to be given independence).
An international organization for maintaining peace and preventing future wars by negotiations – Wilson called it a “League of nations.”
ALL STRUCTURAL GOALS
The CPI
George Creel
explains the war to
America
A Safer World
Enlisting the Movie Stars
Actress Mary Pickford give a pep talk to the “troops” in her 1918 summer hit “Johanna Enlists.”
The HunWhen a German officer makes improper advances to civilian Mary Pickford, another German officer intervenes.
“The Little American” (1917) like so many films of the time, depicted many of the German soldiers as beasts who would kill and rape at the slightest provocation.
In truth, German soldiers did execute Belgian civilians in order to enforce obedience.
Hate the HunUtilizing the style of political cartoonists, William Fox had this marquee poster designed to promote his 1918 action film, “The Prussian Cur,” directed by Raoul Walsh.
The Espionage Act of 1917 complemented the wartime propaganda by suppressing the speech of dissidents. Socialists, labor leaders and pacifists, who spoke out against the war, were arrested and jailed.
To Hell With the Kaiser
After the U.S. entered the war, this feature literally showed German Emperor Wilhelm and the emperor of Austria enter into a pact with the devil to “rule the world.”
A Competitive Postwar Vision
By the end of 1917, Wilson recognized that his postwar ideals of democracy and a League were being severely challenged by Lenin’s rhetoric of socialist revolution.
Could the US remake Europe, or could Lenin dominate it?
Overseas
Command Arguments
Foch vs. Pershing–
the US fights as
“an associated power,” not as an ally
1918 Crisis
Although American troops played a key role in stopping the last great German offensive, later British and French war accounts claimed that they ‘won’ before most US troops arrived.
African Americans at the Front
U.S. in France
Because they entered the war 3 years after it began, US casualties were far less that those of other nations.
Attacking
The Last Offensive
Hoover and Food
As the head of the War Food Administration Board, Herbert Hoover became an international figure for his efficiency in sending food to war-torn Europe.
Hoover, a millionaire-engineer, promised to be part of a new breed of political leaders, skilled in administration and progressive in outlook.
Victory
After 4 years of war and economic blockade, Germany asked for an armistice. By then, the Russian empire had collapsed in revolution, Germany’s allies were ruined, and Britain and France were exhausted. This left America the richest and most powerful nature on earth.
Wilson wanted a peace that would prevent future wars and counter the attractions of the Communist revolution in Russia. But the Treaty of Versailles did little to promote peace in the future.
Revolution at HomeThe 19th Amendment to the Constitution gave the right to vote to all American women aged 21 and older. Not every woman accepted that this would provide full equality. Alice Paul, a suffragette, called for an “equal rights amendment” to prevent any discrimination against women in business or society.
Throughout the 1920s, women would enter business in a number of “new” professions – law, journalism, medicine. But the majority still worked in nursing, clerical jobs or teaching (and teachers who married were fired in most states).
Anti-Bolshevik Crusade
American troops in Vladivostok, 1918, joining Czecho-Slovaks and Japanese forces that intervened in the Russian civil war. The American public was confused by what Wilson hoped to achieve with this expedition.
Treaty Rejected
Wilson (left, with the French and English leaders) spent months in France, negotiating the treaty to end the Great War. But after he returned to the U.S., the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The U.S. never joined the League of Nations as Wilson had intended. Wilson was seen as a failure when he left office in 1921.
U.S. Regrets Role in War
In 1920, American voters elected Warren Harding as President. Because Harding had opposed the Treaty of Versailles, this vote was taken as a rejection of America’s role in the Great War. By the mid-1920s, U.S. history books called American entry in the war “a mistake.”
He said it was time to return to “normalcy.”
