Transcript Chapter 22 *The Ordeal of Reconstruction

Chapter 30 – The War to End
War (1917-1918)
The United States enters World War I and
experiences changes domestically and
diplomatically.
Neutrality and German Aggression
 Germany begins policy of unrestricted sub
warfare in early 1917; all ships to be sunk
 Wilson desires neutrality, barring overt
German acts
 Zimmerman note enrages Americans
 German subs sink 4 American merchant
ships
 Wilson asks Congress for declaration of war
on 4/6/1917; US enters World War I
We intend to begin on the first of
February unrestricted submarine
warfare STOP We shall endeavor in
spite of this to keep the United States
of America neutral STOP In the event
of this not succeeding, we make
Mexico a proposal of alliance on the
following basis make war together,
make peace together, generous
financial support and an
understanding on our part that
Mexico is to reconquer lost territory in
Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona STOP
The settlement in detail is left to you
STOP You will inform the President [of
Mexico] of the above most secretly as
soon as the outbreak of war with the
United States of America is certain
and add the suggestion that he should,
on his own initiative, invite Japan to
immediate adherence and at the same
time mediate between Japan and
ourselves STOP Please call the
President’s attention to the fact that
the ruthless employment of our
submarines now offers the prospect of
compelling England in a few months
to make peace STOP Signed
ZIMMERMANN
Zimmerman note
Wilson’s Idealism
 Wilson upending Washingtonian neutrality
 How to incite the people for war? How to
overcome isolationism in favor of
interventionism?
 The war “to make the world safe for
democracy”
 Wilson appeals to America’s sense of
exceptionalism
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We seek not territory nor riches…but to advocate
democracy in the face of autocracy
George W. Bush’s rhetoric before and
during the Iraq war was eerily similar to
Wilson’s idealistic statements entering
World War One.
"These values of freedom are right and
true for every person, in every society,"
the National Security Strategy declares.
It dedicates the United States to the task
of bringing "the hope of democracy,
development, free markets, and free
trade" to "every corner of the world."
Those idealistic—some would say
hubristic—words uncannily echo
Woodrow Wilson's heady rationale for
American participation in World War I.
Wilson would recognize George W.
Bush as his natural successor, and he
would recognize today's Americans as
the direct spiritual descendants of the
people he so reluctantly led into that
conflict. For Wilson did not think that
what came to be known, and often
derided, as "Wilsonianism" was just a
policy selected from a palette of possible
choices. Rather, he saw it as the sole
approach to international relations that
his countrymen would embrace as
consistent with their past and their
principles. Wilson did not so much
invent American foreign policy as
discover it.
Bush and Wilsonianism
Wilson’s 14 Points
 Wilson’s 14 Points Address to Congress in 1918
 Diplomacy
 1) No secret treaties; 2) Freedom of the seas; 3) No trade
barriers; 4) Reduction of arms; 5) Adjustment of colonial
claims
 #6-13 = Territorial issues
 #14 = Creation of the League of Nations
 Wilson’s Points receive criticisms from home and
abroad
Domestic Propaganda
 Committee on Public Information: sell the war to
Americans and the world on Wilsonian idealism
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led by journalist George Creel
 Billboards, pamphlets, movies, songs
 George M. Cohan’s “Over There”
 Creel overplayed his hand; overblown idealism led to
disillusionment
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Foreshadowing the Lost Generation?
Wartime Civil Liberties
 Xenophobia grows for the 8 million German
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Americans
German culture suppressed, avoided
Espionage Act: banned interfering with the draft
and general “disloyalty”
Sedition Act: banned criticizing the gov’t
Socialists and Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW) members prosecuted
Debs sentenced to 1o yrs; pardoned after 2
Supreme Court upholds the laws in Schenck v. US
(“clear and present danger”)
Over Here
 Economics mobilization roadblocked by states’
righters and Big Biz
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Wilson appoints Wall Streeter Bernard Baruch to head the
War Industries Board
 National War Labor Board (chaired by Taft) works to
avoid labor disputes; thousands of strikes persist
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Fail to guarantee right to organize
 Gompers’ AFL supported the war
 IWW workers oppressed; commit industrial sabotage
 Black workers migrate North; lead to racial violence
(40 blacks killed in St. Louis)
Women, Suffrage, and the War
 Female workers head to the factories
 Suffragists mostly support the war; fighting for
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democracy will help to achieve it at home
Wilson comes out in support of women’s suffrage
19th Amendment passed in 1920
Most women return home from their jobs after war
Sheppard-Towner Maternity Act funds ed in
traditional maternal roles
Gains, then losses for women…but precedents set
War Economics
 Herbert Hoover heads the Food Administration
 Conducts propaganda campaign to mobilize voluntary food
rationing; Americans grow “victory gardens”
 Temperance movement increases
 Anti-German sentiment against German beer makers
 Congress restricts using foods to produce alcohol
 18th Amendment prohibits alcohol
 Hoover’s voluntary approach works
 But the gov’t also takes greater role in the economy
to win war
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Production quotas, price setting, takes over railroads
Daylight saving time initiated to extend workday and save fuel
Doughboys go to War
 Russia pulls out of war due to its revolution > German
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forces leave eastern front for the west front
Doughboys fight mainly in France; conduct Netflix and
Chill operations with French girls
The American Expeditionary Force led by General John
J. Pershing fights in France at Chateau-Thierry
Final offensive in the Argonne Forest in Belgium;
massive casualties
Germans faced with endless US troops reserves
surrender in 11/1918
53k troops killed; 500k among 30 million die of global
Spanish influenza pandemic
Post-war Political Tangles
 Wilson attends Paris peace conference; angers Republican
senators like Henry Cabot Lodge
 The Big Four: Wilson, Orlando, Lloyd George, Clemenceau
 Wilson seeks middle-way between imperialism & idealism;
becomes the same as old-style colonialism
 Wilson pushes for a League of Nations
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Faces opposition from Senate isolationists or “irreconcilables”
 Germans feel betrayed from vengeful Treaty of Versailles
negotiations
 Wilson forced to cede some of his 14 points in favor of
assuring a League; derided by both sides of the aisle
 Wilson tours the country to tout the Treaty; suffers stroke
Post-war Political Tangles (cont.)
 Lodge proposes reservations to the Treaty
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Seeks to protect US sovereignty and Monroe Doctrine rights
Wants to avoid entangling alliances
 Wilson urges Dems to vote down Lodge’s reservation-
filled Treaty
 A mix of Lodge Repubs and Wilsonian Dems doom the
Treaty
 Senate Repubs nominate Harding/Coolidge ticket for
1920 Prez election; Dems nominate pro-Treaty James
Cox with FDR as VP; Debs runs from prison
 People tired of Wilsonian idealism; death knell for Treaty