The Great War ends, a U.S. alliance endures. Maybe.
The news flash reached Chicago at 1:55 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918. Within minutes, sirens blared. Within an hour, awakened residents were whooping and parading in the Loop. The Great War was over! Germany was defeated, or in the parlance of the day, “the kaiser’s licked.”
Even from a distance of 100 years, we understand the jubilation. World War I, a terrible and destructive conflict, was finally at an end. And America thankfully was on the winning side — in fact, America had led its exhausted European allies to victory. At the Hotel Sherman across from Chicago City Hall, the night manager roused guests who then gathered in the lobby to celebrate. Throngs jammed streets into the following evening. “Disheveled girls snatched caps from sailors and hats from men and were openly hugged and kissed …” the Tribune reported. “It was all in fun, all in exultation because Johnny will come marching home.”
The joy of that 24-hour period inspired one Tribune writer to declare: “Chicago will never forget Nov. 11, 1918. The mad scene that raged within its streets will never leave the minds of those who lived to see it,” while the political significance of that day would be “emblazoned upon the pages of history which future generations will read with wonder.”
The writer got that right. The crucial legacy of Nov. 11, 1918, endures. It may not be remembered for the revelry, though we’re enamored by a description of frenzied customers nearly destroying a newsstand as they jostled for early editions of the newspaper. No, the greater significance of World War I lies in the way it was fought and won — and in what happened afterward.
This was a conflict of stupendous proportions: 16.5 million soldiers and civilians killed, including 117,000 U.S. doughboys. About half of them were felled in battle, the rest victims of illness and accidents. This was the first major war to rely on modern technology such as planes, tanks and, sadly, chemical weapons. Perhaps more important, World War I established a partnership between the United States and democratic allies, including Britain and France, that has stuck together for 100 years. Will that alliance remain united for another 100 years? America’s security likely depends on it.
‘The war to end all wars’
From independence, the United States had heeded George Washington’s advice to avoid entanglement in alliances. Europe was full of them — kingdoms aligned into competing partnerships to such an extent that the 1914 assassination in Sarajevo of an archduke became the tripwire for a global conflict. Through the years the U.S. had fought wars against Britain, Mexico and Spain. But Americans didn’t fight “over there” in Europe until 1917, after Germany threatened to unleash submarine attacks against American ships in the Atlantic. Then came the notorious Zimmermann Telegram: Germany tried to entice Mexico into war against the U.S., promising after victory to hand over to the Mexicans their lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
The Tribune editorial page, previously in favor of neutrality and happy to see American companies profit from the business of war, braced for combat. The U.S. “must open its veins,” this page wrote. “We cannot, with moral or material safety, fight a banker’s and manufacturer’s war. We must take over a part of the line and see that the line advances into Germany.”
The U.S. enacted Selective Service in May 1917; the first Americans died in France in November. With the Allies mired in trench warfare, American soldiers broke the logjam at the Second Battle of the Marne. Germany and the other Central Powers surrendered in November 1918.
Chicagoans first celebrated victory on Nov. 7, but wait, it was a false report. The armistice was signed Nov. 11, now recognized as Veterans Day. In the Loop, those joyous Chicagoans waved flags and feather dusters, the better to tickle the faces of passers-by or playfully knock hats off heads. “Get a smile on you,” one girl admonished an elderly man for trying to keep his hat on. “The kaiser’s licked.”
Regrettably, though, the so-called war to end all wars didn’t do so.
WWI, U.S. allies and Trump
America never has reconciled its penchant for isolationism with its role as global superpower. After World War I, the U.S. sent 6 million tons of food to ravaged European countries (Germany included) but retreated militarily to the sidelines and remained there until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Yet victory in the Great War proved the value of U.S. partnerships with friendly nations, establishing a foundation of trust with other countries that re-emerged in World War II.
Could the U.S. have defeated Hitler and Japan alone? There’s no need to wonder, because the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia and other countries fought together — and then stayed together. America and its allies also won the Cold War, confronting the Soviet Union and grinding it down. No doubt, the U.S. and its democratic, economically vibrant allies represent the strongest team of countries the world has ever seen.
There’s compelling math involved, notes Ivo Daalder, co-author of “The Empty Throne: America’s Abdication of Global Leadership,” Six of the 10 largest militaries in the world are U.S. allies, as are seven of the 10 largest economies in the world. This group, including the U.S., represents more than 50 percent of world GDP and more than 70 percent of global military power. That’s a lot of negotiating clout — and firepower. “If you get them on (our) side you can actually accomplish things you yourself cannot,” Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said at a Oct. 25 forum.
But what would happen if those relationships were to wither? That’s the question explored in Daalder’s book. President Donald Trump may not be an isolationist, but he certainly doesn’t see teamwork with allies as crucial to advancing America’s interests. Trump places little value in loyalty to others; he likes negotiating deals and claiming victory. That’s how he came to slap steel tariffs on Canada and question the value of NATO as he badgered Europeans countries to increase defense spending. Berate your closest friends often enough and they may become less willing to spend time together and cooperate. More Trump-induced choppiness seems inevitable, given his penchant for picking fights.
We aren’t predicting the worst, though. We don’t see the president permanently damaging America’s relations with its allies. There have been spats between previous presidents and Europe over defense spending, and disagreements over how hard to squeeze this or that dictator. With Trump, the criticisms are visceral because he’s a bombastic character. But these partnerships endure because they provide military, diplomatic and economic benefits to all sides.
Good friends stay good friends. One hundred years of American history, dating to victory in the Great War, is proof of that.