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HIST 112 US 1877- present Chapter 20 Part 3 World War I U.S. Ideological War — Transcript

by History Class with Dr. W · 1,807 words · 337 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01[Music]
0:11the united states had indeed now made a
0:13decision to join
0:15the most horrific war in the history of
0:18the planet and woodrow wilson was also
0:22confronted with the very difficult
0:23reality
0:25that he had dramatically switched gears
0:29on his campaign promises of just a few
0:31months before
0:32he had promised the country he would
0:34stay out of the war he had promised the
0:35country that we would
0:36remain neutral and now within just a few
0:39months
0:40we had completely reversed that policy
0:44wilson was greatly concerned by this and
0:46as i've
0:47suggested to you he really was reluctant
0:50to
0:50bring the united states into the war but
0:53now that we were
0:55engaged in the war woodrow wilson
0:58launched
0:58a vast campaign on the home front to try
1:02to convince
1:03the american people that in fact this
1:05was the right
1:06decision the war machine on the home
1:10front was cranked into full effect
1:12both militarily and in terms of ideology
1:16and we'll talk about a number of efforts
1:18going forward
1:20made by wilson and his administration to
1:22try to
1:24maintain the support of the american
1:26people and even win over the the will
1:28of the american people this was in some
1:31ways a war of slogans you've
1:34no doubt heard uh some of the slogans
1:37that were applied
1:38to the first world war uh slogans like
1:42the war to make the world safe for
1:44democracy
1:46well again this is in part a way of
1:49winning over the support of the american
1:50people well if this
1:52war is going to make the world safer
1:54democracy then okay
1:55we can we can support that the war to
1:59end all wars
2:01no we know again in hindsight how that
2:04works out but at the time
2:05it was thought that this war would
2:07resolve all of the differences
2:10out there in the world so again it's
2:12sort of a noble cause that that you can
2:14get behind we also
2:18see during this period the
2:19implementation of
2:21the draft the selective service act
2:24during
2:24world war one which was enforced with
2:28quiet
2:29efficiency although it did inspire
2:33a fair amount of opposition during this
2:36time and we will
2:37talk again a little bit later about some
2:39of the responses to those who may have
2:41objected to the war or to the draft and
2:45the way
2:46things were being done at the same time
2:49this uh period and this part of the war
2:52saw a tremendous amount of
2:54volunteerism uh american boys
2:57by the tens of thousands hundreds of
2:59thousands
3:00rallied to the flag rallied to the cause
3:03and volunteered to go fight in the war
3:07many of them as we will see
3:10ensnared by simply the excitement of
3:13what was going on
3:14these are young men many of them from
3:16the countryside they were living on the
3:18farm and really not doing much of
3:20anything
3:21and here is this conflict that promises
3:24uh
3:24an invigorating and exciting trip
3:27over to europe of course many of these
3:30young men didn't know literally didn't
3:32know what they were getting into
3:35nonetheless there was a great support
3:39for the war during this time
3:44and so woodrow wilson and his
3:46administration began to wage an intense
3:49ideological war on the home front the
3:52war
3:53for the hearts and minds the support of
3:56the american people
3:57during this time this is one of the
4:00areas where woodrow wilson becomes very
4:03controversial
4:04among historians wilson uh perhaps
4:07one of the more um divisive
4:10presidents in american history in terms
4:12of the opinion of historians some
4:15historians
4:16have woodrow wilson rated quite high
4:19amongst the list and other historians
4:22put wilson very low and very troubled by
4:25some of the things that he did
4:27and actually it is this ideological war
4:30uh
4:30in which wilson crosses the line for
4:33many historians and and becomes
4:35uh among our worst presidents in at
4:38least the minds of some
4:39historians and so this reaches its its
4:42most disturbing
4:44level with the creation of the committee
4:47on public
4:48information so wilson creates this
4:50committee
4:51on public information it was headed by a
4:54man named george
4:55creel creel was a newspaper man from
4:59mississippi
5:00and so he understood very well things
5:03like
5:03advertising things like headlines and
5:06how to connect how to reach
5:08a readership how to win over people to a
5:12cause
5:13and so the committee on public
5:15information was designed at heart
5:17to drum up support for the war and keep
5:20the american people behind
5:22the war effort and so
5:26one of the the main elements of the cpi
5:30was a propaganda campaign many of you
5:33i'm sure
5:33are familiar with some of the colorful
5:36posters from world war one and actually
5:39we'll look at a few of those
5:40in just a moment um but there were many
5:44posters there were songs there were
5:46flyers there were leaflets
5:48people making speeches constantly in
5:51support of the war
5:52related to this creel and his team
5:56trained a small army of men
5:59who were known as the four minute men to
6:02go out
6:03all around the country and give speeches
6:06and so they would go
6:07anywhere that they there was a public
6:09gathering and they could have a few
6:10minutes
6:11uh whether it be you know the movie
6:14theaters or
6:15uh some other kind of performance or
6:17college classrooms or
6:18wherever churches wherever there would
6:20be groups of people
6:22gathered and they would give these
6:25short speeches a four-minute speech uh
6:28explaining the war supporting the war
6:30and telling the american people why
6:32they should be behind it so far it would
6:36seem none of
6:37these elements are terribly bad you know
6:40certainly in wartime you want to have a
6:42patriotic
6:43sort of support for the war you want the
6:45american people to be proud and
6:47supportive of what they are doing
6:49but the cpi also crosses a line and it
6:52engages
6:53in uh some darker activities
6:56that uh many historians argue begins to
7:00to create what has been referred to as a
7:03super
7:04patriotism and you might know some
7:06people like this even now
7:08uh who are just so rah-rah
7:11hyper-patriotic
7:13that they have no objectivity no ability
7:16to
7:16think critically about their own country
7:18or their own team whatever it might be
7:21at all all they can see is the one
7:24perspective
7:25of their own country and in essence
7:27that's what the cpi was trying
7:29to do there's no room for
7:32questioning anything about the
7:34government or the war or the way things
7:36are being done there's no room to doubt
7:38uh what the american people were seeing
7:42and another sort of dangerous element of
7:45the cpi
7:46and its activities is that it began to
7:49condemn
7:50all things german in this country and we
7:53need to keep in mind
7:54that those of german heritage
7:58represented one of the largest groups in
8:00this country more than 10 million
8:02americans
8:04derived from german stock going back
8:07deep into our history as german
8:09immigrants came over
8:11so these kinds of actions condemning
8:14anything
8:14german affected a huge number
8:18of american citizens just a few examples
8:21of the kinds of things
8:22that were done during this war the music
8:25of
8:26wagner was banned during world war one
8:30there was no sauerkraut during world war
8:33one it was renamed
8:35liberty cabbage and some of you perhaps
8:39may remember
8:40uh in our own recent history a time when
8:44uh we did away with french fries for a
8:46little while in this country i don't
8:48know if any of you
8:49would remember that but uh during a
8:51period when we were not too happy with
8:53the french
8:54we did away with french fries and
8:56instead they were called freedom fries
8:59for a little while and so there was no
9:00sauerkraut it was
9:02named liberty cabbage there are also
9:05rumors of doctrines the little wiener
9:09dogs
9:10being stoned in the streets because they
9:12represented
9:13germany so intense
9:17was the hatred and mistreatment of
9:20germans that many
9:21germans in this country changed their
9:23names
9:24during this time so that they would not
9:26be so recognizable as
9:28german uh as one example there were many
9:30people named
9:31schmidt who changed their last name to
9:35smith and there are actually many many
9:37different names
9:38and some family names even now can trace
9:41back to world war one when they changed
9:43their name
9:46perhaps most disturbing the cpi
9:49assembled a secret
9:50list of names of people who it
9:53determined
9:54might be sympathetic to the germans or
9:56might be aiding
9:58the enemy in some way or disrupting the
10:01effort on the home front
10:03jane adams for a time was
10:07was on some of these lists during the
10:10war
10:12the american government also passed a
10:15series of
10:15laws to protect american interests
10:18during the war
10:20the espionage act of 1917
10:23and the sedition act of 1918 uh most
10:26prominent
10:27among them and the sedition act was the
10:30one that was
10:31most controversial because it
10:34made illegal any kind of statement
10:39against the government against the war
10:41effort
10:43or against the president this is a
10:46country that celebrates free speech
10:48correct so a law like this
10:52undermines free speech for a time
10:55in fact we are a country rooted in the
10:57right to
10:58protest and the ability to protest so
11:00the sedition act was uh
11:02considered by many a very dangerous act
11:04and in some ways an
11:06un-american act
11:09and yet it was not simply an empty
11:11letter either
11:13more than 1500 americans were arrested
11:16under the sedition act during the war
11:18years
11:19and many of them spent time in jail
11:22for some form of protest or speaking out
11:25against the war
11:31these are just a few a small sample of
11:34the many hundreds of
11:36posters that circulated during world war
11:38one
11:39and you see in each case the sort of
11:42racism that was directed
11:44against the germans during this time
11:47they are referred to as the hun
11:50there is the suggestion that they are
11:54devious and sneaky and shadowy you kind
11:57of see
11:57in the posters there in the background
11:59the german figures
12:01um in dark shadowy uh
12:04kind of form um or in the poster in the
12:08forefront
12:09the very famous poster they are simply
12:11depicted as
12:12these brutal savages destroy
12:16this mad brute enlist and so
12:19we will see similar things with world
12:21war ii as well
12:22but these posters created by the cpi um
12:26drumming up support for the war
12:28encouraging americans to
12:30buy liberty bonds these are going to
12:32help to pay for the war
12:34uh or to enlist and at the same time
12:37degrading
12:39germans this kind of hatred uh
12:42and suspicion against the germans and
12:44just imagine more than 10 million
12:46americans of german
12:48heritage and perhaps how they might have
12:50felt
12:51in viewing posters like these
13:09[Music]
13:14you

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