In 2014, as we mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, major commemorations will be held across Europeâ??even in Germany, which, though somewhat uneasy about the tone of these events, has sought to emphasize the European Union's role in bringing peace to the continent. What Europe's World War I commemorations are likely to have in common is one thing: The role of the U.S. will probably be ignored or played down.
This Europe-centric view of the war is understandable, to a point. The Great War began as a local tussle in the Balkans between Austria-Hungary and Serbia, then quickly dragged in Germany, Russia, France and Britain. The U.S. didn't enter the European conflict until April 1917, after Germany resorted to unrestricted submarine warfare. Still, World War I marked a hinge in modern history: the moment the U.S. emerged as a global power and changed the meaning and direction of the 20th century.
U.S. military power helped to bring the war to an endâ??a prospect at which the German government scoffed in 1917. When Kaiser Wilhelm II was warned that unrestricted submarine warfareâ??and the losses it would inflict on the U.S. merchant fleetâ??might provoke U.S. belligerence, he scribbled in a memo, "I do not care." Even if the Americans did declare war on Germany, he blustered, they were just a bunch of cowboys with an army barely worthy of the name. What use would these weaklings be against Germany's legions?
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