Title: War and the American State, 1914
1- War and the American State, 19141920
2- The Great War, 19141918
- War in Europe
- The Perils of Neutrality
- Over There
3- How and why did World War I began?
- Evaluate and discuss President Wilsons decision
- to enter the war in 1917.
- Why World War I was considered a total war.
- How he war affected economic affairs and social
- relationships in America?
- How and why President Wilson attempted to
- shape the Treaty of Versailles?
- The failures of the Settlement of
- 19191920 to achieve a lasting peace in America
- and in Europe.
4The Great War, 1914-1918
5- When war erupted, most Americans saw no reason to
involve themselves in the struggle among Europe's
imperialist powers the United States had a good
relationship with both sides. - Almost from the moment the Triple Entente was
formed in 1907 to counter the Triple Alliance,
European leaders began to prepare for an
inevitable conflict. - Austria's seizure of Bosnia and Herzegovina in
1908 enraged Russia and Serbia Serbian
terrorists recruited Bosnians to agitate against
Austrian rule.
6- On June 28,1914, Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian,
assassinated Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the
Austro-Hungarian throne, and his wife in the town
of Sarajevo.
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8- After the assassination, the complex European
alliance system drew all of the major powers into
war within a few days. - The two rival blocs faced off Great Britain,
France, Japan, Russia, and Italy formed the
Allied Powers, while Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Turkey, and Bulgaria formed the Central Powers. - Because the alliance system encompassed competing
imperial powers, the conflict spread to parts of
the world far beyond Europe, including the Middle
East, Africa, and China. The worldwide scope of
the conflict came to be known as "the Great War,"
or later, World War I.
9- World War I utilized new military technology,
much of it from the United States, which made
armies more deadly than before. - Trench warfare produced unprecedented numbers of
casualties between February and December of
1916, the French suffered 550,000 casualties and
the Germans 450,000.
10- World War I could be considered the first
"modern" war. Aside from the debut of the machine
gun (seen here), it also marked the advent of air
forces, submarines, tanks, and chemical warfare.
Casualties skyrocketed accordingly, due mostly to
the new, ruthlessly efficient weaponry, but also
because armies continued to use 19th century
tactics like trench warfare.
11The Perils of Neutrality
- After the war began in Europe, President Woodrow
Wilson made it clear that America would remain
neutral he believed that if America kept aloof
from the quarrel, he could arbitrate and
influence a European settlement. - The United States had divided loyalties
concerning the war many Americans felt deep
cultural ties to the Allies, while others,
especially Irish and German immigrants, had
strong pro-German sentiments.
12- Progressive leaders opposed American
participation in the European conflict, new
pacifist groups mobilized popular opposition, the
political left condemned the war as
imperialistic, and some industrialists, such as
Henry Ford, bankrolled antiwar activities. - African American leaders saw the war as a
conflict of the white race only. - The British imposed a naval blockade that in
effect prevented neutral nations, including the
United States, from trading with Germany and its
Allies.
13American Neutrality (cont)
- Loans to Britain and France, but not to Germany
- Little protest to British violations of U.S.
neutral rights - German submarine warfare
- Designed to combat British dominance of the seas
14- The resulting trade imbalance translated into
closer U.S. economic ties with the Allies,
despite America's official posture of neutrality. - The German navy launched a devastating new
weapon, the U-boat, and issued a warning to
civilians that all ships flying the flags of
Britain or its Allies were liable to be
destroyed. - On May 7,1915, the British luxury liner Lusitania
was torpedoed by a German U-boat off the coast of
Ireland 128 Americans were among the 1,198
people killed.
15- Led to sharp protest from Wilson
- Government refused to yield unless Britain
allowed cargo to reach German ports - Seemed to show that war with Germany was
inevitable
16In February 1915, Germany announced that it
intended to sink on sight enemy ships en route to
the British Isles. On May 7, 1915, a German
U-boat torpedoed the British passenger liner
Lusitania, killing 1,198 passengers, 128 of them
U.S. citizens. American newspapers featured
drawings of drowning women and children, and some
editorials demanded war. Propaganda posters like
this one were used to encourage military
enlistment once the United States entered World
War I in 1917.
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18Arabic pledge
- Germany would warn non-military ships 30 minutes
before they sank them to make sure the passengers
and crew got out safely. They broke this pledge
on March 24, 1916
19The Sussex
- March 24th 1916 a German submarine in the English
Channel attacked what it thought was a mine
laying ship. - French passenger steamer called 'The Sussex'
and, although it didn't sink and limped into
port, fifty people were killed. Several Americans
were injured and, on April 19th, the US President
(Woodrow Wilson) addressed Congress on the issue.
He gave an ultimatum Germany should end attacks
on passenger vessels, or face America 'breaking
off' diplomatic relations.
20- Germany promised to alter their naval and
submarine policy of unrestricted submarine
warfare and stop the indiscriminate sinking of
non-military ships. Instead, Merchant Ships would
be searched and sunk only if they contained
contraband, and then only after safe passage had
been provided for the crew and passengers.
21American Neutrality (cont)
- House-Grey Memorandum, February 1916
- The so-called 'House-Grey Memorandum', noted in
memo form by Grey, involved the U.S. 'inviting'
German participation in a U.S. inspired peace
convention the failure of Germany to attend
would lead to U.S. military involvement.
22- Won applause from many Americans
- American Union Against Militarism
- Campaign in 1916 based on his peace efforts
- Plans for international organization to maintain
peace - Laid out principles for a lasting peace in early
1917 - Constituted new world order based on equality of
all nations
23- Despite repeated attempts to mediate an end to
the European conflict through his aide, Colonel
Edward House, Wilson worried that the United
States might be drawn into the conflict in the
fall of 1915, he endorsed a 1 billion buildup of
the army and navy.
24- Public opposition to entering the war made the
election of 1916 a contest between two antiwar
candidates-Wilson and Charles Evans Hughes
Wilson won by only a slim margin that limited his
options in mobilizing the nation for war. - The events of early 1917 diminished Wilson's
lingering hopes of staying out of the conflict.
25German Escalation
- German push for victory on land and at sea, early
1917 - To counter effect of Russian exit from war
- Zimmerman telegram
26- The resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare,
in conjunction with the Zimmermann telegram,
inflamed anti-German sentiment in America.
27- coded telegram dispatched by the Foreign
Secretary of the German Empire, Arthur
Zimmermann, on January 16, 1917, to the German
ambassador in the United States of America,
Johann von Bernstorff - January 19, Bernstorff, per Zimmermann's
request, forwarded the Telegram to the German
ambassador in Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.
28- Zimmermann sent the Telegram in anticipation of
the resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare
by the German Empire on February 1, an act which
German High Command feared would draw the neutral
United States into war on the side of the Allies.
- The Telegram, intercepted by the US, instructed
Ambassador Eckardt to propose a military alliance
between Germany and Mexico against the United
States. - Mexico was to receive material aid in the
reclamation of territory lost during the
Mexican-American War, specifically the American
states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Eckardt
was also instructed to urge Mexico to help broker
an alliance between Germany and Japan.
29German Escalation
- Benevolent nature of war demonstrated by
overthrow of Tsar Nicholas II in Russia - Helped Wilson justify intervention on side of
democratic powers - April 2, Congress voted to enter war
30Wilson war speech, April 1917Grand experiment to
remake the world
- Throughout March 1917, German U-boats attacked
and sank American ships without warning on April
2, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of
war. Many Americans accepted Wilson's claim that
America had no selfish aims and that U.S.
participation in the war would make the world
"safe for democracy."
31- The United States formally declared war on
Germany on April 6, 1917, although the vote was
far from unanimous.
32"Over There"
- Many Americans assumed that their participation
in the war would be limited to military and
economic aid and were surprised to find that
American troops would be sent to Europe. - To field an adequate fighting force, the American
government conscripted almost 4 million men with
the passage of the Selective Service Act in May
1917 women joined as navy clerks or army nurses. - The Selective Service system combined central
direction from Washington with local
civilian-controlled draft boards.
33Images of women have been used to represent the
United States since the nation was founded.
Posters used female representations to give a
feminine face to war aims. A beautiful woman
flanked by the United States flag or dressed in
"the stars and stripes" represented the
patriotism of a nation at war. This poster
depicts a beseeching woman wearing a cap that
clearly echoes the American flag. In the backdrop
is a European city with its church towers in
flames, a potent reminder to Americans safe at
home of the devastating war across the Atlantic.
34Women's efforts were central to the nation's call
for patriotism. In the midst of the final stages
of their drive for citizenship, many women saw
themselves, if not quite as regular soldiers, as
members of a volunteer army that blanketed the
nation in support of various wartime mobilization
drives. These activities required exceptional
administrative skills, and for some leisure-class
women, this became full-time work. Given the
eagerness with which women rushed into the public
sphere to support the war, it is ironic that the
majority of these images depicted traditional
notions of womanhood. This poster features a
female form to indicate that America's honor
needed fighting men to protect it.
35- War posters traded on images of female
sexuality. The saucy young woman dressed in a
military uniform in this an image created by
well-known artist Howard Chandler Christy,
provocatively exclaims, "I Wish I Were a Man."
What does this image suggest about modern notions
of female sexuality emerging in the prewar years?
Consider how the cross-dressed figure
communicates the proper roles of men and women in
wartime.
36Hollywood joined in the government's efforts to
work up war rage against the "brutal Huns, as
Germans were often called. In a film made for the
British and French governments by America's
leading filmmaker, D. W. Griffith, a hulking
German is about to whip a defenseless farm woman
(Lillian Gish, one of the nation's favorite
stars) innocently carrying potatoes from a field.
When the film premiered in Washington, D.C., in
1918, Mrs. Woodrow Wilson wrote Griffith pleading
with him to cut or soften the violent whipping
scene. Her plea was one of the few acts coming
from the nation's capital that sought to moderate
the hate campaign.
37- About 16,000 Native Americans served in the U.S.
armed forces during World War I. This magazine
cover, entitled "The Warrior's Return" offers a
romanticized reconstruction of one homecoming.
The young soldier, still in uniform and
presumably fresh from France, rides his painted
pony to the tepee of his parents, where they
proudly welcome the brave warrior. Their tepee
even has a star, a national symbol that families
with sons in the military displayed on their
homes. The painting sought to demonstrate that
all Americans, even those on the margins of
national life, were sufficiently assimilated and
loyal to join the national sacrifice to defeat
the enemy.
38- After the triumphal parades ended, attention
turned to the question of what the heroes would
do at home. The Department of Labor poster tries
to convey a strong image of purposefulness and
prosperity by portraying a soldier in front of a
booming industrial landscape. The U.S. Employment
Service had little to offer veterans beyond
posters, however, and unions were unprepared to
cope with the massive numbers of former soldiers
who needed retraining. As workplace conditions
deteriorated, the largest number of strikes in
the nation's history broke out in 1919.
39- Before the war ended, some 25,000 American women
made it to France, all as volunteers.
Ex-president Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed war
the "Great Adventure, and some women were eager
to share in it. About half became nurses, where
as one said, they dealt with "a sea of
stretchers, a human carpet. Women also drove
ambulances, acted as social workers, and ran
canteens for the Red Cross and the YMCA. One YMCA
worker, Mary Baldwin, hoped that a few hours in
her canteen would "make life, and even death,
easier out there.' A handful of female
physicians worked as contract surgeons for the
U.S. army. Dr. Loy McAfee wore this uniform in
France.
40- Nothing could make living in the trenches
anything better than miserable, but a decent
shave with a Gillette safety razor could offer
temporary relief.
41- While trenches could be dry, rains brought
mud so deep that wounded men drowned in it. By
the time American doughboys arrived in Europe,
troops had faced one another for more than three
years, burrowed into a double line of trenches,
protected by barbed wire, machine gun nests, and
mortars, backed by heavy artillery. A pair of dry
boots was perhaps one of the greatest comforts a
soldier could experience in the trench.
42- General John J. Pershing was head of the American
Expeditionary Force (AEF), but the new recruits
had to be trained before being transported across
the submarine infested Atlantic. - The government countered the U-boats by sending
armed convoys across the Atlantic the plan
worked no American soldiers were killed on the
way to Europe. - Pershing was reluctant to put his men under
foreign commanders thus, until May 1918, the
French and the British still bore the brunt of
the fighting.
43- Their burden increased when the Eastern Front
collapsed after the Russian Revolution in
November 1917. Under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk,
the new Bolshevik regime surrendered about a
third of Russia's territories in return for peace
with the Central Powers. - At the request of Allied leaders, Pershing
committed about 60,000 Americans to help the
French repel the Germans in the battles of
Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood.
44- American and Allied forces brought the .German
offensive to a halt in mid-July by mid-September
1918, American and French troops had forced the
Germans to retreat. - An intense campaign in the Argonne forest
eventually broke the German defenses, at the cost
of over 26,000 American lives.
45American Fighting Force
- Impact of American entry
- U.S. troops separate from Allied forces
- American Expeditionary Force
- John J. Pershing
- Eased pressure on British and French on Western
front
46- Wilsons Fourteen Points, January 1918
- To encounter effect of secret Allied treaties
- Demonstrated that war was being fought for just
purposes - Germany launched huge offensives in March and
April of 1918 - War ended in November 1918
47The American Fighting Force
- The United States lost 53,000 American servicemen
in the fighting, and another 63,000 died from
other causes the Allies and Central Powers lost
8 million soldiers. - The ethnic diversity of the American military
worried some observers, but most optimistically
predicted that service in the armed forces would
promote the Americanization of immigrants. - The Americanization of the army was imperfect at
best African Americans were in segregated units
under the control of white officers and were
assigned to the most menial tasks.
48- Racial violence erupted at several camps. The
worst incident occurred in Houston in August
1917, when 15 white soldiers were killed by black
soldiers in retaliation for a string of racial
incidents. - A group of former AEF soldiers formed the first
American Legion in 1919 in order to preserve the
"memories and incidents" of their association in
the Great War. War on the Home Front
49- War on the Home Front
- Mobilizing Industry and the Economy
- Mobilizing American Workers
- Wartime Reform Woman Suffrage and Prohibition
- Promoting National Unity
50Mobilizing Industry and the Economy
- The cost of the war to America eventually reached
33 billion. The government paid for the war by
enacting the War Revenue Bills of 1917 and 1918,
and by collecting excess-profits taxes from
corporations. - The central agency for coordinating wartime
production, the War Industries Board (WIB) under
Bernard Baruch, epitomized an unparalleled
expansion of the federal government's powers.
51- Despite higher taxes, corporate profits soared,
aided by an economic boom and the institution of
price guarantees for war work. - To ease a fuel shortage in the winter of
1917-1918, the Fuel Administration ordered the
temporary closing of factories, and the Railroad
War Board took temporary control of the railroads
when traffic slowed troop movement. - The Food Administration encouraged farmers to
expand production and encouraged housewives to
conserve food at no time was it necessary for
the government to contemplate domestic food
rationing.
52- Herbert Hoover headed the Food Administration
during World War I. Sober and tireless, he led
remarkably successful "Hooverizing campaigns for
"meatless Mondays and "wheatless Wednesdays and
other means of conserving resources. Guaranteed
high prices, the American heartland not only
supplied the needs of U.S. citizens and armed
forces but also became the breadbasket of
America's allies.
53Even as posters encouraged women to participate
in war activities by buying Liberty Bonds,
supporting the Red Cross, knitting socks for
soldiers, or conserving food, the images rarely
challenged traditional ideas of women's proper
place. This is a recruitment poster for the Land
Army, a voluntary organization formed to mobilize
women as temporary farmworkers. Notice how it
links labor on the home front to the war.
54- American officials were adamant that all sectors
of the population be reached by the propaganda
campaigns that urged Americans to buybonds,
conserve food, enlist, and support the war effor
in countless other ways. They targeted immigrants
with posters such as this one for Liberty Bonds
in the hopes no only that the foreign-born would
buy bonds, but in doing so they would become more
Americanized and more deeply committed to their
adopted home.
55- With the signing of the armistice in 1918, the
WIB was disbanded most Americans could tolerate
government planning power during an emergency but
not permanently. - The United States' participation in the war
lasted just eighteen months, but it left an
enduring legacy the modern bureaucratic state.
56Mobilizing American Workers
- The National War Labor Board (NWLB) and acute
labor shortages helped to improve labor's
position with eight-hour days, time-and-a-half
pay for overtime, and the endorsement of equal
pay for women. - During the war emergency, northern factories
actively recruited African Americans, spawning
the "Great Migration" from the South. More than
400,000 African Americans from the South moved to
northern industrial cities, where despite
discrimination, they found new opportunities and
an escape from the repressive southern
agricultural system.
57- On occasion, war posters acknowledged
women who crossed conventional gender barriers
when they took jobs in war work. These images
were usually issued by the Young Women's
Christian Association (YWCA), which produced its
own posters. During the war, the YWCA continued
its prewar activism on behalf of young working
women and distributed the poster depicted here as
part of its fund-raising campaign. In keeping
with YWCA literature that praised women factory
workers' vital contribution to defense, this
image emphasizes female strength and solidarity.
Note too the graphic style of this image.
58- Women took on new jobs during the war, working as
mail carriers, polic officers, drill-press
operators, and farm laborers attached to the
Women's Land Army. These women are riveters at
the Puget Sound Navy Yard in Washington. Black
women in particular, who customarily were limited
to employment as domestic servants or
agricultural laborers, found that the war opened
up new opportunities and better wages in
industry. When the war ended, black and white
women alike usually lost jobs deemed to be men's
work
59- Wartime labor shortages prompted many Mexican
Americans to leave farm labor for industrial jobs
in southwestern cities. At least 100,000 Mexicans
entered the United States between 1917 and 1920,
often settling in segregated neighborhoods
(barrios) in urban areas, meeting discrimination
similar to that faced by African Americans. - 4. About I million women joined the labor force
for the first time, and many of the 8 miUion
already working switched from low-paying fields
to higher-paying industrial work.
60Wartime Constitutionalism Woman Suffrage and
Prohibition
- Members of the National American Woman Suffrage
Association (NA WSA) felt that women's patriotic
service could advance the cause of woman suffrage.
61- Members of the National Woman's Party (NWP) were
arrested and jailed for picketing the White
House they became martyrs through their hunger
strike and drew attention to the issue of woman
suffrage. - In January 1918, Wilson withdrew his opposition
to a federal woman suffrage amendment. The
amendment quickly passed the House but took
eighteen months to get through the Senate,
followed by another year of hard work for
ratification by the states. On August 26, 1920,
the goal of woman suffrage was finally achieved
with the Nineteenth Amendment.
62- Throughout the mobilization period, advocates
pushed for social reforms enacting a federal
wartime family assistance program for dependents
of servicemen, launching a campaign against
sexually transmitted diseases, and lobbying for
the prohibition of alcohol.
63- Prohibition met with resistance in the cities
because alcoholic beverages played an important
role in the social life of certain ethnic
cultures. - Many states already had Prohibition laws, but
World War I offered the impetus for national
action, as beer drinking became unpatriotic in
many people's minds. - In December 1917, Congress passed the Eighteenth
Amendment prohibiting the "manufacture, sale, or
transportation of intoxicating liquors." Ratified
in 1919 and made effective on January 16,1920,
the Eighteenth Amendment demonstrated the
widening influence of the state in matters of
personal behavior.
64Prohibition
- Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors
and into dark places, and does not cure or even
diminish it. - MARK TWAIN
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66- This image shows the suffrage militants of
the National Woman's Party picketing the White
House during World War I. College graduates, they
identified themselves by their alma maters.
Though criticized by more moderate suffragists,
these radical suffragists sought to embarrass
President Wilson by graphically pointing out the
hypocrisy of a war fought for democracy while
women at home were not enfranchised.
67- The Anti-Saloon League of America saw conquering
the alcohol problem as more than an American
crusade. In 1916 at the convention of the ASL in
Indianapolis Ernest Cherrington presented an
address to the convention titled "The World
Movement Toward Prohibition of the Liquor
Traffic."
68- No beer, no vodka, no rum, no fun. Prohibition in
the 1920s was nation wide when the 18th
Amendment went into affect. On January 16, 1920
the United States officially had a ban on the
sale, consumption, and creation of all alcoholic
beverages.
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70Promoting National Unity
- Formed in 1917, the Committee on Public
Information (CPI) promoted public support for the
war and acted as a nationalizing force by
promoting the development of a national ideology. - During the war, the CPI touched the lives of
practically every American, and in its zeal, it
often used inflammatory stories.
71Promoting National Unity
- Committee on Public Information headed by George
Creel
72- Many Americans found themselves targets of
suspicion as self-appointed agents of the
American Protective League spied on neighbors and
coworkers. - The CPI encouraged ethnic groups to give up their
Old World customs in the spirit of "One Hundred
Percent Americanism," an insistence on conformity
and an intolerance of dissent. German Americans
bore the brunt of this campaign owing to the
hostility generated by propaganda about German
militarism and outrages.
73- Law enforcement officials tolerated little
criticism of established values and institutions
legal tools for curbing dissent included the
Espionage Act of 1917, which imposed stiff
penalties for antiwar activities, and the
Sedition Act of 1918, which focused on disloyal
speech, writing, and behavior. - The acts, which defined treason and sedition
loosely, led to the conviction of more than one
thousand people and focused particularly on
socialists and radical groups such as the IWW
(the Wobblies). - Courts rarely resisted wartime legal excesses. In
Schenck v. United States, the Supreme Court
upheld limits on freedom of speech that would not
have been acceptable in peacetime.
74An Unsettled Peace 1919-1920
- Treaty of Versailles
- Racial Strife
75Treaty of Versailles
- 14 Points
- Georges Clemenceau stated Moses only had to have
10 Commandments Wilson has to have 14
76- The Allies accepted Wilson's Fourteen Points as
the basis for the peace negotiations for the
Treaty of Versailles that began in January 1919. - Wilson called for open diplomacy, freedom of
navigation upon the seas, arms reduction, the
removal of trade barriers, and national
self-determination. - Essential to Wilson's vision was the creation of
a multinational organization "for the purpose of
affording mutual guarantees of political
independence and territorial integrity to great
and small States alike." The League of Nations
became Wilson's obsession.
77- The Fourteen Points were imbued with the spirit
of progressivism, but the lofty goals and ideals
for world reformation proved too far reaching to
be practical or attainable. - According to Article X of the peace treaty, the
League of Nations would curb aggressor countries
through collective military action. - Representatives from twenty-seven countries
attended the peace conference in Versailles, but
representatives from Germany and Russia were
excluded.
78- France, Italy, and Great Britain wanted to punish
Germany and treat themselves to the spoils of war
by demanding heavy reparations they had also
made secret agreements to divide up the German
colonies. - National self-determination bore fruit in the
creation of the independent states of Austria,
Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia.
79- The creation of the new nations of Finland,
Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia upheld the
principle of self-determination, while also
isolating Soviet Russia from the rest of Europe. - Wilson won only limited concessions regarding the
colonial empires. The Central Powers' colonial
empires in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East were
dismantled, but instead of becoming independent
countries, the colonies were assigned to
victorious Allied nations to administer as
mandates. - Certain topics, such as freedom of the seas and
free trade, never even appeared on the agenda
because of Allied resistance.
80- Wilson had only partial success in scaling back
French and British demands for reparations from
Germany, which eventually were set at 33
billion. - Wilson consoled himself with the negotiators'
commitment to his proposed League of Nations. He
acknowledged that the peace treaty had defects
but expressed confidence that they could be
resolved by a permanent international
organization dedicated to the peaceful resolution
of disputes. - A peace treaty was signed in Versailles on June
28,1919, but when Wilson presented the treaty to
the U.S. Senate, it did not receive the necessary
wo-thirds vote for ratification.
81- Progressive senators felt that the treaty was too
conservative, "irreconcilables" disapproved of
permanent U.S. participation in European affairs,
and Republicans wanted to amend Article X because
they thought it would restrict Congress's
constitutional authority to declare war and would
limit the freedom of the United States to pursue
a unilateral foreign policy. - In September of 1919, Wilson went on a speaking
tour to defend the treaty, but the tour was cut
short when he collapsed a week later he suffered
a severe stroke.
82- Wilson remained inflexible in his refusal to
compromise, but the treaty was not ratified when
it came up for a vote in the Senate in 1919 and
again in 1920. - The United States never ratified the Versailles
treaty or joined the League of Nations. Many
wartime issues were only partially resolved some
unresolved problems played a major role in the
coming of World War II.
83Racial Strife, Labor Unrest, and the Red Scare
84- Many African Americans emerged from the war
determined to stand up for their rights. - Blacks who had migrated to the North and blacks
who had served in the war had high expectations
that exacerbated white racism lynching nearly
doubled in the South, and race riots broke out in
the North. - A variety of tensions were present in northern
cities where violence erupted black voters
determined the winners of close elections, and
blacks competed with whites for jobs and housing.
85- Workers of all races had hopes for a better life,
but after the war employers resumed attacks on
union activity, and rapidly rising inflation
threatened to wipe out wage increases. - As a result of workers' determination and
employers' resistance, one in every five workers
went on strike in 1919 strikes were held by
steelworkers, shipyard workers in Seattle, and
policemen in Boston. - Governor Calvin Coolidge of Massachusetts fired
the entire Boston police force, and that strike
failed Coolidge was rewarded with the Republican
vice presidential nomination in 1920.
86- A crucial factor in organized labor's failure to
win many of its strikes in the post-War period
was the pervasive fear of radicalism in America,
which coincided with a longstanding anxiety
about unassimilated immigrants, an anxiety that
had been made worse by the war. - The Russian Revolution ofl917 so alarmed the
Allies that Wilson sent several thousand troops
to Russia in hopes of weakening the Bolshevik
regime. - American fears of Communism were deepened as the
labor unrest coincided with the founding of the
Bolsheviks' Third International (or Comintern) to
export Communist doctrine and revolution to the
rest of the world.
87- Ironically, as public concern about domestic
Bolshevism increased, the U.S. Communist Party
and the Communist Labor Party were rapidly losing
members and political power. - II. Tensions mounted with a series of bombings in
the early spring of 1919 in November, Attorney
General A. Mitchell Palmer staged the first of
what were known as "Palmer raids," in which
federal agents stormed the headquarters of
radical organizations
88Mitchell Palmer
89- Lacking the protection of U.S. citizenship,
thousands of aliens who had committed no crime
but were suspect because of their anarchist or
revolutionary beliefs or their immigrant
backgrounds faced deportation without formal
trial or indictment. - Palmer predicted that a conspiracy attempt to
overthrow the government would occur on May Day
in 1920 when the incident never occurred, the
hysteria of the Red Scare began to abate.
90- At the height of the Red Scare, Nicola Sacco and
Bartolomeo Vanzetti-alien draft evaders-were
arrested for robbery and murder, were denied a
new trial even though evidence surfaced that
suggested their innocence, and were executed in
1927.
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92- The war left racial, ethnic, and class tensions
in its wake. With few casualties and no physical
destruction at home, the positive legacy was that
America emerged from the war stronger than ever-a
major international power economically and
politically.
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