America's Intervention In World War I

The world broke out into a massive conflict, which had 32 countries pitted against each other. The two sides of the war were the Allies and Central powers. America’s involvement in the war came much later than the rest of their allies like Great Britain. The reasons that America entered the First World War were due to specific events like German submarine attacks on the Lusitania and Sussex. Another event that sparked America’s intervention in the First World War was the interception of the Zimmermann Telegraph. Examining these reasons, along with the long-term trends and immediate effects of America’s intervention based on looking at how the military operated and how the country supported the war effort. [sentence fragment]
America enters
“Soon after the fighting began, Woodrow Wilson told Americans that this was a European war; neither side was threatening a vital American interest. The United States would therefore proclaim its neutrality and maintain normal relations with both sides while seeking to secure peace,” (Murrin, 2012). At first, the majority of American citizens were happy with the decision, but he also encountered opposition from people like Theodore Roosevelt, who thought it was important that America enter the war on the Entente side and check Germany’s power and expansionism. I found this interesting because not long before World War I broke out, America pushed and expanded its land across the plains and forcibly take land from Mexico and the Native Americans. However, Wilson’s plans and attempts at peace kept the United States out of the war for three years and only saw small effects due to the
However, the U.S. Army was less tactical and strategic sound as their allies and even less than the German army. Some of the limiting factors that affected the army’s performance was limited transportation and bad roads, which hampered the American Expeditionary Forces, their tactics, and the lack of knowledge by young officers, (Doughboy Center). In the Shortcomings of the AEF’s Tactical Doctrine, the U.S. 1st Army received negative reports from both the German General Staff and the AEF General Headquarters. The German General Staff said the U.S. officers did not understand how to make use of the terrain and instead of seeking protection when facing the enemy, they fell back. They also said that instead of crawling out of danger, they simply fell to the ground, waited, then stood up and tried to advance forward, (Doughboy Center). Not only did the German General Staff say that the enlisted and officer infantry personnel not know what they were doing during combat, but also criticized higher headquarters saying that they didn’t know how to grasp a new situation and exploit it. What the German General Staff was saying, is that the U.S. Army all throughout the ranks had no tactical knowledge of how to wage war and defeat their enemy. This lack of knowledge is detrimental when in a massive war