 I've pretty much had that affect my entire life. I'd get on the bus as a child, and the whole bus would just kind of stop and stare at me. I'm not sure why. Hey, it's really great to have you all here. This is our third year of doing this series of lectures, and it's an opportunity really to welcome the spouses and significant others to the War College family. In some cases, you get to see the type of lectures that your spouse is undergoing, spouse or significant other, gives them a chance to stay at home and bond even additionally with the children, which is never a bad thing too. I was joking, but it's not too much of a joke that traditionally little groups form, and after you hear this extraordinary lecture, you'll be compelled to go out to dinner to talk about it, and then it just becomes a growing social network. And speaking of social networks, we really couldn't do this on our own. We have an extraordinary faculty and staff here, and these lectures are cosponsored by the Fleet and Family Support Center, and Anne is in the back wearing blue, and she has a lot of materials about the services provided by the Fleet and Family Support Center, so if you have the time afterwards, feel free to stop by and talk to Anne, and Anne, we thank you for being here, because sincerely, these kind of activities really take a team to be able to execute. I guess I should have started off by telling you who I am. I'm that guy in white with the attractive $7 haircut, and I'm Jeff Harley. I work for the faculty and staff here at the college. So later you'll see the list of lectures that are provided here, and it's pretty extraordinary. It's just a wide range of topics all designed to give you a little bit of exposure to the many, many topics presented to the students who attend your U.S. Naval War College, and it's a chance for us to give back to you to thank you for your contributions to the families, to the service that you've all signed up for, so I thank you so much for that. So with that, I'm going to introduce the program coordinator, Professor Pilotti. He's going to provide some administrative remarks before we get to the core of the evening. God bless you all. One last administrative note is we have some children here, including me. Children crying are just the voice of God trying to get out, so we'll just make an agreement ahead of time that we're all just going to put up with it, and it's all going to be good. So thank you, everybody. Thank you, Admiral Harley. Good afternoon, and happy new year. Happy holidays to everyone. As Admiral Harley said, I'm Dave Pilotti, and I will serve as your host or your moderator for the next 10 lectures at a minimum. The sheet that you have in front of you, if you grabbed a handout, those are the 10 that are definitively scheduled. We're waiting on at least one, if not maybe two guest lecturers from outside the college's faculty that we will add on as the year progresses. If you could please sign in, and if you'd like to put an email down, that allows us to make sure you get updates if we have inclement weather and have to postpone one, or if we're going to have an add-on, we can give you plenty of heads up on the date. Just to reiterate what Admiral Harley said, many thanks to Anne from the Fleet and Family Support Program. We really appreciate you being here. And before I introduce this amazing lecture that you're going to see, just a couple of notes for those of you who didn't get to come to the one prior to the holidays when we kicked off. If you make 80% of the lectures, you are entitled to get a really cool certificate signed by Admiral Harley that says that you participated in more than 80% or more of the lecture series. It is suitable for framing. It's very, very cool. I'm going to come to at least eight so that I get one myself. We're going to promise to finish on time, so I'm going to talk really quick here to Dr. Maurer. So we're shooting for a 545 finish. If you need to get up and leave at any point, we understand. We also anticipate if you're coming late, you don't feel like you can't walk in late. Just come and stay for as much of these as you possibly can. As a general rule, we will not be distributing copies of the slides for the most part because some of the material may be part of future faculty work or publications. However, whenever possible, as with tonight's lecture, John, you're okay with sending out some of the slides here later on? Absolutely. We will send those out. And again, if you sign your email in next to your name, I'll make sure you get copies. Finally, feel free to take notes and talk about the material presented here with your family, friends, and the whole network at large. Just be aware that our speaker's views throughout the entire INS lecture series are theirs and do not necessarily reflect those of the Naval War College, the Department of the Navy, or the Department of Defense. I'll say that so that the other faculty don't have to. Now, on to this awesome presentation for tonight. Professor John Maurer is the Alfred Thayer Mahan Professor of Sea Power and Grand Strategy, and he has also served as the Chair of the Strategy and Policy Department here at the Naval War College. He's a graduate of Yale University and holds a Master's in Law and Diplomacy as well as a PhD in International Relations from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. He has served on several key editorial and advisory positions to include the Secretary of the Navy's Committee on Naval History, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, and the Churchill Center. And as you are about to see, he is by far one of the most popular lecturers here in Newport. I feel lucky every day that I've been here for 14 years and get to hear him speak numerous times in a year. Ladies and gentlemen, Dr. John Maurer. Thank you, Dave, for that introduction. Really thank you for putting on this series for the spouses here at the college. This evening, once we get the first slide to come up, this evening I'm going to talk about events of 100 years ago. 1918, 1919 marked the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. And so we're going to look back 100 years to see where the United States was at that time, where the world was at that time. You're going to see that many of the things going on at that time echo in some way with events going on today. Now, the big theme that I'm going to talk about tonight is about the interplay between American domestic politics and American behavior on the world stage during this period around the First World War. Now, the president of the United States during the First World War was Woodrow Wilson. And here is a portrait of him from 1919, 100 years ago. Now, Wilson was one of the leading scholars in the United States. He was very well educated, educated at Davidson University, Princeton University, went on to a law degree at University of Virginia, and received a PhD in political science from Johns Hopkins University. He was one of the leading academic figures in the United States. He held teaching positions at Brynmore College, Wesleyan College, and Princeton University. He went on to become president of Princeton University. He was an author of several important books. He was probably the world's leading scholar, academic, on the American Constitution. He made a transition from the academic world to the political world. Now, the last major book he wrote was this one here, The Constitutional Government in the United States, dating from 1908. And at that time, the United States was the rising power on the world stage. And Wilson, who had studied the American Constitution, our political institutions, our domestic politics, he understood that the changes in the world environment, the rise of the United States as a great power on the world stage, was going to have an impact on our domestic politics, on our political institutions. And so in this book, he tried to examine what this meant. And in the book he highlights that our presidents can never again be focused just on domestic politics. Instead, American presidents now have to take a broader view beyond the United States to look at the U.S. role in the world. The United States, as he highlighted, has become a great power as what he would call of the first rank, one of the strongest economic powers in the world. Indeed, by this time, the United States is the strongest, the largest, the greatest industrial power in the world. It had surpassed Britain as the leading manufacturing power. The United States has risen to that first rank of great power. And Wilson wanted to highlight that because of that, our president must always recognize that he is now a leader of a great power on the world stage, and whether he will act greatly or wisely or not. Well, this is a story about Woodrow Wilson. Would he act greatly and wisely or not? Again, he then made the transition from being an academic leader to the political world. Well, let's go forward to the election of 1912, the presidential election of that year. Wilson had moved from being president of Princeton University to being governor of New Jersey and then put his hat into the ring and was nominated by the Democrats to run for the presidency. Now, the election of 1912 saw three major candidates run for the presidency. One was the sitting president, the Republican, William Taft. Taft was a really outsized figure, over 300 pounds. He had a special large bathtub in the White House. Look at that mustache. Isn't that a great mustache? Well, running against him was a fellow Republican who had bolded from the Republican Party, wanted the Republican nomination, but didn't get it. Taft got it. Theodore Roosevelt. What a great photograph. See him there at those outsized gestures? You can just imagine him saying, bully, right? And look there, you see the gentlemen of the press with their straw hats. What has happened to straw hats? Well, there he is, delivering a speech. He ran as an independent, the Bull Moose Party, the Progressive Party, because the Republicans nominated Taft instead of him. Well, while out campaigning for the presidency in Milwaukee, there was an assassination attempt. And this is the headline for the New York Times. Don't you just love this? Maniac in Milwaukee. That really has a ring to it, doesn't it? Maniac in Milwaukee takes a shot at former president Theodore Roosevelt, but notice they call him Colonel Roosevelt. He's the rough rider of San Juan Hill, the great war hero of the Spanish-American War. And when you read the column there, it says, you know, bullet in the right breast, doctors say the wound is not serious, lung not penetrated. By the way, talks with physicians while waiting for X-ray machine. By the way, the man who shot former president Roosevelt had stalked him for several weeks. He had a dream, he had a dream, this assassin, that former president William McKinley, McKinley had been president, he had been assassinated in Buffalo, and Theodore Roosevelt had been vice president, and that's how Theodore Roosevelt became president. Anyway, this assassin had a dream in which former president McKinley came to him and said that Theodore Roosevelt was behind the assassination, avenge my death. Well, I guess that's why he gets the label there of maniac. Theodore Roosevelt survived, survived this assassination attempt and went on on the campaign trail. Running for the Democrats, again, was Woodrow Wilson. Now, in this three-way race, this is how it turned out. And what you see here, the red states in the Electoral College are for the Democrats. The blue states here are for the Republican Taft. And the green states are there for the Progressive Party, the Bull Moose Party, Theodore Roosevelt. And as you can see, the independent ran better than the incumbent president of the United States. Theodore Roosevelt carries California, Washington, Pennsylvania, and poor president Taft only carries Utah and Vermont. Now, when you look at the popular vote, you see that Wilson, though he's elected president with an overwhelming vote in the Electoral College, nonetheless, he only has a little more than 40% of the popular vote in this three-way race. Well, in March, 1913, Wilson took the oath of office. Now, 18 months into his first term as president, the Great War broke out in Europe, the First World War, in August of 1914. All of a sudden, Wilson, who wanted to focus on domestic politics, progressive reform agenda, finds that the world has broken out in a great war, the World War. What should be the U.S. position during this struggle that is taking place in Europe? How does this affect American security? Wilson, who wanted to focus on domestic agenda, now finds himself caught up in a world at war. Again, prefigured in his own book from several years before, when he said the U.S. president now is going to get caught up in world affairs. When we think of the First World War, we think of this, the lunar landscape of the Western Front in France and Belgium, of the trenches of soldiers going over the top. And here you see French soldiers going over the top and this poor French soldier being shot as he charges toward the German trenches. Now, this is the popular image we have of the First World War, but remember the First World War also took place at sea. The British instituted a blockade, economic warfare against Germany, to try to hurt the German economy. This is one way that Britain can beat Germany in this First World War, is by restricting trade to Germany, imports of raw material and food. Now, for the German people, how do you respond to this British blockade? What the Germans call the hunger blockade, because it's starving the German people. Well, here's a stamp from Germany in the First World War, and it says Gott straffa England, God punish England. How do you punish England? Well, the instrument of punishment is the submarine, going out on the dawn patrol. You can see the sun rising there on the horizon and out goes the submarine. The submarine is going to range out into the Atlantic Ocean and the waters around the United Kingdom to strike at British trade, to hit British shipping. The British are going to put a hunger blockade on Germany, well then Germany's going to respond with the submarine, to hit British shipping, to hurt the British, to punish them for what they are doing. Well, the result is the sinking of some great ships. And here in May 1915, the great Canard liner, the Lusitania, steaming from New York to Britain, off the southern coast of Ireland, is hit by a torpedo from a German submarine, sinks within 15 minutes. These are drawings of what it looks like today. The Lusitania's wreck has been discovered off the south coast of Ireland, and this is what an artist portrays the Lusitania. This great steamship voted over 40,000 tons displacement now at the bottom. Well, here's the New York Times headline from the next day. As you can see, Lusitania sunk by a submarine, probably 1,000 dead, including a number of Americans, including some of the leading social figures in the United States, like Vanderbilt and Froman, who are missing. Again, Americans, over 100 Americans are killed when the German submarine sinks the Lusitania. This creates a crisis in relations between Germany and the United States. Should Germany be able to fire torpedoes from submarines at the world shipping and sink shipping from around the world that are going to the United Kingdom? Submarines at this time are a weapon that's lethal, but at the same time vulnerable. They're stealthy machines of war. They have to shoot without warning against shipping, because if they try to surface, they might get shot at by a ship like this that has guns on it, or even rammed. So the Germans argue that this weapon of war, the submarine, has to be used in what they call an unrestricted way. They have to be able to fire at all shipping. They can't distinguish between British shipping, American shipping, and, oh, by the way, many British captains are putting American flags on their ships to say we're neutrals when they really aren't. A violation of international law, the Germans claim. Well, yes, indeed. But in wartime survival, survival takes precedent. So the Germans are arguing they have no recourse but to fire indiscriminately at the world shipping. Well, the next, that evening, by the way, when the Lusitania, the first news comes in that the Lusitania has been sunk, reporters went to find Theodore Roosevelt at his home in Oyster Bay in New York on Long Island and said, Colonel Roosevelt, Colonel Roosevelt, what's your opinion? And so he tweeted out, that's murder. That's murder what the Germans have done. It's piracy on a vast scale. This type of sinking of big liners like this and heavy loss of life, noncombatants being killed indiscriminately by the Germans. Theodore Roosevelt thought that this was a cause for war, that the United States should threaten Germany with war. Draw a red line and say, if you continue this kind of warfare with submarines, the United States will no longer be neutral but enter openly into the war against you. Very bellicose, anti-German, very pro-Britain. What was Woodrow Wilson's response, the president? Well, at first for several days he was quiet and said nothing. And then in a speech in Philadelphia to a group of naturalized citizens, he used this phrase that there are times when you can be too proud to fight. Now in the context of the speech it is the Germans are so much in the wrong and everybody knows they're in the wrong in what they did in sinking the Lusitania and neutral shipping that we don't have to really make a strong case for this. We don't have to get into their face. We don't have to be bellicose. It's clear they're in the wrong. Well, Woodrow Wilson immediately regretted making this statement because all of a sudden he came in for criticism from across the political spectrum who said, no, Mr. President, when someone does something obnoxious like this, well, you have to draw those red lines and confront them. There's no such thing as being too proud to fight. Sometimes you have to fight. Well, one of the critics was, of course, Theodore Roosevelt. Well, in 1916 that's another election year and Woodrow Wilson is up for re-election in the first Tuesday in November 1916 and one of the biggest issues is war or peace. Should the United States go to war against Germany or should we try to preserve our neutrality as best we can? Well, this is what the campaign button for Woodrow Wilson was. As you can see there's a war in Europe, the Great War, the First World War, but there's peace in America. Woodrow Wilson kept us out of war. God bless Wilson. This very much represents American opinion at this time. While American opinion is hardening against Germany throughout this period of time, there are also people who say, now, just wait a second, we don't want to be involved in a war in Europe, over there, far away. By the way, the British have instituted this blockade. They're violating international law just as the Germans are. Why should we choose one side over the other in all of this? What real national security interest is at stake that we should go to war against Germany? A war that's bound to be costly in treasure and most of all in life. Why should we intervene over there? Well, this has a popular appeal though. While the American people don't want to see Germany win the war, at the same time, they don't want to see the United States in the war. Again, we're going to see that again in the Second World War, in the period leading up to Pearl Harbor. Well, he kept us out of war. What does Theodore Roosevelt think about this? You know, today we like to think that our politics is uniquely partisan and that in the past, American political leaders all got along, group hug, they didn't criticize each other. They weren't mean to each other in their rhetoric. Well, when you have a little bit of historical perspective, you realize that American politics is always intensely partisan and that leaders argue with one another all the time and say things that are so hurtful that it goes beyond the realms of politics as business to politics as deeply personal. Well, this is what Theodore Roosevelt wrote in a newspaper column that President Wilson is guilty of ignoble shirking of responsibility. He's used a misleading phrase. The phrase of a coward. Here's a former president calling the sitting president a coward because he uses the phrase he kept us out of war. Again, Roosevelt thinks that Germany must be confronted even to the point of going to war. Well, Woodrow Wilson responded to Theodore Roosevelt in this speech in northern New Jersey to a group of young Democrats, college students, and this is what Wilson had to say. He doesn't mention Roosevelt by name, by the way. He says a very articulate voice, meaning Roosevelt. Shot through with what? Bitterness. Losing elections in other words. You're bitter because you don't win elections. Every form of ugly hate, look at that. Debased purpose, revengeful. That's how Wilson is characterizing Theodore Roosevelt. These two men don't like each other. I'm sure you've gotten that already. And on a deeply personal level, they don't like each other. It's not just about politics and whether the U.S. should be in the war or not. It's also a matter of character. They don't like each other. Well, there's one person who is in the Wilson administration who agrees with his relative, Theodore Roosevelt, and that is Franklin D. Roosevelt. Here's a 30-something Franklin D. Roosevelt who is Assistant Secretary of the Navy in the Wilson administration. The number two civilian position in the U.S. Navy at this time in the period of the First World War is Franklin D. Roosevelt. And behind the scenes, to his friends, Franklin D. Roosevelt agrees with Theodore, which is, we've got to get into this war. If the U.S. doesn't get into this war, Germany will win the war. Now, publicly, he's not going to say that. He's going to be loyal to his boss, the president. But behind the scenes, he agrees with Theodore. And go forward 25 years, Franklin D. Roosevelt as president in 1940 and 41 also believes that the United States has to get into that war, the Second World War, or else Germany will win it. To look at the Second World War, you also have to look at the First World War because the leaders of the Second World War all had experience in the First World War, an experience that went deep. It in some way shapes who they are, how they think, but also their emotions. And so what you see is a continuity here in Franklin D. Roosevelt of a fear of Germany, of a German-dominated Europe, that that has to be prevented. Well, the 1916 election is a nail-biter. And here you see what the Electoral College looked like. Again, Wilson still doesn't get 50% of the vote. Wilson thought he would not be re-elected. He thought he would lose to the Republican Charles Evans Hughes. And it really was a close election. When you look at this map at the Electoral College, you can see the Republicans are doing well in the areas where they typically did do well. But two states that should have gone Republican, Ohio and California, go instead for Woodrow Wilson. Wilson, by the way, after election day, thought that he was going to lose. But as the returns came in from California and Ohio, it became clear that he was going to be the next president. This is something of an upset, this election. But Woodrow Wilson is re-elected as president in the United States in November of 1916. Well, as we like to say today, the enemy gets a vote. The United States can't be absorbed by our own politics. There's a wider world out there that has an impact on us. We don't control everything. Other countries, their behavior, they have an impact on us. Well, Germany, under Kaiser Wilhelm II, has decided that the only way, he as generals and admirals have decided that the only way that Germany can win this war is resorting to that unrestricted submarine warfare. And here you see a painting by a German artist by the name of Willi Stauer. Stauer was the Kaiser's favorite maritime artist. And what do you see here? You see a German submarine deck gun being pointed toward an American ship with a big American flag, another Willi Stauer sending it to the bottom. Again, the Kaiser is, the Americans are confronting us. Their neutrality is helping Britain. American armaments, American funding, is going to the British and the French. They say they're neutral, but their neutrality actually favors Germany's enemies. Germany has to respond with the submarine. Go after all of shipping, neutral shipping, including the U.S. Now, Wilson has made clear that this is a red line, that if Germany pursues unrestricted submarine warfare and sinks American ships, that the United States will go to war. Well, in January 1917, the Kaiser's regime as generals and admirals have a big council of war, and they decide they must go ahead with unrestricted submarine warfare if they're going to win the war. The red line is crossed. The enemy has voted. And so in April 1917, President Wilson went to a joint session of Congress and asked for a declaration of war. And on Good Friday 1917, the Congress passed a resolution for war against Imperial Germany. Now, in the address, and here's the front page of the New York Times the day after the President's speech, the President lays out the reasons why the United States has to fight against Germany. And one of the most famous phrases that comes from his speech is that the world must be made safe for democracy. Peace, a genuine peace in the world for the United States to be at peace must be planted upon what? The tested foundations of political liberty. Wilson is highlighting something that's important to us today. The United States is most secure, most at peace when the world is more democratic. When there are other democracies out there, democracies don't fight each other. It's called the Democratic Peace Theory by political scientists today. The way to promote world peace is to expand democracy around the world. A world that doesn't have democracies, more authoritarian regimes will pose a threat to the United States. And if that happens, then American civil liberties have to be curtailed. The more dangerous the international environment is, the less we can have it liberties at home because to be secure, to protect ourselves, we have to make sure that the enemy can't strike us. And so we have to build up a national security state, a military industrial complex. We have to build up security services like the FBI and all the rest to keep track of terrorists. By the way, there's a fear of German terrorists at this time because there was a big explosion of an ammunition factory in New Jersey before we went to war. The explosion was so great that it rattled windows in Manhattan. So again, you have to have security services, police services to make sure that you're safe against this kind of attack. Well, a more peaceful world means a more democratic world, a more dangerous world, a more insecure world is going to have an impact on our own ability to have civil liberties, liberty, freedom at home. This is an important debate. What is the balance between security, curtailment of civil liberties in a dangerous world? And it's one we face today, of course, in dealing with terrorism. How much do we want to curtail our own liberties to make us feel secure? And again, there's a trade off there. It's one of those things that stretches back 100 years that Wilson is dealing with that we deal with today. It's one of those things that resonate with us today. Well, for Wilson it is Germany, the authoritarian military dictatorship in Germany has to be defeated, converted to democracy if you want to have a more peaceful world. Well, the American people respond to Wilson. They understand that the Germans have provoked a war with the United States on the Red Line by their aggressive offensive behavior on the high seas in the way they use submarines. And here you see a painting of New York's Fifth Avenue festooned with American flags. A draft is instituted. A large army is going to be raised. American soldiers are going to be trained up to go be deployed over there to France to take part in the battles of the western front, that lunar landscape over there. Well, not everybody agreed that the U.S. should have a draft and send American soldiers over there. One of the persons who disagreed was Eugene Debs. He was the head of the Socialist Party of the United States. He had run for the presidency of the United States. He didn't think the U.S. should be in this war. He saw himself as a genuine progressive. Who did this war benefit, he argued? It doesn't benefit the common people of the country. It only benefits those great munition factory owners or the big financiers of Wall Street who have lent out money to the British and the French. As they like to say at the time, it's a rich man's war but a poor man's fight. The United States shouldn't be involved in this. And a curtailment, talk about curtailment of civil liberties, a draft that you take young men and say, you must serve in the army and not for home defense but to be deployed way over there. Eugene Debs said no to this. Now during the First World War, the administration, the Wilson administration, the Congress passed sedition laws. Laws that were stringent in curtailing free speech. There were some things you couldn't say that would undermine morale or undermine the war effort. In Canton, Ohio in June 1918, Eugene Debs gave a speech and when you read the speech, it's resonant with class warfare that only the rich benefit from this war. He's very careful to say that American young men should not, should not dodge the draft but the implication is clear. They should dodge the draft. As a consequence, Eugene Debs is prosecuted and convicted, convicted under these sedition laws. And here he is, a federal prisoner sent to a federal prison in Atlanta, prisoner 9653. Again, here's a curtailment of civil liberties that in wartime you cannot speak openly in the way that Eugene Debs did. By the way, Debs appealed this, it went all the way up to the Supreme Court and the laws were upheld. Anyway, here he is, a federal, a felon for speaking out against the war. Well, after the war, when the war is over around Woodrow Wilson, his advisor said why don't you commute Debs's sentence or pardon him? I mean, after all, the war is over now. Woodrow Wilson was bitter about this and this is what he had to say when his advisor said to him, pardon Eugene Debs. He said, well, American youth is fighting in the cause of civilization. Over in France, Debs, what did he do? Behind the lines, he's sniping, attacking, denouncing them. This man's a traitor. Here's a man who's run for president of the United States. He's a traitor. And Wilson will never pardon him while he is president of the United States. Again, you can see how partisan and bitter American politics happen to be. Now, in the 1920 presidential election, after the war was over, Eugene Debs, while still in a federal penitentiary in Atlanta, ran for president of the United States as a felon he can't vote, but he can run for president. And there he is, vote for convict number 9653. By the way, Eugene Debs got almost one million votes from his prison cell in the 1920 election. He was eventually, his sentence was commuted by the Republican president who came in in 1921, Warren G. Harding. In fact, the Republican Harding not only commuted Debs' sentence, but invited him to dinner at the White House. Again, they're an act of reconciliation. The American Left, when you look at the history of the American Left and American history, this episode of Debs' imprisonment, a leader of a major political party in the United States, is something that still rankles to this day. When you say Woodrow Wilson to someone on the far, they go, oh, that man was terrible because he put Debs in prison. Well, again, what's the enemy going to do? How do they vote in all of this? Well, Kaiser Wilhelm has to win this war and they decide that Germany's leaders decide they have to launch a big offensive in France before the American soldiers can come over to France. And what's known as the Kaiser's Battle begins on March 21, 1918. And here's what the German plan is. Here's the Western Front in France, where the battle lines are drawn. The British Army holds this section of the line on the Western Front. German military leader, General Ludendorff, says the British must be beaten. The Germans are going to launch an offensive against the British. And on March 21, 1918, over the top, goes the German Army. And there's a major breakthrough. The Germans are breaking through the British lines. You know, we're all familiar with the story of Dunkirk in 1940 and how the British had to be evacuated off the beaches in Dunkirk, back to England. At this time, this German offensive is so successful that the British and French leaders think that something like what happened in the Second World War was going to happen here. That the British are going to face a Dunkirk. The British Prime Minister is David Lloyd George. And the initial reports coming back as things look bad. They think they're facing a disaster. They think the British are going to be pushed back into the sea. The British are planning at this time. They think they might be able to get about half the British Army out if they have to evacuate, if the Germans break through and win. Well, the British ambassador, Lord Redding, goes to Woodrow Wilson and says, we need American troops. We need them quickly. This has to be the highest priority for shipping. You have to send American soldiers over to France because otherwise the Germans will win. And Wilson's response was, he's going to do his best to get American soldiers over there. Well, I have a homework assignment for you. Tonight, when you go home, go to YouTube and put in Enrico Caruso, the great tenor of this time, the Lady Gaga of his time. I don't know, whatever. But anyway, the big pop star of the time, great opera singer, and he sings over there. Go listen to that. It's very moving. Well, American soldiers are going to go over there. Of course, it means getting across the Atlantic, transporting soldiers. And again, the highest priority goes to sending soldiers over. The soldiers can go over because the U.S. Navy, the Royal Navy, the French Navy cooperate, here's American destroyers providing escorts, winning that battle of the Atlantic against the German U-boats during the Civil War to be able to transport in convoys and troopships American forces over to France. This is important because without this American contribution it is likely that the Germans would have won in 1918 on the western front. The plan for the United States was that the U.S. was going to raise an army of over four million soldiers that two million of those soldiers would be sent to France by the end of 1919. The thinking was that build up a big American army by the end of 1919 so that in 1920 the war can be won by a big American offensive. Well, what happens is because of this emergency of the German offensive that they have to stop the German offensive that this timetable is accelerated. And so by the end of 1918 there are two million American soldiers in France. In other words twice the pace that was expected and the American soldiers are going to play a key role in blunting the German offensive and pushing it back. The first infantry division going over the top in that lunar landscape fighting against the Germans on the British sector of the front turning back the German offensive there. The Marines in the second division fighting at Bella Wood outside of Paris to turn back the German offensive. Again these stories if you go to the first division museum and of course the Marine history of Bella Wood and the Marine contribution to stopping the Germans. This is part of our history. The American forces on the ground and at sea and in the air play a critical role in blunting that German offensive. Preventing Germany from winning and not only do they stop the German offensive but there's a transition to the American offensive to push the Germans back in the summer and the fall of 1918 and an American army is formed under General Pershing to carry out the offensive to be part of the big offensive across the western front against the Germans and as Pershing said the American people are proud to be involved in this greatest battle that has ever been fought in world history. Well to take part when we brought over American soldiers they were actually equipped with British and French heavy equipment like artillery tubes. Here you see an artillery piece a French 75. Well it's being manned by American soldiers. The soldiers are coming over but they are being equipped with French artillery, French tanks British equipment and here you see American soldiers that battery firing off against the Germans. And the commander is this major. Does he look sort of vaguely familiar to you? Let me put him there again. Yes it's going to be President Truman. Again here he is a major fighting on the western front in the first world war is going to be the president that takes over in the second world war after Franklin D. Roosevelt. By the way the armistice takes place on November 11th at 11 o'clock Harry Truman's battery kept firing down the 1045 15 minutes up to the armistice. But again here you see someone's first world war experience. What he saw on the Muse Argonne, the heavy casualties that were suffered by the Americans fighting against the German army he's president at the end of the second world war. He understands what that loss of life means in every household that suffers from that. He wants to limit casualties as much as possible. Hence this is part of the background of the whole decision to use nuclear weapons against Japan at the end of the second world war. Well Americans riding in French built tanks into battle against the Germans and of course the infantry going over the top fighting. Well an armistice is signed goes into effect at the 11th hour, the 11th month November 11th 1918 and here's the New York Times headline. The Kaiser's regime is overthrown by a revolution in Germany and the fighting stops on the western front. It's important to note though that while the first world war ends on the western front on November 11th there's still a great deal of fighting that takes place in eastern Europe and in the Middle East right down to 1923. So if you live in the Middle East or in eastern Europe the first world war doesn't end on November 11th 1918. The war continues over in the east and in the Middle East. Well because of the armistice the Congress capital is illuminated and this is a photograph showing the Capitol Hill on November 11th. Of course because of the time difference between the western front and here in Washington it's still dark in November 11th but the Capitol is lit up to celebrate. Now 1918 is also an election year as the war is coming to an end in Europe on the western front there is a congressional election that takes place, a midterm election just like we had back in November in which all members of the House of Representatives are up for election and about a third of the Senate Seats are up for election. Now up to this point the Democrats Woodrow Wilson's party controls the House and the Senate but in this election of 1918 the Republicans seized control of the House and also squeaked by and seized control of the Senate. So now you have a president who's a Democrat who is facing an incoming Congress that is led by the Republicans. Again politics at work of two parties partisan politics that's going to shape as you'll see in a moment the peacemaking. Well Woodrow Wilson goes over to Europe to negotiate an end of the war with Germany and he has to deal with David Lloyd George the British Prime Minister and Georges Clemenceau the Tiger who is the Prime Minister of the Premier of France. Well Clemenceau again those wonderful moustaches of that time Clemenceau what did he think about Woodrow Wilson? It's just like talking to Jesus Christ by the way Clemenceau came to the United States at one point taught French at a girl's school down in Connecticut he was fluent in English he really thought that Wilson was sort of a pompous character so full of himself and arrogant. In fact Clemenceau also said that the Lord Almighty only gave us 10 commandments but Woodrow Wilson gave us 14 points the war aims of the United States well again Clemenceau he wants a harsh peace on Germany a vindictive peace to make sure that Germany can never recover and invade France again Woodrow Wilson wants to have a softer peace on Germany something that reconciles the Germans to their defeat and brings them back into a community of nations into a league of nations eventually well David Lloyd George the British Prime Minister what's his view well look at this backhanded comment I'm one of the few people who think Wilson is honest again the implication is most people don't think that Wilson is honest that he can't be trusted Woodrow Wilson has to get involved in some really hard bargaining with Clemenceau and the British Premier to produce what is known as the Treaty of Versailles and in the Palace of Versailles outside of Paris on the 28th of June 1919 the Germans delegation is brought forward to sign the Treaty of Versailles this is the peace treaty between the United States, France, Britain and Germany the German leaders very much present this peace treaty they had no part in the negotiation they're told sign it or else will continue the war to the Germans this is a dictation there's no real negotiation this is a humiliation they're not being treated as an equal they're being told sign it or else well there you see Woodrow Wilson signature on the peace treaty now part of the peace treaty was something known as the Covenant of the League of Nations it's a peace treaty with Germany but it also is establishing a new international organization a League of Nations to preserve the peace well Wilson comes back to the United States and he now has to sell to the Senate that ratifies treaties this Treaty of Versailles that includes the Covenant of Nations well there's a big treaty battle that takes place because now Republicans control the Senate and what happens is there's a group of Republicans about 10 to 15 Senators who are known as the irreconcilables the two most prominent are William Bora of Idaho and Hiram Johnson of California under no circumstances do they want any treaty by Wilson they see this treaty as entangling the United States in European affairs the United States is secure in the western hemisphere we don't have to be engaged out there trying to police the world that's not America's job it will commit us to an endless line of wars security commitments they're opposed to it and they're in a fighting mood for Johnson put in his dukes up there well it's compromise impossible isn't there some ground middle ground and here can you get to yes and you get to yes by having what they call reservations or amendments the Senate will go along with the treaty Republicans enough Republicans will go along with Democrats to be in favor of the treaty so long as there are some amendments some reservations with regard to the treaty the leading figure of the Republican party in the Senate is Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts he is not only the Republican leader in the Senate he is also the head of the Senate's committee on foreign affairs he is a leading figure political figure in the United States he had been a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt Theodore Roosevelt passed away in January of 1919 Lodge sees himself as an inheritor of Roosevelt's mantle well here's part of the treaty the covenant of the League of Nations in particular there is one article article 10 and that's all of article 10 that Republicans want to have some reservations some amendment some understanding about what this means and that's what article 10 says that the members of this international League all the countries that have joined this League of Nations they undertake to respect and preserve against external aggression the territorial integrity of members of the League now you look at this and you say we're all going to be together to defend each other now the question is who determines this though does the League leadership determine this should the United States go to war to defend the territorial integrity of another country without a vote by the Congress what Republicans are saying is that the Congress declares war what has primacy this treaty or the Constitution of the United States the League should not determine whether the US goes to war or not by the way there are many Americans who don't agree with this there are Irish Americans who say why should we commit ourselves to defend the British Empire at this time the Irish people are fighting a war of independence against the British Empire a war of terrorism counter-terrorism leader of the Irish independence movement military leader Irish Americans say we don't want to stand up for the British Empire if the British Empire is attacked why should we be involved if Japan attacks China should we rush to the defense of China these are important questions and so the Congress wants to have a reservation in there that says by the way if the US is going to talk to this obligation you have to consult the American people now this is common sense of course the Republican line is not far fetched in all of this it is that the US will only go to war only support other countries if there is enough political support at home for this and so this is a recognition of reality in some way by the way the British and French leaders tell President Wilson tell the American public about the reservation because the British and French are the same way if the league says oh we have to defend another country of course the British public are going to have to be asked the French public are going to is it in their interest to do this so again the British and French leaders are not opposed to this type of reservation Woodrow Wilson however sees this as somehow gutting the whole covenant of the League of Nations makes for collective security of all these countries banding together is that it seems automatic that if one is attacked all will rush to the defense of the other this is very much like article 5 of the Atlantic Alliance that we have today if one member is attacked it is attack upon us all and we will then respond accordingly Woodrow Wilson sees in a way the League of Nations this covenant as being something akin to what we have in the Atlantic Alliance today well there is a big treaty fight Lodge says hey I will go with the treaty but it has to be amended and here you see a cartoonist view of Henry Cabot Lodge the poor peace treaty has been so carved up that oh it doesn't look healthy at all does it well Woodrow Wilson he is opposed to any reservations and so he decides to go around the senate and go on a speaking tour across the United States in Berkeley California and while on this speaking tour going around the country he is deeply moved by the reception he gets from the American people mothers of young men who had lost their lives in France would come up to him and say God bless you President Wilson children would come up and swarm him and in his own mind he thought I know I am right I don't want to have a repeat of his great war in which so many Americans have lost their lives he tells people who are my real constituents it's these children I don't want them ever to have to go and fight another great war like we have just fought Wilson was very emotional on this tour well at the end of September in Pueblo Colorado and here is a photograph of him delivering this speech he has to cancel the speaking tour his doctors say we have to get you back to Washington as quickly as possible they get him back to Washington and he suffers a stroke that paralyzes him on the left side it's very touch and go for about a month he is incapacitated but he recovers his second wife Edith plays a major role in bringing him back to health she is very protective of her husband at this time in guarding who gets to see the president there are three people that are very important Edith, his doctor Dr. Grayson and also Joseph Tomoldy one of Wilson's political advisors these three people are very close in protecting the president at this time of his incapacitation at the time some said maybe we should remove him from office and the vice president should stand up and become president the vice president at the time was so loyal to Wilson he said I don't want to do that and so the man who would be president said no, no Wilson recovers but he hardens in his views there is no chance of compromise he will not permit any reservations the result is that the treaty comes up three times for votes and each time there is not enough votes to get a two thirds majority to ratify this treaty and so as a consequence the United States does not ratify does not ratify the treaty of Versailles or the League of Nations Covenant or join the League of Nations well for Wilson this is a bitter blow and I have another homework assignment for you when you go home tonight again go to YouTube put in Woodrow Wilson and then put in address radio address to the American people on the fifth anniversary of Armistice Day November 11th 1923 he made a radio broadcast from his home in Washington DC to the American people you are going to hear the voice of a very weak infirm man very angry man Wilson would die by the way only several months later in 1924 and in this speech this is what he has to say about the American refusal to sign the Treaty of Versailles and join the League of Nations said we have turned our back on those partners that we have in the world and instead we withdrew into a sullen and what he calls selfish isolation the inner war period the period between the two world wars is often considered a period of isolation and it's deeply ignoble cowardly dishonorable this is how America is behaving this is his characterization of those who voted against him that the United States by not joining the League has made the world less secure less peaceful in the future well we've done a great wrong to civilization at one of the most critical turning points was the man Woodrow Wilson who saw his plan for peace be defeated here at home this interplay of domestic politics with American behavior and action on the world scene they're connected in a very close way these issues of civil liberty and national security that are being faced then face us today how much of a role does the United States want to play in the world how much do we want to be associated in providing for the security of other countries these are the questions that Wilson and Americans face then that we also face today thank you very much thank you raise your hand I'll pick someone on this side of the room first and if anybody have questions right now alright here we go and if you've got another question just wave at me and I'll come over your way if we play a little bit of a counterfactual and say that the United States joined the League of Nations when Japan gets up and walks out in 1931 what happens this is a very good question the American people were not ready for playing the role in the world stage that Wilson wanted them to play and so my view of this is that I don't think it matters whether the League or not I don't think that history would have changed in any dramatic way because of our participation because the Republicans were right in this regard you have to have an American people that signs off on this that believes that they have to play a larger role in providing for international security of maintaining international order the American people weren't ready for that and in fact over the period from the 20s into the 30s the Americans get more solid they look back at the First World War as being an aberration that they shouldn't have been there and again the message of Eugene Debs starts to gain a great deal of traction among the American people so I don't think it would have made much difference after all it took the shock of Pearl Harbor and the Second World War Japanese Nazi aggression that then changes the American mindset to where we're willing to take on a number of alliances and security packs around the world first with the Rio Pact of 1947 for the Western Hemisphere then 1949 the Atlantic Alliance 1951 the Alliance with Japan so you see us all of a sudden reaching out and saying we will form alliances for mutual security but it's a good question we highlight so much this treaty fight but at the end of the day I'm not sure it mattered much whether we were in the league or not the US was still engaged in the world in the various attempts of economic reconstruction in the 1920s we condemned the Japanese after their invasion of Manchuria and setting up a puppet state there but we weren't willing to fight I mean President Hoover at the time said I'm not going to take the American people into a fight with Japan over Manchuria I can't explain that to the American people so again that's a good question how would history have changed not much I was just going to ask you said there was no we weren't involved politically really on a global scale before this war so was there any option for diplomacy beforehand before there was an actual war Wilson hoped once the war broke out in Europe his hope that he was going to be able to broker a peace between the two sides he wanted to be seen as the peacemaker he wanted to keep the US neutral so that the US could act as an intermediary between the Germans on one side and the Allies on the other the problem is neither really wanted his mediation in this regard so he hoped to end the war with what he called peace without victory that neither side would win the problem is that the British and French on one side and the Germans on the other they wanted victory they were aiming at victory throughout so they didn't want his mediation so the US got caught up in this fight between the Germans on one side and the Allies on the other again Wilson wanted to use diplomacy hope for diplomacy but diplomacy can only work if the other side wants to be diplomatic and be involved does that get to your question more or less thank you good evening sir I'm Lieutenant Commander Raja I'm from the Naval Staff Staff College I'm from India more than a question I'm a little inquisitive about a fact before the first world war we saw that once the American population was attacked through introduction of the ships America was pulled into the war more by playing into the people and the government part of the Trinity similar thing happened in the world war two also where in the American people felt being attacked we can if we consider US being an island from other theaters of war the same kind of a issue happened after 9 by 11 and things which happened in the past in the Middle East now my inquisitiveness as on today the American system has a lot of features which need to be bypassed before the country goes to war but consider let's say 50 60 or even 100 years from today if there is a country which is growing at a faster rate I don't want to name a particular country it might be Russia China or any third country it's growing at such a rate and they want to want America to get into war by their own choice would attacking the American people be a part of their strategy to pull America into war and if that happens is America going to play a part of diplomacy or to wait for something for that to happen to go into war or take the war to their home front I'm talking about 60 or 100 years from now sir it's a good question to try to apply and think about the history what does it mean for us today what does it say about the American people the United States in the early part of the 20th century 100 years ago is a different country in so so many ways the American people don't look at the world as being something they should be engaged in a broad way about as far as the American people wanted to go was the so-called Monroe Doctrine or what later becomes known as hemispheric defense we are set apart by the two oceans that you mentioned sort of an island we're set apart from the rest of the world and we ought to cherish that position by minding our own business in the western hemisphere and not being as engaged militarily with the rest of the world now isolationism does not mean that we are engaged commercially we should trade with everybody but the US should not be giving security commitments far afield it should be more focused on defense of the homeland so the question becomes where does that red line get drawn where do the American people believe that they have to stand and fight now today the US has taken on a responsibility to be the head of a league of democratic nations and so one of the places where you see a red line is that if another democracy is attacked that has an alliance commitment with us you will see I think the US honor that commitment but again in any international in the international realm the American people always have to be asked you know sometimes the enemy does have a vote they don't give you a choice I mean Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor Hitler's declaration of war on the US in December 11th 41 you don't have a choice the enemy is coming at you we saw the same thing on September 11th when they attacked us in New York and Washington the enemy is voting by coming right in your face you have to defend yourself and fight back so there are those instances where they go along because they've been attacked but it gets murkier though in these other situations that you talked about you know which is where do we draw the lines where will we fight and I just want to throw out to you that one place where the line is drawn is that the US will stand with other democracies in the world or at least we should we should stand with other democracies because the defeat of a democracy will come back to haunt us the great tragedies of the period between the two world wars was that the democracies of the world were being taken down one by one France fell in 1940 to the Nazis in 1940 the British almost cut a deal with the Nazis if it had not been for Winston Churchill the world is much less secure for the US if we don't stand by other countries that share our values in political system and respect for human rights so I think there are some places where we draw the line where we would fight and that's about I think as specific as I can be given various hypothetical challenges that are out there do we have time for one more Dave here if anybody has a question on this side if not John I'll give you the last word I just want to thank you all for coming out on such a miserable day to come out to the my talk this evening I hope you enjoyed it we here at the college offer I just think a terrific program for our students and I hope that what you hear from your spouses is that they're enjoying as well as benefiting from their time here at the college so thank you very much