When the war started in 1914,

most Americans considered “Europe’s war.”

A hit song in 1915 was titled “I Didn’t Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier” and President Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 with the campaign slogan “He kept us out of war.”

German belligerence soon had Americans rethinking the wisdom of isolation, said Bruce Malone, a historian and superintendent of the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery.

“Unrestricted warfare, sinking ships with Americans on them or American ships” and the infamous Zimmermann telegram in which Germany promised to give Mexico some American territory if it kept the U.S. engaged shifted the momentum, he said.

“Even President Wilson, who did not want to be in the war, had no choice,” Malone said.

On April 6, 1917, the U.S. declared war, much to the relief of its European allies.

“It wasn’t going well in Europe at the time, and the Germans were actually gaining some momentum. The Allies were essentially running out of men to fight the war,” Malone said.

There was one problem though, he added.

“We join the war. We’ve made promises, but we don’t have an army. Certainly not of the European standard,” he said.

Speed was of the essence. Russia left the war in March 1918 and Germany had sent its troops to the Western front for a final full onslaught. Just in time, U.S. soldiers started arriving en masse.

Pershing, disregarding British and French pleas to use U.S. troops to beef up depleted lines under British and French command, always wanted his men to fight as an independent American force.

A major breakthrough came at Belleau Wood, when U.S. forces stopped a German advance on

it