Most Americans, if they think about our role in World War I at all, likely think we entered the conflict too late to claim much credit, or maybe they think our intervention was discreditable. Some might say we had no compelling national interest to enter the Great War; or worse, our intervention allowed Britain and France to force on Germany an unjust, punitive peace that made inevitable the rise of Adolf Hitlerâ??s National Socialist German Workers Party. Had we stayed out of the war, they might argue, the Europeans would have been compelled to make a reasonable, negotiated peace, and postwar animosity would have been lessened.
Americans are easily forgetful of history, but we should not forget the First World War or our far from discreditable role in it. American intervention was decisive in the Anglo-French victory, a victory that deserves celebrating.
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