Focus questions
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- John J. Pershing (1860–1948)
- Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924)
| CHAPTER 30
The War to End War, 1917–1918 focus questions1. What were the steps that lead America to enter World War I? 2. After his campaign promise of keeping America out of the war in 1916, how did Wilson garner American support for the war? 3. How did America convert from a peacetime economy to a wartime economy? 4. What were the reasons for the failure of both the League of Nations and the Treaty of Versailles? 5. What were the reasons for the conflict between Wilson and the U.S. Senate, especially Lodge?
Chapter ThemesTheme: Entering World War I in response to Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare, Wilson turned America’s participation into a fervent ideological crusade for democracy that successfully stirred the public to a great voluntary war effort, but at some cost to traditional civil liberties. Theme: After America’s limited but important contribution to the Allied victory, a triumphant Wilson attempted to construct a peace based on his idealistic Fourteen Points. But European and senatorial opposition, and especially his own political errors, doomed American ratification of the Versailles Treaty and participation in the League of Nations. chapter summaryGermany’s declaration of unlimited submarine warfare, supplemented by the Zimmerman note proposing an alliance with Mexico, finally caused the United States to declare war. Wilson aroused the country to patriotic heights by making the war an idealistic crusade for democracy and permanent peace based on his Fourteen Points. Wartime propaganda stirred voluntary commitment to the war effort, but at the cost of suppressing dissent. Voluntary efforts also worked wonders in organizing industry, producing food, and financing the war. Labor, including women, made substantial wartime gains. The beginnings of black migration to northern cities led to racial tensions and riots. America’s soldiers took nearly a year to arrive in Europe, and they fought in only two major battles at the end of the war. America’s main contribution to the Allied victory was to provide supplies, personnel, and improved morale. Wilson’s immense prestige created high expectations for an idealistic peace, but his own political blunders and the stubborn opposition of European statesmen forced him to compromise his lofty aims. As Lodge stalled the treaty, Wilson tried to rouse the country on behalf of his cherished League, but his own physical collapse and refusal to compromise killed the treaty and the League. Republican isolationists effectively turned Harding’s victory in 1920 into a death sentence for the League. developing the chapter: suggested lecture or discussion topicsExplain the importance of Wilson’s definition of war aims. Show why his sweeping declaration of the Fourteen Points stirred tremendous enthusiasm in both America and Europe, where seemingly meaningless slaughter had dragged on for years. REFERENCE: Thomas Knock, To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1992). Analyze America’s voluntary method of organizing for war (as opposed to the governmental coercion of European wartime regimes). Show how the feverish propaganda necessary for this approach caused war opponents to be treated as traitors. REFERENCE: David M. Kennedy, Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980). Examine Wilson’s negotiations at Paris. Point out how his own high idealism forced him onto the defensive, since every practical compromise appeared to be a betrayal, and how he came to focus all his hopes on the League. REFERENCE: Arthur Link, Woodrow Wilson: War, Revolution, and Peace (1979). Explain the defeat of the League and the treaty. Consider the way Lodge effectively exploited Wilson’s weaknesses, especially his unwillingness to compromise what he saw as absolute principles. REFERENCES: Thomas Bailey, Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace (1944); Robert H. Ferrell, Woodrow Wilson and World War I (1985). Explore the causes and major events of World War I from the European perspective. REFERENCE: Samuel R. Williamson Jr. and Russell Van Wyk, July 1914: Soldiers, Statesmen, and the Coming of the Great War—A Brief Documentary History (2003). for further interest: additional class topicsUse samples of wartime propaganda to show how the war was presented to the public and how patriotic commitment was aroused. Analyze the treatment of war opponents, especially socialists and German-Americans. Discuss whether stifling them was necessary for the war effort or whether it corrupted the war to “make the world safe for democracy.” Analyze the impact of the war on the labor movement and the rights of workers. Analyze the impact of the war on women and African Americans. Consider the significance of passing the Nineteenth Amendment. Emphasize the Wilson-Lodge feud. Consider how their great political controversies were deepened by personal hatred and pride. Conduct a class debate over the following topics: for example, America Should Enter World War I, World War I Protesters Should Be Guaranteed Freedom of Speech, and The United States Should Join the League of Nations. Primary source readings will come from the following book: Opposing Viewpoints in American History—Volume II: From Reconstruction to the Present, San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, 1996. Another good source of debate topics is Larry Madaras and James M. SoRelle, Taking Sides—Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in American History, Volume II: Reconstruction to the Present, Connecticut: McGraw-Hill, 2000. Show students the following video: The Century—America’s Time (ABC Video in association with The History Channel), Volume I: 1914–1919: Shell Shock. “World War I erupts, and with it, America suffers its greatest physical and emotional losses since The Civil War.”
character sketchesGeorge Creel (1876–1953)Creel was the progressive journalist who became the energetic head of the American propaganda effort in World War I. Creel quit high school after one year to become an ardent progressive journalist. He founded a newspaper, the Kansas City Independent, which crusaded against the Pendergast machine, prostitution, and child labor. Creel was a flamboyant figure who married a vaudeville actress and liked to associate with boxers and other athletes. Besides war propaganda, Creel organized a massive effort to spread a wholesome view of the American way of life throughout the world via films, magazines, and books. Creel remained a liberal California journalist through the New Deal, but during and after World War II, he became an extreme right-winger who called for harsh vengeance against Germany and Japan.
REFERENCE: Stephen L. Vaughn, Holding Fast the Inner Line: Democracy, Nationalism, and the Committee on Public Information (1980). John J. Pershing (1860–1948)Pershing was the commander of the Pershing expedition into Mexico and of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. He attended a normal school before winning a competition to enter the U.S. Military Academy. His first service was among the Indians, and for a time, he led a company of Sioux scouts. His nickname, “Black Jack,” came from his having commanded a black cavalry unit but was also a reference to his tough drillmaster methods. In the Mexican campaign, he applied new devices such as radios, airplanes, and machine guns to military uses. His ability to stay within the strict political guidelines given him in Mexico won him Wilson’s favor and command of forces in World War I. Pershing was a model soldier—square-jawed, of rigid bearing, calm, forceful, discreet. Many of his junior officers later became the great American commanders in World War II.
REFERENCE: Gene Smith, Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing (1998). Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924)Lodge was the aristocratic New England scholar and senator who successfully battled against Wilson’s League of Nations. A descendant of the ancient Lodge and Cabot lines of Massachusetts, Lodge married his cousin Ann Cabot Davis. He studied history under Henry Adams and wrote scholarly but strongly pro-Federalist biographies of Washington, Hamilton, Webster, and his grandfather George Cabot. He was a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt and was also a friend of Wilson’s antagonist at Princeton, Dean West. Although highly intelligent, Lodge was narrow in outlook and comfortable only with those of his own background and class. He was rigid and opinionated and, like Wilson, tended to turn political disagreements into personal animosities. Quote: “We have twice succeeded in creating a situation where Wilson either had to take the Treaty with strong reservations…or else was obliged to defeat it. He has twice taken the latter alternative. His personal selfishness goes beyond what I have seen in any human being. It is so extreme that it is entirely unenlightened and stupid.…” (Letter, 1920) REFERENCE: William C. Widenor, Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy (1980). great debates in american historyGreat Debate (1919–1920):Versailles Treaty and League of Nations. Should the United States ratify the Versailles Treaty and join the League of Nations?
ISSUE #1: The treaty. Would the Versailles Treaty ensure a just and workable peace?
ISSUE #2: Warmaking power. Would joining the League of Nations amount to a surrender of the sovereign power of the United States to decide matters of war and peace?
ISSUE #3: Monroe Doctrine. Would the League permit international interference with American privileges under the Monroe Doctrine?
ISSUE #4: Would the League violate America’s long tradition of “no entangling alliances”?
REFERENCES: Thomas A. Bailey, Woodrow Wilson and the Lost Peace (1944); Bailey, Woodrow Wilson and the Great Betrayal (1945); Ralph Stone, The Irreconcilables: The Fight Against the League of Nations (1970); William Widenor, Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy (1980). questions for class discussion1. What were the ideological results of Wilson’s proclamation of World War I as a “war to end all wars” and “a war to make the world safe for democracy”? 2. Was it necessary to suppress dissent in order to win the war? 3. Was the Treaty of Versailles a violation of Wilson’s high wartime ideals or the best that could have been achieved under the circumstances? 4. What was the fundamental reason America failed to join the League of Nations? expanding the “varying viewpoints”George Kennan, American Diplomacy (1950). A view of Wilson’s diplomacy as naïve idealism: “Under the protecting shadow of this theory [Wilsonian idealism], the guns continued their terrible work for a final year and a half after our entry. Under the shadow of this theory Wilson went to Versailles unprepared to face the sordid but all-important details of the day of reckoning. Under this theory he suffered his tragic and historic failure. Under this theory things advanced with a deadly logic and precision to a peace which was indeed ‘forced upon the loser, a victor’s terms imposed upon the vanquished, accepted in humiliation, in duress’—a peace that did indeed leave a sting, a resentment, a bitter memory, and upon which its own terms came later to rest ‘as upon quicksand.’” Arthur Link, Wilson the Diplomatist (1957). A view of Wilsonian diplomacy as a noble effort: “For Woodrow Wilson the Paris Peace Conference was more a time of heroic striving and impressive achievement than of failure. By fighting against odds that would have caused weaker men to surrender, he was able to prevent the Carthaginian kind of peace that we have seen to our regret in our own time; and he was able to create the machinery for the gradual attainment of the kind of effort that he would have liked to impose at once. The Paris settlement, therefore, was not inevitably a ‘lost peace.’ It could have been, rather, the foundation of a viable and secure world order and therefore a lasting memorial to its chief architect, if only the victors had maintained the will to enforce what Wilson had signed.” Copyright © Cengage Learning. All rights reserved. Directory: ourpages -> auto -> 2014 2014 -> Socratic Seminar: Debate Time! 2014 -> America has suffered several devastating natural events that have impacted countless lives 2014 -> Do not write on exam. Multiple Choice portion of the exam: make sure to use the scantron provided. The following questions are based on the following song 2014 -> Document-Based Essay: The Collapse of Empires 2014 -> The American Dream Synthesis: Myth or Reality? 2014 -> Questions over Doctor Faustus 2014 -> Feed study Guide Characters Titus 2014 -> Want/Need/Desire Page # (Specific Evidence) What does s/he want? Conflict/Challenge/Obstacle Page # (Specific Evidence) What is in his/her way? Download 24.65 Kb. Share with your friends:
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