Presidents At War
By opting to invade Iraq, George W. Bush was following in the footsteps of history
In retrospect, the military course of this war seems the most predictable of all of America's major wars--the Spanish fleet was decrepit, the American fleet was well positioned to fight, and the major problem was logistical, getting the Army down to Tampa and then to Cuba. Yet the war led to unpredicted and controversial military deployments. A major insurrection in the Philippines wasn't finally put down until 1902. A treaty giving the United States supervisory control over Cuba resulted in U.S. military occupation. And the country was not unanimously pro-war. Scholars, business moguls, and Democrats in the 1900 presidential campaign denounced American "imperialism."
The first three presidents to serve entirely in the 20th century--Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson--proclaimed that the United States had special responsibilities in the Western Hemisphere, and they dispatched troops accordingly. They saw the United States as a world power--with the world's largest economy, the largest population of any major power but Russia, and, by 1908, one of its largest navies. Which inevitably raised the question: When World War I broke out in Europe, in 1914, would the United States stand by or take part?
Wilson's instinct was to hold back. He sent his unofficial envoy, Col. Edward House, to Europe with proposals for peace. In a country reluctant to engage in a European caldron, Wilson ran for re-election in 1916 as "the man who has kept us out of war." But in January 1917 the Germans announced that their submarines would conduct unrestricted warfare against neutral, i.e., U.S., ships, and in February Wilson made public a telegram intercepted by British intelligence from the German foreign minister promising Mexico that it would get Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas if it entered the war against the United States. "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war," Wilson told Congress in April. But the stakes were great. "The world," Wilson intoned, "must be made safe for democracy."
Congress, with only minor dissent, agreed. The Senate voted 82 to 6 for war, the House 373 to 50. Still, large blocs of voters opposed the war--Progressives from the heavily German- and Scandinavian-American Upper Midwest, Socialists in New York and other big cities. Wilson responded with the sharpest suppression of free speech since the Civil War, and many critics of American involvement soon found themselves in jail. The railroads and shipping industry were also quickly nationalized--a degree of government control greater than in any later American war.
Unready, unset, go. The United States entered what was then called the Great War with military forces plainly insufficient for the struggle. It had virtually no air force. The Navy was far from combat readiness. An army of more than 1 million men was yet to be raised. It took time to assemble and transport the American expeditionary force, which did not come into play militarily until spring 1918, a year after the declaration of war. But under the leadership of Gen. John Pershing, U.S. troops performed well in key battles. By the fall of 1918, German forces were collapsing. An armistice was negotiated to take effect on 11:11 a.m. on November 11, the day we still celebrate as Veterans Day.
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