WASHINGTON -- War!
That was the headline screaming from newspapers around the country on April 6, 1917, as the United States declared war on the German empire.
The United States had avoided being drawn into what was then known as "The Great War," which had been raging in Europe since 1914. But German unrestricted submarine warfare, which U.S. leaders regarded as war on civilians, led to this juncture. President Woodrow Wilson, who had just been re-elected under the slogan "He Kept Us Out of War," felt he had no other option.
Congress provided the then-astronomical sum of $3 billion to build a million-man Army.
"The United States was in it, but they had to define what 'it' meant," said Brian Neumann, a historian at the Army's Center of Military History. Neumann, who edited a series on the Army during World War I, said it wasn't a done deal that Americans would go to France to help man the Western Front.
VARIOUS POINTS OF VIEW
Some Americans believed that because a naval provocation led to the war, the proportional response would be a naval campaign against Germany. Others felt it was all right to help France, but not to help Great Britain, he said.
Still others believed that going to war had to mean something greater than simply returning to the status quo on the continent, Neumann said. They saw the war as an inferno that would topple empires so democracy and the will of the people could triumph. This was the camp that led.
"For the United States to have a voice at the peace table, it had to make a significant contribution to the war effort," Neumann said. "That meant building an Army and engaging the enemy on the Western Front."
Doing that was no simple task. On April 6, the U.S. Army was a constabulary force of 127,151 soldiers. The National Guard had 181,620 members. Both the country and the Army were absolutely unprepared for what was going to happen.
The United States had no process in place to build a mass army, supply it, transport it and fight it. Continental European powers had a universal military service program in place, and when war broke out, reservists -- already trained -- went to their mobilization points and joined their units.
LARGE STANDING ARMIES
Germany, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary had large standing armies and reserve formations in 1914 that the nations could call up in the event of a war. Great Britain maintained a robust naval reserve but did not have a commensurate universal service reserve for its army.
"Britain and the United States didn't see the need for universal service because of the English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. Those were two pretty good barriers," Neumann said. "But after the war broke out, Britain began building its army."
In 1917, Britain had an army of roughly 4 million soldiers, not counting the
