A BIT OF HISTORY
©2021 SARAH BECKER
WORLD WAR I MEMORIAL & PRESIDENT WOODROW WILSON A design rendering of the relief planned for Pershing Park.
W
ashington, D.C.’s newest war memorial, the National World War I Memorial opened to the public on April 21, 2021. The NPS Memorial, located in the District’s 1.76 acre John J. Pershing Park, tells the story of America’s involvement in The Great War [1917-1918], The War to End All Wars. General Pershing— WWI commander of the U.S. forces in Europe; architect of the modern American Army—was promoted to the rank of General of the Armies in 1919. A rank he shares only with George Washington. On August 1, 1914 Germany declared war on Russia; on France two days later. President Woodrow Wilson (D-VA)—elected in 1912 on an anti-war platform—responded by ordering wireless telegraph stations to remain neutral. Neutrality was policy with a presidential pedigree. “The United States must be neutral in fact, as well as in name, during these days that are to try men’s souls,” Wilson explained on August 19, 1914. Europe’s 1914 conflict was “a quarrel…between nation and nation, culture and culture.” President Wilson’s 1917 World War was about competing ideologies, competing visions of the European and
Old Town Crier
Joe Weishaar; Sabin Howard; GWWO, Inc.; WWI Centennial Commission; Weta Workshop / World War I Centennial Commission
international orders. “Woodrow Wilson may well have witnessed more dramatic changes in national and global affairs than any other president since [George] Washington,” Carter Smith wrote. “He entered Presidential office [on March 4, 1913] a highly regarded reformer.” Wilson’s foreign policy was not nearly as aggressive as his domestic. Then talk of war in Europe divided America. “We know our task to be no mere task of politics but a task which shall search us through and through,” Wilson said in his 1913 Inaugural Address. “This is not a day of triumph, but it is a day of dedication. Here muster, not the forces of party, but the forces of humanity.” Wilson—a child of the Civil War—segregated the U.S. Civil Service in his first Presidential year. Europe’s continental war expanded when Germany raided Great Britain in January 1915. On May 7, 1915 Alexandria resident, British national and second cabin passenger John Booth, age 35, lost his life while cruising aboard the RMS Lusitania. The 32,500 ton RMS Lusitania was traveling from New York to Liverpool and Booth, age 35, went down with the boat. German U-boat Captain Walther
Schwieger—with the blast of a submerged torpedo—buried him at sea. London, May 7, 1915…“The giant Cunarder, Lusitania, was torpedoed and sunk off Old head, Kinsale at 3:38 o’clock this morning,” the Alexandria Gazette related. “All details are lacking but, it is reported the passengers and crew have taken to the boats and were saved.” In fact 1,198 passengers died including 128 Americans. Philadelphia, May 10, 1915…“The example of America must be a special example, not merely of peace because it will not fight, but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world,” President Wilson said. “There is such a thing as a man being too proud to fight. There is such a thing as a nation being so right that is does not need to convince others by force that it is right.” On January 31, 1917 Germany notified the United States unrestricted submarine attacks would continue. They announced Germany would sink on sight all merchant vessels found in a zone around the British Isles or in the Mediterranean. President Wilson, narrowly reelected to a second term in 1916, broke off diplomatic negotiations and ordered the arming of
American freighters. “Although we have centered counsel and action…upon the [domestic] problems… to which we addressed ourselves four years ago, other matters have more and more forced themselves upon our attention—matters…which, despite our wish to keep free of them, have drawn us more and more irresistibly into their own current and influence,” President Wilson said in his second Inaugural Address. In February 1917 the Germans not only “stupidly” used neutral America’s wireless transmission system [the Zimmerman Telegram] they also sank 540,000 tons of Allied shipping— an additional 578,000 tons in March and 874,000 tons in April. The United States responded: with a declaration of war on April 6, 1917. “The world,” President Wilson concluded, “must be made safe for democracy.” Congress’ Selective Service Act quickly followed. “It is fearful to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance,” President Wilson said. “But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always
carried nearest our hearts— for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own government, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal domination of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.” “Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence or attended with close comprehension to the real character of it when you have heard it read?” President Wilson asked Philadelphians on July 4, 1914. “If you have, you will know that it is not a Fourth of July oration. The Declaration of Independence was a document preliminary to war. It was a vital piece of business.” Four years later, to the date, President Wilson delivered a July 4, 1918 wartime address at Mount Vernon, to a large citizen gathering at George Washington’s Tomb. Said President Wilson: “From this green hillside we…should conceive anew the purposes that must set men free. It is significant,— significant of their own character and purpose A BIT OF HISTORY > PAGE 10
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