The ukraine and russia, a battle in gaza, conflicts in syria. What does this have to do with world war i . The answer might surprise you. First, i would like to introduce you to the gentleman who will bring todays discussion to life. On the far left is dr. Chad williams, associate professor and chair of african and afroamerican studies at brandeis university. Next, the senior lecturer of history at the university of south florida, the executive Director Director of the phi alpha theta National History honor society, and a board member of the world war i association. And last but not least, the author of borrowed soldiers. He is an archivist who also teaches history at the u. S. Naval academy. Thanks for joining us. Experts will be answering questions from me. Answer questions from you. We will be taking questions from our audience. You can tweet questions to us ww1cc, or message us on our Facebook Page at world war i centennial commission. We would like to take you to gaza, and an al jazeera reporter who has been watching the crisis unfold for the last few weeks. He filed this report for us last week, before the most recent round of ceasefires. Theomehow, i ended up at wrong war. Sunday morning, i had a ticket to northern rock. Mymonday evening, i was on way to gaza. Since i have been here, i have seen a failed ceasefire. I have seen an escalation. I have seen hamas, the organization that pretty much runs gaza, accused of targeting civilians with these multiple rocket attacks out of gaza. They have, as of today, killed one person. Israel say they were striking new oteri targets. Among the 213 people they have killed, according to outside organizations, Something Like half or more of those people are civilians. I have seen up close. 213 killed now. 1565 wounded, as of today. If you look at the skyline behind me, there have been plumes of smoke because of the israeli air, land, and sea strikes that have besieged this area. The have also been multiple rocket attacks coming out of this area. And of course, we have seen the result in the street. There have been dozens of homes, of hamas leaders some of it is political all destroyed. The police station, the ministry of the interior any center of power has been targeted. The israelis have struck over a thousand targets, and they say they have thousands more to go. I talked to families who left their home days ago, heard about a ceasefire yesterday, and were homesgain to leave their near northern gaza. They have returned to the center of gaza, a city that is not dared to handle the hundred thousand people the israelis have asked to leave their homes. So there is likely to be a humanitarian crisis here. This is a city with a shortage of water. There is a shortage of electricity. People get about eight hours a day. And there is a shortage of food. This place has 50 unemployment. 50 of the people here live in poverty and received food aid. This is a conflict with no end in sight. I was at the home of a hamas official today that was destroyed. Is name was mahmuds a hard mahmout zahar. His home was destroyed once before. His son was killed. He and his wife were injured. Another son was killed in a second engagement with israel. Today, of course, it happened all over again. Forward and wonder whether whatever happens at the end of this conflict or make a substantial difference between israel and palestine over the long run. John hendren talked about a conflict that seemed to have no end. A bit beginning, maybe more clearcut. How does this fighting in israel and in gaza relate act world war i . Back to world war i . You have to know world war i to understand the conflict going on now. Hussein, aeriff local arab leader, approached the British Government about an alliance, because the turkish empire controlled all the middle east. Have the famous mcmahonhussein correspondence, where the arabs are told, you can ally with us, but we will control iraq and all these areas. We will be supreme. It is accepted after a long silence. The key point is 1917, the belfort declaration. The jewish informs people that they would have a new homeland, and assured the arabs they would not be disturbed. , the the word disturbing british never intended anything they said at this time. It was the largest imperial empire of the time. Until 25 of the earths. Controlled 25 of the earths surface. You have a campaign in palestine that is on the level of what they anticipated for world war i. The key to winning palestine for the british is, it would cover the flank for the suez canal, critical for india, their gemstone in their empire. The tragedy a lot of people are not aware of this is what the arabs look back to with a lot of dislike. 19 18, a joint declaration was made by the british and french government, promising that if the arabs continued to fight against the turks, they would be given their independence and freedom. This is going to happen over and over again, and was never intended. In the war ended in the middle east, there are british soldiers, most of them indian, asian, and african but there was an immediate demobilization, because people at home wanted the war to end. What happened was, no one anticipated between 1919 and 1922, every area, because they are not states yet, rose up in revolt. , theye at versailles thought that president wilsons 14 points promising selfdetermination gave them their freedom. Onlyn and lloyd george intended that selfdetermination to be in europe. So you had these uprisings. In 1922, they finally start to settle down, and iraq and egypt become independent. The british still control them. They want the oil in mesopotamia, which is todays iraq. They did a Mesopotamian Campaign in 2014 and 2015 to get the oil for the dreadnoughts, the first acquire oil. O islamic evolution. In 1935, you have a major uprising in palestine. It is crushed. Where this trouble starts before the Second World War in 1939, the British Government issues their so called white paper or white statement, where they said, you cannot have independence for 10 more years. Im it caused a lot of trouble. What happens when world war ii breaks out is that many of the arab leaders will support the nazis, because it is the imperialistic reddish and french that have controlled them. This becomes important, but also the fact that hitlers army beat france in 1940 and the japanese embarrassed the british in 1941 and 1942 in the pacific. The middle east is never going to be the same. And lebanon1, syria are promised their freedom at the end of the war. This has to happen, because by world war i, britain and france are finished as major imperialist powers. , after world war ii. This is when the british decide they cannot handle the religious problems of palestine or india, and they asked the United States to take over control of palestine. We say no. They turn it over to the United Nations. Short, aslong story soon as the United Nations proclaimed a birth of israel, there is a war in 1948. 1967,are other wars, 1973. This brings in the great powers. Because after world war ii, in africa, asia, and particularly the middle east, all the National Groups can get Weapons Systems they could not before from the superpowers. 1967 and 1963, the arabs switch to a more guerrilla warfare, because they know they cannot win on the ground. You have the palestinian liberation organization, arafat, it goes to hezbollah, and now hamas controlling that area. I call it a more dangerous ireland. It is over religion, but this is not going to be settled for a long time. It all goes back to world war i at the very beginning. Would like to elaborate on one of the larger points. We need to think of world war i, first and foremost, as an imperial war. In many respects, this was a war about empire. All of the major belligerents were major imperial powers controlling vast amounts of land, resources, as well as people all over the world in africa, in asia, in the middle east. And many observers at the time , great civilois rights figures they are Aware National rivalries are over imperial control. It is important to think about what is happening today. Israel, in the ukraine, but also in iraq, syria , in africa, in sudan, the congo, as the result, the legacies of european imperialism, redrawing of national borders, in many respects which disregarded the national, ethnic, and religious identities of the people who lived there. So when we think about what world war i means today, in our current world, in many respects, we are still experiencing struggles oversell determination that animate the hopes and aspirations of many oppressed peoples all over the world at the end of the war and are still being fought for today. To sum up one of the points about the end of the war the armies were more interested in getting the troops home. And that was the attitude of the people, especially in the United States. The new york times, washington post, reporting what is going on in the middle east, but it was not so much of a concern in this country. After the war, we are celebrating. We are moving on from the war. It was not possible in the middle east. Things were exacerbating. Of course we get worse. Turning and around, we are concerned. Another top news story russia and the ukraine, a topic that seems to be spinning out of control, also with roots to world war i. How did this all start . Trouble between ukraine and the muscovites start in the middle ages. 1918,rld war i, march 3, the germans had conquered a good area of the eastern part of europe. The russians had dropped out of the war with the revolution of 1917. The ukrainians declared themselves a separate republic. A treaty was negated with the peace treaty of versailles. I want to mention, which is critical to understand the end of the war, we all know empires collapsed german, austrohungarian, russian, and turkish. This whole area is where you understand the Second World War is going to be born, because the peace treaty of versailles did not resolve what world war i was fought about, but is going to increase the problems. In 1920, poland was reborn. Had not existed since 1795. Went to war against the bolsheviks. The treaty of versailles could only hold if the United States was there and our senate voted down the treaty. The treaty depended on britain and france policing the treaty. Written is not going to do it. Her biggest trade partner was germany, so she is not going to do it. But the danger was in the east, because the treaty of versailles was dead in germany or the soviet union became great powers, and they did at about the same time, and their mutual enemy was poland. If you realize this, you understand better hitler and the western front and the eastern front. During the war, the ukrainian nationalists fought the nazis and the soviet troops. Their result against the soviet 1947. Army continued until will, president khrushchev threaten and sent plague germs for pregnant women and children. Ukrainian nationals, or get out of the forest, or your women and children die. That ended that. There has been this hostility. But when you start the cold war, the soviet union takes the Eastern Empire as a protected area against invasion from the west, particularly the threat of germany, which is dead in 1945. However, what happens then is Many Americans arent aware of this. Former soviet union atomic missiles are still in the ukraine. By the fact that we are trying to toy with the ukraine and support them to get into the eu, this has been part of russia for centuries. So putin is right. Of cuba and the United States in 1962. Excuse the people in the press, but i dont believe the press, because half the stuff they say is absolutely below me. What you have got to understand that the soviet union considers. Kraine very vital to them in fact, their entire navy consisted almost all of ukrainian sailors. So we Start Playing and trying to get them to revolt, which we never do, of course. Putin has it right. That is only going to be resolved after much more bloodshed. It is not going to end overnight. Thank you. To circle it back to the First World War, a lot of people dont know there were american troops in both north russia and siberia. There were regiments, while the other american troops were winding down on the western front we had troops well into 1919 and later, fighting in support of the white russians. It was a bloody situation, where there were a number of americans who lost their lives in an area that we dont think of as a theater of war. Joseph stalin said at one point, one of his beaches, the cold war began when american troops landed at archangel and adivostokost ark vl in 1919. The treaties to end the war seem to have perpetrated even more wars. What, in your perspective, did the people who came up with the treaty of her site and the other agreements what did they not understand . You think part of it, when look at the french, for example there was a lot of anger. Againstted retribution the germans. A lot of their infrastructure was destroyed. , with the belgians, a lot of their population had died at the hands of the germans. You had a lot of anger, animosity, going after the germans. Led toimosity, i think, confusion of what they were going to try to achieve by having this treaty. The United States was kind of on the peripheral of this. President wilson is kind of running it as the referee. It was never ratified in the United States. Up being more of, i think, the other allies controlling this. In some ways, it also reflected the limitations of american influence. When it came to the history and internal dynamics of europe, really, the deepseated hostilities that were at the wilson, inr his idealism, his talks about selfdetermination, creating a new International Order of inations, was not effective appeasing the different nations that were trying to sit down at the table and resolve this great conflict, which led to the next great conflict of the 20th century. I think even looking more specifically at the american perspective, and wilson specifically, his lack of attention to domestic affairs, the fact that he is in versailles negotiating the peace treaty. Labor unrest. You have domestic upheaval. There is a number of different factors looking from the perspective of the United States and world war i specifically treatyeak to why the oversight is ultimately a failure. They played wilson like a fiddle. While mentioned about the league of nations, it had no army, and was controlled by britain and france. Whenever wilson would stand up to something or say i dont like not, they would say, we are going to vote for the league, and he gave them. Gave in on the mandates for africa and the middle east. He was convinced by lloyd george clemeceau. Wilson fell for it. I am a european historian the austrohungarian empire was destroyed. Economic, andcal, structure for europe from the middle ages, created seven countries that could not exist alone. And nationalism was the key. To what we said earlier, if germany becomes a great power of the soviet union, these countries are there for the taking. Because they are nationalistic, each had at least 1 3 of other races of men and they all wanted to rule on their own. Wilson never visited the battlefields once, never understood what the war was about. It is important to take a closer look back at the four years that world war i was. How to describe that war . The History Channel asked some historians and authors to give it a try in one word. If i had to choose one word to describe world war i, it would be cataclysmic. A single word would be catastrophic. Transformational, because nothing was the same once the war was over. Its the one word that helps to describe world war i is destructive. Stupid. Thats how i would encapsulate the First World War. World war i did not have to happen. There was no inherent reason. It literally was dumb. Person during world war i thought they were in a new age, a fascinating modern world, the world that produced the titanic, aviation, and incredible advances in medicine. It seemed everything was within grasp right before world war i, and all of these would be smashed on the battlefields of europe. Beginning, they road to war and the peace plan it is not just one mistake, but a series of mistakes. People had the option to choose peace, and time and again seem to make the wrong decisions. It was intellectual rigidity. A simple falling dominoes that never needed to fall. The children of the renaissance, the age of reason, and the them ended up massacring themselves in the mud and blood of the trenches. Not just destructive in terms of what happens to mens bodies on the battlefield. Destructive in terms of global politics. The russian empire, the austrohungarian empire, the grievous weakening of the british and french empires the world that existed in 1918 was remarkably different from the one that existed in 1914. The whole globe was influenced by this war. The transformational changes cover a wide range from technology and weapons you see tanks, artillery guns, machine guns, trench warfare. World war i begins the modern era. We heard libby say world war i began the modern era. But was this war, as max brooks characterized it, a stupid war, a mistake . What does that mean . I think it was an inevitable war with all the different factions. One of the other speakers mentioned what was going on in europe at that time was kick assassination in serbia. It went from there. Consider the Alliance System the most important one. This is how i explain to my students. Austriahungary was going to go to war regardless. She was going to invade serbia but hope for a local war. Germany did not start the First World War. The austrohungarian monarchy is going to invade serbia and hope germany will keep russia out. Rush is going to come in. From the balkan wars of 1913, which need timenation i dont have why are britain, france, and germany coming into the war august 1 . The cause of the Alliance System. I add the arms race. From 1911 on, everybody is arming to the teeth. If you read the book sleepwalkers, it is wrong. They were not sleepwalking. Wrote the book i chapter on austriahungary. The people responsible for the were caughtthe war up in this nationalism, the most dangerous influence of the 20th. Nd 21st centuries it starts out hopefully as a local war, that austriahungary has to invade serbia or her empire will collapse occurred she has 15 nationalities. The war declaration against serbia is published in 15 different languages. Were austriahungary to survive as a great power germany could not let austriahungary be defeated. Its her only ally. And the russians had signed a treaty in 1994 which takes the weight off the french in the west if they went to war. I will stop, my colleagues. There is a danger in characterizing the war is stupid. Because it mattered. At the time, the war mattered to millions of people. They were fighting for something that they believed him. Worldople all over the were engaged in this conflict. It was a truly world war. To dismiss it as stupid, meaningless, i think runs the risk of dismissing it as a historical event. I think some of the other historians who spoke in the video spoke to the tremendous ramifications of the war, the transformations that took place in terms of technology, in terms of the nature of modern warfare. World war i was a big deal. It mattered in many ways. I would characterize, if i had to choose one word i would characterize it as tragic. It was a tragic historical moment. But one that was incredibly important to how we think about the world today. Certainly. There is a reason why this busy him why this museum was built as a memorial. It was an important event. The people who are involved, whether theyre on the battlefields or political leaders who knew this was not the war to end all wars. Ultimately, it was going to lead to other conflicts. You talked about the magnitude of the war. This building were in right now is a testament to that. World war i lasted for years and involved 20 countries and soldiers from five continents. 10 million lives were lost, 20 million wounded. Many more disabled. A generation at that time wiped out. The u. S. Was only involved for the last 18 months of the war. 2 million americans served overseas. More than 116,000 were either killed in combat or from disease. To put that in context, that is two times the casualties of american troops in more than a decade of war in vietnam. This was called the war to end all wars. Clearly, it was not. It did just the opposite. Help us understand how the United States got us involved in this war that was thousands of miles and an ocean away. Using the word inevitable again, i think it was there was a point to the u. S. Was going to get involved. The chief reasons, you can go back to the sinking of the lusitania, 1915. American lives are lost, germans have ramped up to you board war the uboat war. We recognize the fact that we had to help our allies, who were the british and french at this time. Although there were a lot of americans in this country, immigrants from germany and irish immigrants who wouldve been just as happy if the United States had gone on the side of germany and certainly fought against the british. You had the mexican revolution which we became involved in and the Zimmerman Telegram that said hey, mexico, we will help you get back arizona texas and new mexico if you help turn this war. Join this war. This helped turn the tide for the United States. There are so many people in this country that did understand why we need to get into a war that is more than 3000 miles away. We are not directly involved in that. Without the United States, the war would not have ended and we certainly turned the tide. United states was involved from the very beginning, whether it was economic, providing arms for the allies, whether it is volunteers going to europe to the red cross. You have americans following what is happening in the war. The immigrant communities have a clear connection in terms of their relatives and immediate family members. When the United States got involved formally in the war in the spring of 1917, it wasnt as if this was suddenly thrust upon the american people. Their questions and issues that americans had been confronting and debating for quite some time. Trying to mobilize the American Population was a different story. That is where major wilson becomes important in how he framed the war as Woodrow Wilson becomes important in how he framed the war. He tapped into the democratic idealism of the United States and was quite effective in terms of mobilizing a country that was wholly unprepared for war. United states and one of the smallest standing armies in the world. The time the war ended, we had emerged as a significant military power on the global stage. Talk about public sentiment at that time in history among americans. Were americans emotionally ready to go to war . How not ready where we . You ask an excellent question. There are still animosity from the civil war. There were still divisiveness between the north and south. We certainly werent ready as dr. Williams pointed out, we had one of the smallest standing armies. We had a regular army force, we had the national guard, which was from the militia. We werent ready technologically to fight this war. We didnt have enough manpower. We had to institute a draft does draft, which was not entirely popular. It really was starting from scratch. So did the british when they got into war. They had a small Standing Army as well. They had to rely on their form of the militia. The United States had the kind of learning curve to build up to it. It took a while and angered a lot of the political leaders in france and britain who said just ring the american troops over. We will amalgamate them with our troops. President wilson was against this. He pointed general gas general john j burgeoning whose name is all over kansas city. He said you will not fight as an independent army, youll find is the American Army. Fight as the American Army. If you need to help out the other belligerents, so be it. Wilson never visited the battlefields. He sent secretary of war baker over there are couple of times. He would report back to him. He didnt care staff wilson care. Wilson didnt care so much about the fighting. He cared about what would happen once the war was over. The United States government created an incredible Propaganda Machine to generate support for the war effort amongst many segments of the American Population which was incredibly skeptical. You have the committee of public information, which was created by george creel which produces this remarkable machine of governmentsponsored propaganda. You also have a strong element of government repression as well. American support for the war was the worst. You have one of the darker aspects of american involvement in the war is a tremendous suppression of Civil Liberties which took lace. Restrictions of freedom of the press. There was a whole element to american involvement in the war, which in some ways counter to the democratic idealism that Woodrow Wilson was propagating. I would also like to mention capitalism, because we do live in america. The United States government loaned money to britain. Britain lost gold reserves, but britain loaned money to italy and france. If we did not enter the war, who was going to pay the bills . All the papers in new york city had news from the german government. It was a ship of war. It is one of the reasons we go into the war. I want to mention after the war because this is one of the things that helps hitler. The italians have trouble paying the money, the french back to the british. The americans loaned money to the weimar government, which is used to build buildings. I dont have time to go into it. The depression makes the difference. It is over these payments. Hitler only becomes important because of the depression. And then his party rises. Follow the money. We will switch gears just briefly here. When you look at this major war overseas, it also drove some huge cultural changes back here at home. How did the war further the fight for civil rights, for womens rights . Dr. Williams, you have done a lot of research. The most dramatic reverberations of the war happened on the homefront in terms of transformation and social, cultural, political and Race Relations in the United States. The way that the war was framed, to make the world safer for democracy tapped in to the democratic aspirations of a broad range of marginalized peoples and groups in the United States. We can look at the womens Rights Movement culminating in the 19th amendment. In 1919 we can look at organized labor and unionism, workers rights. Africanamericans who really used the language of discourse, of democracy, to engage in a struggle to affirm their Citizenship Rights in the United States, but to also expand upon their Citizenship Rights which had been under attack since the end of construction. We can look at the fact that you have some 300 80,000 africanamerican soldiers who served in world war i. 200,000 served overseas, roughly 40,000 fighting on the western front. Very important in terms of what they meant domestically, African Americans, looking at them as a source of hope and inspiration. Also the contributions to the war effort. I think it often goes unrecognized. We can look at the war in many ways as being the birth of the modern civil Rights Movement for if we are talking about the black experience, how you have a generation of africanamericans who come out of the war determined to continue to fight for democracy, who take the lessons from the war, the positive developments but also the disillusionments, and translate that into sustained efforts for change in the United States. It happens during world war ii and culminates in the 1950s and 1960s with what we now see as the modern civil Rights Movement. Is important to mention that those africanamerican soldiers had to fight in french uniforms. Talk about why that was, their lives in europe and their lives when they returned back to the United States. You had two divisions. I wrote a whole book about this. But, yes, two divisions of black combat soldiers. The 92nd division was served in which served in American Expeditionary forces and was subjected to institutionalized racism, segregation, had a very trying experience, especially amongst the black officers. You have another division, the 93rd division which was a provisional division made up largely of black National Guardsman from new york, chicago and other places. There was a division of american troops among the french. If and when the United States entered the war, not knowing what to do with this conglomeration of black National Guardsman, he conveniently gave the 93rd division to the french army. They literally served under french command, war french uniforms wore french uniforms and acquitted themselves incredibly well. Their experience and spoke to the challenges that africanamericans faced when faced when serving an american military. The idealism that serving under the french generated as far as providing bike soldiers with a different view of racial possibilities, that there were alternatives to what they were experiencing and had experienced in the United States, translated into the postwar period. Some of the Unsung Heroes were native americans who served in the combat divisions, for example the 36th, which is out of oklahoma and texas. He had a number of native americans. We know about the novel code navajo code talkers in the Second World War using codes to fool the japanese. Actually, that dates to the First World War where the choctaw code talkers in 36 used telephones and use their own dialect and came up with some kind of gibberish messages that fooled the germans around the champagne sector. Native americans were rewarded for their socalled service by getting naturalization after the war. The war also drove incredible advances in technology. This is a war were soldiers rode in on horseback and came out in airplanes. Talk about what people may not know about the technology and advancement that happened in the four years of world war i. Medical research particularly advanced. You did not have your wonder drugs yet. One example, a lot of head wounds were fatal. Particularly in the alps. That was the worst field of battle in europe. Artillery shells would hit the rocks and pieces of rock would go into heads who did not have steel helmets until the end of the war. An austrian who won an award in 1914 developed a process which allowed many of these people to live. You clean out the world. A lot of times you went with Abraham Lincoln they treated the wound incorrectly. Armor did not prove itself in the First World War. In fact, the germans did not see it as being that worthwhile because they didnt even build a lot of tanks. Their artillery would stop them. That will be a development later. The telegraph and telephone become critical in the First World War, which leads to communication advances. We jumpstart in the Second World War. Oil becomes the mainstay of warfare. This explains the middle east later and even today, oil is the background and as we all know it is not going to last forever. They have to come up with solutions. That is the key to military power. Anyway, it is why china has tried to get all the oil she can. Shes tried to build up a Gigantic Army and within a few decades it will be the first time in history that a country will actually be able to threaten an invasion of the United States. We will get to those tensions in a while. Anyone else have anything to add about the technology that was developed during the war . Some of the paintings youre seen done after the war show soldiers in handtohand combat and using their bayonets against their foe. That was unusual. But of the reason was the fact that machine guns were so deadly. The germans were masters of the machine gun. They set up these pillboxes throughout their defenses and it was for difficult to get close to them because they were able to use them with such deadly effectiveness, that having been fighting hand to hand fighting never happened. Its critical to understand that when the war began, artillery will end up being the killer of 81 of those killed in world war i. Artillery was not accurate. You see in the western front the idea is more and more artillery. It is not until the end of the war that artillery becomes in effect be truly effective weapon. Before that, the time front in one battle, the italians had an artillery piece every four feet. Artillery is a key weapon in world war i. It is its evolution is slow and it has not completed that in 1918. After that, tanks, poison gas, and a number of ways to perpetrate the horrors of war more effectively. Well switch gears here now. World war i has been called the forgotten war. Why is it so important to remember . We asked a few historians and authors. I think is so important to remember the First World War because it shaped the world that we live in now. It was not something that is just long, gone and buried. The conflicts that emerge, the border disputes it from world war i continue to plague us in many serious ways. Its often called the forgotten war because was overshadowed by world war ii. Not only was world war ii greater in scope, it was mechanized and it was clear cut. You had the nazis on one side and you had the perpetrators of pearl harbor on the other. A great crusade with fabulous wonder weapons. You could almost call world war ii lord of the rings with tanks. World war i was young men dying in mud trenches that didnt move. It is not the stuff of heroic songs. I think largely the madness of world war i has been overshadowed by the crusade of world war ii. It is important to remember it because we went into it grossly unprepared and we repeated the same lesson over again in world war ii. The solution to the end of the war was not the solution, and that is a lesson we can use to this day. We have to be very careful about how we conduct international relations, especially when it involves armed conflict. Individuals were not only confronted with war, they were confronted with a pandemic flu outbreak. So many of our young men died of not combat but the closeness that they had to live and the pandemic that spread. America faced a tragedy and the world faced a tragedy. A significant loss of life in world war i can be something we can never forget. World war i is important to remember because it birthed an american century. We hear over and over again about the greatest generation, but who were the parents of the greatest generation . Who forged the greatest generation . It was a world war i veterans. It was the family of world war i veterans. In addition to remembering those lives lost and the families of world war i veterans, it is important to remember this war because there are very stark and troubling geopolitical parallels between now and then there talk about that. Then. Talk about that. People have said the world is on a crash course because of nationalism once again and other conflicts in the world. Are these valid comparisons . I think to some of the points made in this film, there were heroes, there were a lot of heroes, for example in the American Army, the highest honor one could receive was the medal of honor. I was not given out lightly. That was given out to men who did heroic things, who supported their comrades. Some of them died trying. Dr. Williams could talk about freddy starts. He was killed in battle. He got the only africanamerican medal posthumously. It was a terrifying experience. Our artillery was the gas warfare. A lot of them did not want to talk about it. They never mentioned it to the families. During my work in the National Archives i would meet families who found it much later on that they had someone will a relative who had fought in the war. They never talked about because it was such an horrific experience. Certainly in this country, it became a forgotten war. Thankfully, for the National Memorial heroes museum, we can still remember what we did and i hope the next four years will we will be able to pay tribute to those people. You can talk about this as well, it is certainly not a forgotten war in europe. If you go to france and Great Britain and germany, world war i is not forgotten. Theyre still living with it on a daily basis. French farmers are still digging up unexploded artillery cells shells. In the United States, out of the reason why the war may be forgotten is has to do with the trauma as well as the disillusionment, and how the reasons for why the United States fought in the war became very contested immediately after the war in 1919. The failure of the United States to join the league of nations. Americans were actively questioning what this war was about, what the sacrifices were that we made for . That has been passed down from generation to generation. Why the war doesnt have the same residence in the United States as it does in europe. In europe, it certainly does. I have been in poland and all over europe, particularly central and eastern europe, giving talks. All over central and eastern europe, they have volunteers replacing all the gravestones of those who died in the First World War. In little villages and big cities, they will never be forgotten in europe because an entire generation was destroyed. In the socalled lost generation after the war, the great writers like hemingway and faulkner were disillusioned. I thought they were going to they thought they were going to make a great contribution to this conflict there they went conflict. They went in early as volunteers. No one was really happy about it very certainly the germans werent nor were the allies. The people who fought in it started questioning what we gave for this . Did we gain from this . What was our contribution . We look at the world today, some people have made comparisons between how the world looks then and how the world looks today, about certain conflicts and rivalries between countries. They compare that to how the world looks prior to world war i. Talk about china going militarily and economically. How daunting are those comparisons in your mind . Should we be concerned . I think we should be concerned. It is to store before world war its the story before world war i of germany before england and possibly france. Believe me, those of you think rush is not a threat, i have a bridge to sell you in brooklyn. Rush is still a great power and is very dangerous. Russia is still a great power and is very dangerous. If youre not aware of it, by 2050, india will pass china and they will have well over half the world population. That often leads to war. Just to give you an example how world war i affected what is going on today. In world war i, president wilson told the chinese leaders that if they would go to war against germany, he would make sure that the peace treaty that they could bring up the shandong peninsula question which had been taken by the japanese. Well, whenever the versailles treaty came up, clem and lloyd george said to president wilson that we have a secret treaty with japan. It keeps the shandong peninsula. The telegraph arrived and the versailles treaty which the vietnamese, the chinese, etc. , on the racial clause for asians was ignored. Critical, a century later. Believe me. The key is, when the telegraphs arrived in china and they found out that they did not get the shandong peninsula, it led to the fourth of may movement, a gigantic upheaval. Workers, intellectuals, as a result of this in 1919, the Chinese Communist party was formed and the nationalist party. Japan invaded china in 31 and 37. Chang kaishek was one of the most corrupt rulers in history. He was notorious for not fighting the japanese because he could not beat them. So he kept fighting the communists. When chang takes power, you will find a civil war will go from 1921 to 1949. In world war ii, chiang spend most of his time fighting communists and we were supporting him. In 49, the revolution succeeded. That is when the cold war moved to asia. You had the korean war. I can throw in japan. Why is the korean war . Because china had a revolution. The cold war is here. China has seen its self as betrayed by the americans and disliked us going back to the First World War era. This china threat . She has a lot of nationalities, but she has a lot of problems and is destroying the earth environmentally, but she is also very dangerous. I think when you get some challenges facing the world today, it raises a lot of questions about the efficacy of the international bodies. I think there are lessons to be learned from world war i about how to prevent wars and what steps need to be taken to create robust, Sustainable International governing bodies. Look at what is happening in israel, and gaza, ukraine, in syria. Where is the European Union . Hopefully we can look back on world war i and some of the failures that came out of the war and hopefully take some lessons about how to prevent these largescale global conflicts from escalating into something more sinister. Before world war i, the u. S. Had military advisors and attaches all over europe and they were reporting on political, economic, military conditions. We knew what germany was doing. We knew they were building their they were preparing for war. This should not have come as a great surprise. What is going on in china . We need to be aware of what the chinese are doing. We need to not get caught off guard like we did in the korean conflict. Thank you, we will take a few questions now from members of our Live Audience and from people online. You can tweet questions to ww1centennialcommission. Can anyone on the panel compare the recent downing of airliner over the ukraine with the sinking of the much discussed lusitania here today . I would like to say that to fly over that area was insane. You have a war zone, why are you flying over it . Most of the major countries werent flying over it anymore. I think it was stupidity in the part of the malaysian airlines. Another question from our audience . Could you elaborate on just effect that world war i had on women in america after the aftermath. You elaborated on labor and Race Relations. I think the First World War gave women an opportunity. Men went off to war, so that women just like in the Second World War took over in factories and in other jobs they would normally not have been allowed to work at. Certainly after the war, womens rights. Women played a significant role oversees in volunteer organizations like the volunteer the salvation army, ymca, but also as telephone operators. Of course nurses, and i am talking about this country. The world had changed and it opened up from this experience for women to be more empowered. Another question . Gentleman in the back. I would like to maybe slightly disagree with those who say that the soldiers of world war i were a lost generation, in that many of the soldiers who fought in world war i came back and became Community Leaders. We have such people in kansas city as the judge and the gemini spearheaded the whole idea behind brown versus board of education. There are so many people who joined the American Legion who became great assets to their community with golden ideas that someone picked up when they were in europe. Youre absolutely right. A lot of soldiers came back and became Community Leaders and their churches and civic organizations and businesses. The point i want to make earlier was that they had such a horrific experience, especially on the western front, in the trenches. As dr. Williams pointed out, if you are an African American you were treated poorly by your white officers. When they came back, i they wanted to move on with their lives and become better people and Community Leaders. The war was incredibly transformative for individual soldiers identities. In the case of africanamerican soldiers, the chance to travel to different parts of the world. The idea of a rural sharecropper going to france was revolutionary. The war expanded the horizons of Many American soldiers, especially black troops, and they used those expenses to experiences to transform their lives for the better after the war, to transform the lives of those in the familys and their communities. Many africanamerican soldiers did become key members of their civil rights organizations. Charles hamilton houston was one of the architects of the naacps legal strategy to combat jim crow as an officer in the American Army during the war. You have Many American soldiers who come back from the war who are deeply transformed and take those experiences into various aspects of their lives to affect change, locally as well as nationally. You had lieutenants and captains who survive the First World War became the generals and field marshals of the Second World War. The military realm was affected as well. If you can just keep your hands up so rebecca can get to you. I just wanted to know from your perspective, we seem to be talking about the 20s as a generation where women get rights. Why do you think it took longer for africanamericans to get that same sort of momentum in terms of civil Rights Movement . Do the thing is, just general opinion, how much of a difference would it have made it if the United States had joined the league of nations . In the case of africanamericans, you have a deeply entrenched history and legacy of racism and systemic discrimination which took time to fight against. What is important to think about in terms of the significance of world war i is we see the groundwork being laid, the seeds being sown for the civil Rights Movement. You have organizations like the naacp, the urban league, that are growing and expanding. They have important shifts in the demographics of the country with africanamericans migrating to the north. That affect political change. Change being the calculus of politicians on the local and National Levels as far as how they are going to support various civil rights efforts out of clinical expediency. Political expediency. It does take time, and that is why i think many historians today tend to think of the civil Rights Movement as not being the singular moment, but as a process, a long civil Rights Movement that really began in the late 19th century and perhaps even continues today. Could i answer the league of nations . I was going to ask. Go ahead. The main problem with league of nations is that it did not have any armed forces. If you dont have armed forces you dont make decisions. The United States and all the countries that fought in world war i had been bled to death. They were not anxious to fight. Even if the United States had been in, i dont think the United States a look wouldve voted to send troops anywhere. The league of nations was a playground for england and france. It was not truly a league of nations at all. If you look at mussolini invading ethiopia, he got slapped on hand. Does a league of nations do anything when the japanese invaded china and 31 i37 . No. They put out a paper saying this probably should not have happened. Im not a big fan of the league of nations. You can probably catch that. [laughter] the league of nations without armed forces was not going to make a difference. We have a question online. Would there have been a hitler had the been no world war i . Had there been no world war i . Hitler was nothing in germany. Again, it was a depression. When the depression hit, hitler took all the arguments against versailles, articles 231 and 232, germany started the war, therefore she must pay. It was economic troubles of the depression that brought him forward. It is a depression era that stalin was able to use to build up the russian army. You would not have had a hitler if it had not been for the depression. One more question. Anyone have a question . Does too much focus on the western front distort the histriogoraphy the First World War . If so, how can compensate for this . It took me i dont know how long to convince to convince people that there was an eastern front, which i write about. A lot of people dont understand the caucasian front, the caucasus front. There are academic books out there that have this information. The western front, this is the key, if you dont understand it. The winning powers write what they want. Since the british speak english, we get what they say. I will tell you little secret. Look at any book written before 1990 and you will see no picture of a french soldier in a british history of the First World War. The british only had 25 miles of the front. I think we have room for one more question. I would like to hear your honest opinion about how far we have evolved as a society when we [laughter] i will elaborate. I think it is alarming to see historians say this war was stupid simply because we continue to make the same mistakes. We talk about nationalism and we see it right here in america. Being pulled into iraq after 9 11. None of our leaders have the courage to stand up to that based on nationalism. Are we still just barely tamed animals waiting to destroy each other . Willing to slaughter each ther other, or is there hope . I have more faith in the human species that we would not replicate what happened in the First World War. I would certainly think there are important lessons to be learned. There are yearly parallels there are eerie parallels. I do think we have perhaps evolved to a point, and i am trying to be as optimistic as possible, that we would not replicate what happened in the First World War. I think the costs were so high that the memories are still so vivid and with us that we would not make those kind of mistakes again. The trouble in the middle east and other areas is religion. You mention in your question about nationalism. Certainly, nationalism became so as americans got further into the war. If we got into a major conflict like that again, americans would join together. One of the problems you brought up, was preparedness. Even though there were leaders who urged the United States. That is something we should consider. As things got more and more dangerous into the century. The problem is that armed forces were being made weaker and weaker. I dont think we should be the policeman of the continent, but you dont have diplomacy unless you have military force. That is what we have got to understand with china and russia. They understand force. They dont understand words. Theyll listen to words. They dont listen to words. We will have to leave it there. I want to thank my panel. [applause] thank you so much. Thank you. Would also like to thank our audience for your thoughtful questions and we would like to thank you for your thoughtful answers. We like to extend a big debt of gratitude to the National World war i team and Liberty Memorial for hosting us here. To History Channel and to the National World war i commission for making this event possible. Thank you so much for joining us. Youre watching American History tv. Cspan3. Like a fun facebook at cspan history. Like us on facebook at cspan history. On behalf of the people of the United States, i am pleased to be here and accept the pandas, andt of these other mementos from the government of the peoples republic of china. Im so glad this delegation could come here to the United States and enjoy some of our hospitality just as we enjoyed that in their country. Them taking such good care of the pandas on the long trip, and after they arrived here at their new home. Zoo, theye national will be enjoyed by the millions of people who come from across the country to visit the Nations Capital each year. Too, want to express appreciation for all of the hospitality that you have given , and we in your country wish all your people well and thank you very much for this lovely photo album, and for this beautiful picture. And best of all, for the gift of the [inaudible] age, willen, whatever enjoy. I include myself in that category. I noticed dr. Ripley is wearing a panda tie. I have my panda pin on, ill have you know. Pandemonium is going to break out. [laughter] thank you very much. [applause] 200 years ago, on august 20 fourth, 18 14, british soldiers routed american troops at the battle of bladensburg just outside washington, d. C. The victory left the nations y and open to british forces, who marched into the city and burned down the white house. Just ahead today, learn more about the battle and the burning of washington as we take you to bladensburg Waterfront Park for a panel discussion. We will have that live at 1 00 p. M. Eastern here on American History tv on cspan3. American artifacts, we visit the Smithsonians National portrait gallery to see their exhibit, 18 12 a nation emerges. With curator sydney heart and rachel penman. I am the Senior Historian at the smithsonian National Portrait gallery in washington, d. C. The gallerys bicentennial exhibition of the war of 1812. The war of 1812 was a relatively small war. Most americans dont remember it. It had major consequences for the development of the United States. One of the smithsonians major mi