At Guardian David Smith wonders why World War I is forgotten in the United States:
t redefined women’s rights, race relations, civil liberties and America’s role in the world. It caused twice as many American deaths as the Vietnam war. But there is no national memorial to it in Washington DC and, on Thursday, its centenary will pass with little fanfare.
On 6 April 1917, America declared war on Germany and charged into the first world war. After nearly three years of reluctance, its hand was forced by the sinking of neutral US ships by German submarines, and by Britain’s interception of the so-called Zimmerman telegram revealing a German plot to persuade Mexico to wage war on the US.
America mustered more than 4.7 million service members with astonishing speed and suffered 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114 other deaths in service, many from Spanish flu. America’s involvement was crucial to the Germans’ defeat in 1918, profoundly shaping what came to be known as “the American centuryâ€. Yet in contrast to the extensive centenary commemorations in Britain three years ago – a memorial at the Tower of London featured 888,246 red poppies to represent each soldier who died – this has for many Americans become a forgotten war.
You probably don’t know that the U. S. had an expeditionary force in Russia following the First World War, that German-Americans were treated worse during the war than Japanese-Americans were treated during World War II, or about the Black Tom explosion when German saboteurs detonated explosives being sent to Britain and France by the notionally neutral United States.
I think there are a number of reasons. Americans despise history. You can hardly find a Briton whose great-grandfather or great-great-uncle didn’t die in the war. Most of us don’t have ancestors or even collateral family members who fought in the war. I also think that many Americans deep down recognize that we should never have entered World War I.
Despise seems a little strong. I would say apathetic and ignorant. WWI is a hard war to romanticize. Trench warfare sucks. No US general like a Patton to idolize, and you are correct that a lot of people think our going there was a mistake. Finally, anyone who has ever read the story about the last day of the war is left with the idea that this was the stupid war.
Steve
I don’t believe there is a Civil War memorial and there wasn’t a WWII memorial until 2004. I think the memorials to war, as opposed to notable people like Grant and Pershing, is a relatively recent phenomena, partly geared towards the ebb and flow of current politics, not some conscious historical narrative.
Also the National World War I Memorial and Museum is in Kansas City and quite a beautiful building. The entry to the museum is on a glass bridge over 9,000 red poppies. For many Britons, Kansas City has become a forgotten city.
Probably because its not in Kansas.
FWIW, in the parts of the Deep South I’ve travel thru a WWI memorial is frequently (by dedication date) the first statue on the court house lawn. UDC sponsored memorials came later.
Americans like a good story with us as the lead character. WWI isn’t a good story and we played a supporting role.
This is reflected in our media, books, movies and TV shows. There isn’t anything that I’m aware of that gives a good old American national story related to WWI.
I guess that depends on what you mean. There are a lot of WWI movies that could fit the bill, some of them quite good. Fighting 69th, The Big Parade, Wings, Hell’s Angels all come to mind. There are other great movies set in WWI but I’m not sure I’d characterize them as “a good old American national story”.
My grandfather served in WW I, in the Ardennes with the 26th (Yankee) Infantry Division. A generation later, my father served in the same area in the same division, after having landed in Normandy on June 7th. Got overrun and bypassed in the Battle of the Bulge. No injuries to either.
Dad never went to England. The 26th transferred directly from the transports to LST’s on June 6th and spent the night waiting to go ashore.
Here in north central Ohio, no one commemorates either WW I or WW II, or any war for than matter. There’s hardly any notice in the local Mt. Vernon News. Certainly not what I remember in the Boston Globe and Record American when I was growing up in Boston in the 50’s and 60’s. This area has absolutely no interest in any kind of history. Amazing.
How ironic Trump’s planned Military parade is planned for Veterans Day – which happens to be special this year since it’s the 100th anniversary of the Armistice. Nov 11 is also a Sunday this year, so the UK, Canada, and France will all hold major commerorations that day.
So far it seems not have been remarked on by any Americans (probably didn’t come up when selecting the day). And Trump requested a parade because he liked the parade he got in France – and that was to commermorate the centenary of US entering the war.
Footnote: the article was from the Guardian, not the Globe and Mail.
Thanks. Corrected.
I suppose forgotten by who needs to be asked. As fate would have it I attended a charity event today with a military guest speaker who I believe would be known to all readers. A focus of his remarks, and clearly in the minds of attendees, were issues related to WWI.
As for high school or college students. Not so much. But that’s a different subject.
The parade Trump witnessed in Paris was the traditional Bastille Day parade, although there may have been some commemoration of the centenary of the entry of the U.S. in WWI as well, I’m not sure.
As for why WWI is “forgotten” I think a good part of it is due to the fact that it’s far enough in the past that most Americans even think about it. The last survivors died out some time ago now and, unlike WW2, the Great War did not involve a significant attack on U.S. territory nor did it involve the significant investment of men and resources that we saw from 1941-1945.
In the end, though I’d suggest that the passage of time is the biggest factor. We don’t really memorialize the Spanish-American War or the Mexican War for similar reasons, and the bicentennial of the War Of 1812 passed with little notice.
Yeah. We lost.
Well I suppose we lost in the sense that our territorial objective (seizing at least part of what is now Canada) failed and that the British managed to capture and sack Washington, D.C.
At the same time, though, we didn’t lose any territory and the end of the conflict essentially meant the end of any real conflicts between the United States and the British Empire.
So I suppose you could call it a draw.