0:01:17 > 0:01:20On April 6th, 1917,
0:01:20 > 0:01:24the United States of America declared war on Germany.
0:01:24 > 0:01:28For two and a half years, the most powerful nation in the world
0:01:28 > 0:01:32had stood apart from Europe's mortal struggle.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35Now at last she was drawn in.
0:01:45 > 0:01:50Many months would pass before her soldiers could be ready for battle.
0:01:50 > 0:01:55But to the war-weary Allies, she brought a new vision of victory.
0:01:55 > 0:01:57CHEERING
0:02:02 > 0:02:06America had travelled a long road since August 1914.
0:02:06 > 0:02:12The outbreak of war in Europe at first barely touched the American people.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15Its coming took a form hardly physical at all.
0:02:15 > 0:02:21It came as newspaper dispatches from far away in the distance and even farther away in spirit.
0:02:23 > 0:02:28The dispatches were as if black flocks of birds frightened from their rookeries
0:02:28 > 0:02:34came darting across the ocean, their excited cries a tiding of stirring events.
0:02:46 > 0:02:50In 1914, Europe's quarrels seemed to be no concern of Americans.
0:02:50 > 0:02:57They were a nation born out of the need to become and remain separate from Europe.
0:02:57 > 0:03:01George Washington had expressed their creed...
0:03:01 > 0:03:05Why quit our own to stand upon foreign ground?
0:03:05 > 0:03:10Why, by interweaving our destiny with that of any part of Europe,
0:03:10 > 0:03:14entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils
0:03:14 > 0:03:19of European ambition, rivalship, interest, humour or caprice?
0:03:19 > 0:03:22FAIRGROUND MUSIC PLAYS
0:03:55 > 0:04:02The separatism which inspired the first Americans helped to drive forward the new nation's expansion.
0:04:02 > 0:04:06In the 19th century, millions of personal decisions by Europeans
0:04:06 > 0:04:09to break away from the fetters of the Old World
0:04:09 > 0:04:12brought a swift increase of population to America.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19Every immigrant fought his private War of Independence
0:04:19 > 0:04:24when he took the decision to uproot himself from the land of his birth and cross the Atlantic.
0:04:29 > 0:04:31Give me your tired, your poor
0:04:31 > 0:04:35Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free
0:04:35 > 0:04:38The wretched refuse of your teeming shore
0:04:38 > 0:04:41Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
0:04:48 > 0:04:51These Americans wanted no part of Europe.
0:04:51 > 0:04:53It was a new world that they were seeking.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59They found the fruits of isolationism sweet.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03They acquired greater wealth and material power than the world had ever known.
0:05:06 > 0:05:11In America, men could make vast personal fortunes with astounding speed.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17Andrew Carnegie, when he retired, gave away 350 million.
0:05:17 > 0:05:20America was the land of promise.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23Poor men could grow rich almost overnight.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33They could also remain very poor.
0:05:33 > 0:05:39In the Dust Bowl, in the factories of Detroit, Baton Rouge or Chicago,
0:05:39 > 0:05:44in the cities with their slums which matched the slums of Europe,
0:05:44 > 0:05:47there was squalor, misery, bitterness.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51For many immigrants and their sons, it was a poor exchange
0:05:51 > 0:05:54to escape servitude to Europe's hereditary princes,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58only to find servitude to Wall Street's tycoons.
0:06:18 > 0:06:19Tycoons were tough.
0:06:19 > 0:06:23The first battles of American trade unions were battles indeed.
0:06:23 > 0:06:2732 men were killed in a coalfield strike in Colorado.
0:06:27 > 0:06:33A bomb in the printing works of a Los Angeles newspaper killed 19 people.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36Then we went to hear Emma Goldman at the Bronx Casino,
0:06:36 > 0:06:40but the meeting was forbidden and the streets were crowded.
0:06:40 > 0:06:46There were moving vans, said to be full of cops with machine guns.
0:06:46 > 0:06:49Everybody was talking machine guns, revolution,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51civil liberty, freedom of speech,
0:06:51 > 0:06:56but some got beaten up by a cop and shoved into a patrol wagon.
0:06:56 > 0:07:02Everyone said it was an outrage. And what about Washington and Jefferson?
0:07:02 > 0:07:06Yet America offered abundant space to her people,
0:07:06 > 0:07:09with a sense of promise never far away.
0:07:18 > 0:07:20By the turn of the century,
0:07:20 > 0:07:25the frontier, the legendary, luring frontier of the West, had vanished.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29From the Atlantic to the Pacific, the nation was won.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41Americans who had confined their expansion within their coasts began to look beyond them.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47While Britain was fighting in South Africa, America fought Spain
0:07:47 > 0:07:49and became a surprised imperialist.
0:07:51 > 0:07:56She freed Cuba and she acquired the rich Philippine Islands and Hawaii.
0:07:57 > 0:08:04Spokesman of the extrovert American mood was Theodore Roosevelt, twice Republican President...
0:08:06 > 0:08:11Our nation, while first of all seeing to its own domestic wellbeing
0:08:11 > 0:08:15must not shrink from playing its part
0:08:15 > 0:08:18among the great nations without.
0:08:18 > 0:08:20Speak softly
0:08:20 > 0:08:22and carry a big stick.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27Roosevelt's bounding personal vitality
0:08:27 > 0:08:32matched that of a nation whose pioneer days were barely finished,
0:08:32 > 0:08:37which recognised no challenge which the human muscle and spirit could not overcome.
0:08:40 > 0:08:45After his presidency, Roosevelt departed for a long tour of Africa and South America.
0:08:49 > 0:08:53He had made America's voice heard in the world's affairs.
0:08:53 > 0:08:59He intervened in the Russo-Japanese War, spoke up when France and Germany quarrelled over Morocco,
0:08:59 > 0:09:04seized Latin American territory to build the Panama Canal.
0:09:07 > 0:09:12His ideas carried the American people beyond their present understanding of themselves.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27In 1914, after 20 years out of office,
0:09:27 > 0:09:33the Democrats swept back to power on the rallying cry of "Reform".
0:09:33 > 0:09:37President Woodrow Wilson voiced the nation's concerns.
0:09:37 > 0:09:41We have been proud of our industrial achievements,
0:09:41 > 0:09:45but we have not hitherto stopped to count the human cost.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48Our duty is to cleanse,
0:09:48 > 0:09:50to reconsider, to restore...
0:09:50 > 0:09:53every process of our common life.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55When war broke out in Europe,
0:09:55 > 0:10:00America's president seemed likely to keep her out of it.
0:10:00 > 0:10:07Woodrow Wilson was an austere, withdrawn intellectual, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman.
0:10:07 > 0:10:11He had lived in the seclusion of the academic world.
0:10:11 > 0:10:17His orderly mind found difficulty in grasping the complex dilemmas of the world outside the campus.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21But all his instincts were for peace.
0:10:21 > 0:10:24Sometimes people call me an idealist.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28Well, that is the way I know I am an AMERICAN.
0:10:28 > 0:10:32America is the only idealist nation in the world.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35ENTHUSIASTIC CHEERING
0:10:35 > 0:10:39The idealism of the American people was often confused
0:10:39 > 0:10:44and coloured with the boastfulness of a young and thriving country.
0:10:44 > 0:10:50Any American mechanic could see that if the Europeans hadn't been a lot of ignorant, underpaid foreigners
0:10:50 > 0:10:57who drank, smoked, were loose about women and wasteful in their methods of production, there'd be no war.
0:10:57 > 0:11:04Most Americans were well satisfied when Wilson stated the nation's posture towards Europe's war...
0:11:04 > 0:11:08We must be impartial in thought, as well as in action.
0:11:08 > 0:11:13Must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction
0:11:13 > 0:11:20that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24Many Americans of British origin were two ways torn.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28It was New England which had first rebelled against King George.
0:11:28 > 0:11:33The memory of rebellion, long distrust of British policy,
0:11:33 > 0:11:37some irritation at the sight of the Union Jack in Canada,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42conflicted with an instinctive condemnation of German aggression.
0:11:42 > 0:11:48Affection towards France, which had helped the colonies in their rebellion,
0:11:48 > 0:11:52then imitated them by becoming a republic, was another factor.
0:11:57 > 0:12:04And 15 million Irish Americans whose forebears had been forced to emigrate by hunger and poverty
0:12:04 > 0:12:08could not easily forgive their English oppressors.
0:12:08 > 0:12:14There were millions from Russian territories - Poles, Ukrainians, Jews -
0:12:14 > 0:12:18with memories of pogroms and the secret police,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21who loathed the notion of a Tsarist victory.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25There were over 11 million Americans of German descent.
0:12:25 > 0:12:30Many were powerful figures, willing to put forward Germany's case.
0:12:30 > 0:12:36England's only grudge was that Germany has grown commercially, financially and industrially
0:12:36 > 0:12:41to a position which threatens to crowd England into a second rank.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45Jealousy appears to control this English attitude.
0:12:45 > 0:12:49And what is Germany fighting for? Does she want anything from anybody?
0:12:49 > 0:12:51She wants to be left alone.
0:12:51 > 0:12:56The delicate balance of American sympathy was soon disturbed.
0:12:56 > 0:13:01Germany's invasion of Belgium outraged American opinion.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03Life magazine wrote...
0:13:03 > 0:13:10If we see anything right at all in all this matter, Belgium is a martyr to civilisation.
0:13:10 > 0:13:17Sister to all who love liberty or law, the great unconquerable fact of the Great War is Belgium.
0:13:17 > 0:13:22Strict impartiality was easier to proclaim than to preserve.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24As the impact of war sank in,
0:13:24 > 0:13:28invasion, destruction, atrocity, authentic or not,
0:13:28 > 0:13:33American opinion swayed upon a deep underwater tide.
0:13:36 > 0:13:41Yet this tide of pro-British sentiment might be reversed
0:13:41 > 0:13:43by the exigencies of war itself.
0:13:43 > 0:13:48The exercise of British sea power had always grated upon America.
0:13:48 > 0:13:55Britain's blockade of Germany meant the searching of American ships, the seizure of contraband cargos.
0:13:55 > 0:13:58A flood of protests poured into the White House.
0:13:58 > 0:14:03The British Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lloyd George, wrote...
0:14:03 > 0:14:07Germany's chief power was on land, Britain's on the sea.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11Germany's invasion of Belgium, her devastation of France,
0:14:11 > 0:14:18might arouse disinterested wrath in America, but it did not touch American pockets.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22On the other hand, Britain's firm measures
0:14:22 > 0:14:26to prevent contraband of war from reaching Germany
0:14:26 > 0:14:31and her wide and constantly widening interpretation of contraband
0:14:31 > 0:14:37caused serious inconvenience to American shipping and direct interference with American business.
0:14:41 > 0:14:47Left to itself, this friction might have developed into a fatal sore,
0:14:47 > 0:14:51but German action swung the tide of sympathy against her once more.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56U-boat attacks on merchant ships,
0:14:56 > 0:15:00sunk with their crews aboard or left to die in their boats,
0:15:00 > 0:15:04were more shocking than the Royal Navy's blockade.
0:15:04 > 0:15:09The loss of America's trade with Germany was not to be such a blow.
0:15:09 > 0:15:11She found a new, insatiable market.
0:15:11 > 0:15:17The Allies would buy all the munitions that America could make.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21A temporary slump turned into an unprecedented boom.
0:15:30 > 0:15:35Righteous sentiment might coincide with self-interest after all -
0:15:35 > 0:15:39an ideal circumstance for judicious propaganda.
0:15:40 > 0:15:45In the field of propaganda, the Allies enjoyed a vast advantage.
0:15:45 > 0:15:51The Royal Navy had ripped up the German transatlantic cables from the ocean bed.
0:15:51 > 0:15:56Only the Allies now had direct access to America's public ear.
0:15:56 > 0:15:59As the months went by,
0:15:59 > 0:16:03the Allied version of events loomed ever larger in the American press.
0:16:03 > 0:16:08Gradually the true meaning of neutrality was eroded.
0:16:08 > 0:16:12Yet, for a while, its outward forms remained.
0:16:12 > 0:16:18In May 1915, there were great issues at home to distract American minds from Europe's war.
0:16:18 > 0:16:21Prohibition was one of them -
0:16:21 > 0:16:24a cause which stepped into every home.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Already 14 states had gone dry
0:16:27 > 0:16:33and a nationwide campaign was demanding total prohibition of the sale of alcohol.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35There were dissenters.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Campaigners for women's rights were active
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and women, on the whole, also supported Prohibition.
0:17:05 > 0:17:09In May, the fastest British liner afloat, the Lusitania,
0:17:09 > 0:17:12left New York for Liverpool.
0:17:12 > 0:17:15Aboard were 2,000 passengers and crew...
0:17:15 > 0:17:20and 5,000 crates of ammunition for the Allies.
0:17:20 > 0:17:27On the day before, the German Embassy in Washington had published an announcement in the press.
0:17:27 > 0:17:31This warned that Allied ships, including passenger liners,
0:17:31 > 0:17:33were liable to be sunk by U-boats.
0:17:33 > 0:17:40It meant that the Lusitania's passengers travelled at their own risk, but few paid much attention.
0:17:42 > 0:17:47On May 7th, Commander Schwieger's U-20 was waiting for her.
0:17:47 > 0:17:49She fired two torpedoes.
0:17:49 > 0:17:51EXPLOSION
0:17:51 > 0:17:53Her commander noted in his log...
0:17:53 > 0:17:58Great confusion on board. Lifeboats being cleared and lowered to water.
0:17:58 > 0:18:03Many boats crowded, come down bow first or stern first in the water
0:18:03 > 0:18:05and immediately fill and sink.
0:18:08 > 0:18:121,153 people went down in the Lusitania,
0:18:12 > 0:18:14including 114 American citizens.
0:18:19 > 0:18:23Some of the Lusitania's dead were brought to Ireland for burial.
0:18:23 > 0:18:27The American press blazed with indignation.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30Germany has affronted the moral sense of the world
0:18:30 > 0:18:33and sacrificed her standing among the nations.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41The sinking of the Lusitania was deliberate murder.
0:18:46 > 0:18:51Once more, the pendulum of American sympathy took a violent swing.
0:18:51 > 0:18:55It was no longer just a question of which side America favoured.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00It became a matter of whether America herself might fight.
0:19:00 > 0:19:02Theodore Roosevelt said...
0:19:02 > 0:19:05This represents not merely piracy,
0:19:05 > 0:19:11but piracy on a vaster scale of murder than old-time pirates ever practised.
0:19:11 > 0:19:17It is warfare against innocent men, women and children on the ocean
0:19:17 > 0:19:21and our own fellow countrymen and women who are among the sufferers.
0:19:21 > 0:19:24It seems inconceivable
0:19:24 > 0:19:28that we can refrain from taking action in this matter,
0:19:28 > 0:19:34for we owe it not only to humanity, but to our own national self-respect.
0:19:36 > 0:19:40Amid all the passion, President Wilson kept his head.
0:19:40 > 0:19:43The principles of a lifetime sustained him.
0:19:43 > 0:19:50The example of America must be the example not merely of peace because it will not fight,
0:19:50 > 0:19:56but of peace because peace is the healing and elevating influence of the world and strife is not.
0:19:56 > 0:20:00There is such a thing as being too proud to fight.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Proud, certainly. And rich. America was now the arsenal of the Allies.
0:20:05 > 0:20:10HER booming prosperity was closely linked to THEIR fortunes.
0:20:10 > 0:20:16If U-boats could not check the flow of vital war material from America to Europe,
0:20:16 > 0:20:18Germany must try other ways.
0:20:18 > 0:20:21She turned to sabotage.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Warehouses and factories supplying the Allies were burnt down,
0:20:26 > 0:20:31bombs were planted, a huge espionage and sabotage ring was uncovered.
0:20:31 > 0:20:39It had spent nearly 30m of German government money, disbursed through the military and naval attaches.
0:20:39 > 0:20:42America insisted on their recall.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Her relations with Germany deteriorated further still.
0:20:51 > 0:20:56Yet the months went by without any definite consequence
0:20:56 > 0:20:59of America's ripening hostility towards the Central powers.
0:20:59 > 0:21:04The anniversary of the Lusitania's sinking approached. It was April 1916.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12Suddenly once more the pendulum took a counter-swing.
0:21:12 > 0:21:18The Easter Rebellion in Ireland was suppressed by British forces.
0:21:18 > 0:21:23The execution of captured rebels, spread over ten days,
0:21:23 > 0:21:28infuriated millions of Irish Americans and revived their ancient hatred.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31The British ambassador in Washington reported...
0:21:31 > 0:21:35The attitude towards England has been changed for the worse.
0:21:35 > 0:21:39Our cause for the present among the Irish here is a lost one.
0:21:42 > 0:21:46In America, 1916 was an election year.
0:21:49 > 0:21:52The war was the dominant issue.
0:21:52 > 0:21:56The election campaigns of the parties crystallised the sway of opinion.
0:21:56 > 0:22:03Neutralism, the desire to stay out of the war, still possessed a doughty champion in the President.
0:22:03 > 0:22:08Support for this policy was strong in the Midwest and Pacific states.
0:22:08 > 0:22:14Europe's war seemed more remote there than on the Atlantic seaboard.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19At the Democratic convention, Wilson was renominated presidential candidate.
0:22:19 > 0:22:23The chairman quoted from the Sermon on the Mount.
0:22:23 > 0:22:26Blessed are the peacemakers
0:22:26 > 0:22:30for they shall be called the children of God.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33He was applauded to the echo.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37Up and down the United States,
0:22:37 > 0:22:42Wilson's campaign slogan was, "He kept us out of the war."
0:22:42 > 0:22:49The Republican candidate against Wilson was Charles Hughes, strongly backed by Theodore Roosevelt.
0:22:49 > 0:22:51Their policy was preparedness.
0:22:51 > 0:22:54They wanted a bigger army,
0:22:54 > 0:22:58universal military training, more aggressive American leadership.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01Roosevelt taunted Wilson with...
0:23:01 > 0:23:07The shadows of men, women and children who have risen from the ooze of the ocean,
0:23:07 > 0:23:09the shadows of babies,
0:23:09 > 0:23:13gaping pitifully as they sank under the waves.
0:23:13 > 0:23:16The shadows of deeds that were never done.
0:23:16 > 0:23:22The shadows of lofty words that were followed by no action.
0:23:22 > 0:23:23The shadows...
0:23:23 > 0:23:25of the tortured dead.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32Woodrow Wilson was re-elected, but his majority fell sharply.
0:23:32 > 0:23:35The portents were becoming unmistakable.
0:23:35 > 0:23:39Yet Wilson clung to his ideal of peace.
0:23:39 > 0:23:45There will be no war. This country does not intend to become involved in war.
0:23:45 > 0:23:50It would be a crime against civilisation for us to go into it.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55Once again, it was Germany's own acts which swung the balance against her.
0:23:55 > 0:24:01On January 31st, 1917, Germany informed America of her intention
0:24:01 > 0:24:05to carry out unrestricted submarine warfare.
0:24:05 > 0:24:08This meant that all shipping, including neutrals,
0:24:08 > 0:24:10whether carrying contraband or not,
0:24:10 > 0:24:14would be sunk at sight without warning anywhere in Allied waters.
0:24:17 > 0:24:24Stage by stage, President Wilson's campus ideals were battered down by war reality.
0:24:24 > 0:24:29Stage by stage, he resisted the evidence and its implications.
0:24:29 > 0:24:33I refuse to believe that it is the intention of the German authorities
0:24:33 > 0:24:37to do in fact what they have warned us they will feel at liberty to do.
0:24:37 > 0:24:42Only overt acts can make me believe it.
0:24:45 > 0:24:48Wilson was forced to believe.
0:24:48 > 0:24:51As vessel after vessel went down,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54Germany's ruthless determination became evident.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59The German ambassador in Washington was handed his passport.
0:24:59 > 0:25:05America broke off diplomatic relations and drafted a bill to arm her merchant ships.
0:25:05 > 0:25:08Now she stood on the brink of war.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14The last act needed to drag her in was not slow in coming.
0:25:17 > 0:25:23In 1917, four-fifths of America's small army was embroiled with Mexico.
0:25:23 > 0:25:28Relations between the US and her Latin neighbour were never easy.
0:25:28 > 0:25:32The border along the Rio Grande was rarely quiet.
0:25:32 > 0:25:36Mexico's successive revolutions alarmed America,
0:25:36 > 0:25:41threatened her commercial interests and the lives of her citizens.
0:25:42 > 0:25:46To Germany, this distant preoccupation was a godsend.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51If the American army was busy in Mexico, it couldn't come to Europe.
0:25:51 > 0:25:55Germany proposed an alliance to the Mexican government.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59Germany makes Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Make war together, make peace together,
0:26:02 > 0:26:06generous financial support and an understanding that Mexico
0:26:06 > 0:26:12is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16We suggest Mexico should invite Japan's immediate assistance
0:26:16 > 0:26:19and mediate between Japan and ourselves.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26This was the secret Zimmermann telegram,
0:26:26 > 0:26:30one of history's most explosive documents.
0:26:30 > 0:26:34British naval intelligence had broken the German codes
0:26:34 > 0:26:40and selected its moment carefully to inform America of the contents of the telegram.
0:26:40 > 0:26:42They came as a thunderclap.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46This was a conspiracy to attack the very homeland of the United States.
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Isolationism withered away.
0:26:51 > 0:26:53The Peace Party collapsed.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59The fire-eaters rose in their wrath,
0:26:59 > 0:27:04headed by a characteristic bellow of rage from Theodore Roosevelt.
0:27:04 > 0:27:10This man Wilson is enough to make the saints and the angels, yes, and the Apostles, swear
0:27:10 > 0:27:12and I would not blame them.
0:27:12 > 0:27:15My God! Why doesn't he do something?
0:27:15 > 0:27:20If he does not go to war with Germany, I shall skin him alive.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25This was the end of the President's dream of peace.
0:27:25 > 0:27:29While he took his last agonising decisions,
0:27:29 > 0:27:32Germany for the last time fortified his resolve
0:27:32 > 0:27:36by torpedoing three American merchant ships in one day.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41Now there was no choice. The peacemaker must go to war.
0:27:41 > 0:27:48On April 2nd, 1917, Woodrow Wilson drove to the Capitol to deliver a momentous address.
0:27:48 > 0:27:54The wrongs against which we array ourselves are not common wrongs.
0:27:54 > 0:27:58They cut to the very root of human life.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01I advise that Congress declare
0:28:01 > 0:28:06that it formally accept the status of a belligerent which is thrust upon it.
0:28:06 > 0:28:11It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war,
0:28:11 > 0:28:15into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars,
0:28:15 > 0:28:19civilisation itself seeming to be in the balance.
0:28:19 > 0:28:23But the right is more precious than peace.
0:28:23 > 0:28:27The world must be made safe for democracy.
0:28:32 > 0:28:35Wilson spoke for the whole nation,
0:28:35 > 0:28:40yet the ecstatic cheers with which it applauded him only filled him with sorrowful wonder.
0:28:40 > 0:28:45My message today was a message of death for our young men.
0:28:45 > 0:28:49How strange it seems to applaud that.
0:28:49 > 0:28:52America was at war at last.
0:28:52 > 0:28:58The mood which swept her echoed the passionate violence of Europe in 1914.
0:28:58 > 0:29:00Winston Churchill wrote...
0:29:00 > 0:29:05Pacifism, indifference, dissent were swept from the path
0:29:05 > 0:29:09and fiercely pursued to extermination.
0:29:09 > 0:29:13And with a roar of slowly gathered, pent-up wrath,
0:29:13 > 0:29:17which overpowered in its din every discordant yell,
0:29:17 > 0:29:19the American nation sprang to arms.
0:29:19 > 0:29:21CHEERING
0:29:22 > 0:29:29All America's competitiveness, all her genius for publicity, were channelled into the war effort.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32The first war loan was oversubscribed by 50%.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35Anti-German feeling ran riot.
0:29:35 > 0:29:39Wagner's music was banned. Dachshunds were stoned.
0:29:39 > 0:29:43Sauerkraut was rechristened liberty cabbage.
0:29:43 > 0:29:48And Potsdam, Missouri, hurriedly changed its name to Pershing.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57Newspapers, magazines and posters
0:29:57 > 0:30:00provided constant fuel for the nation's passion.
0:30:00 > 0:30:04Even in a prayer before the House of Representatives, Germany was remembered.
0:30:04 > 0:30:09Thou knowest, O Lord, that no nation so infamous, vile,
0:30:09 > 0:30:15greedy, sensuous, bloodthirsty, ever disgraced the pages of history.
0:30:15 > 0:30:18Young men swarmed into recruiting centres.
0:30:18 > 0:30:23But with memories of the breakdown of volunteering in the Civil War,
0:30:23 > 0:30:26the government rushed through a conscription bill.
0:30:26 > 0:30:31Every male between 21 and 30 had to register for military service.
0:30:31 > 0:30:35Only 4% of the ten million available failed to do so.
0:30:35 > 0:30:40680,000 were selected by ballot for the first draft,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43the most America could possibly equip and train at once.
0:30:52 > 0:30:55ENTHUSIASTIC CHEERING
0:30:55 > 0:31:01American womanhood, determined not to miss this opportunity of proving itself equal in a man's world,
0:31:01 > 0:31:03joined the war effort with equal fervour.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24The task which faced America was tremendous.
0:31:24 > 0:31:27President Wilson said...
0:31:27 > 0:31:32It is not an army that we must shape and train for war. It is a nation.
0:31:32 > 0:31:37American industry was heavily committed to supplying the Allies.
0:31:37 > 0:31:42Now the Secretary for War needed it to arm and supply her own soldiers.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47War is no longer Samson with his shield and spear and sword, and David with his sling.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52It is the conflict of smokestacks now, the combat of the driving wheel and engine.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59The government called in the great business tycoons.
0:31:59 > 0:32:05Bernard Baruch was placed in charge of coordinating all the nation's resources.
0:32:05 > 0:32:09Private shipping was commandeered and new shipyards were built
0:32:09 > 0:32:15for the enormous task of transporting and supplying an army across 3,000 miles of ocean.
0:32:35 > 0:32:41Agriculture and food conservation were organised and publicised.
0:32:41 > 0:32:43Life magazine urged its readers...
0:32:43 > 0:32:48Do not permit your child to take a bite or two from an apple and throw the rest away.
0:32:48 > 0:32:53Even children must be patriotic to the core.
0:32:53 > 0:32:59Like Britain in 1914, America was a naval power with only a small regular army.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03Immediately she placed her fleet at the disposal of the Allies.
0:33:11 > 0:33:16On May 4th, 1917, the first American warships reached Britain.
0:33:16 > 0:33:20Admiral Beatty welcomed the reinforcement to Britain's fleet.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29But it was the American army,
0:33:29 > 0:33:34the influx of her inexhaustible manhood, that Europe was awaiting.
0:33:34 > 0:33:39It was hard for the Allies to grasp the problems that faced the USA.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43The strength of America's army was only 80,000 men
0:33:43 > 0:33:46and most of them were on the Mexican border.
0:33:46 > 0:33:51To turn this tiny force into a trained army of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions,
0:33:51 > 0:33:53was a stupendous task.
0:33:57 > 0:34:02Huge camps were built at breakneck speed and men began training in them almost at once.
0:34:02 > 0:34:07The peaceful nation adapted itself to war with a speed and efficiency
0:34:07 > 0:34:10which the President had grimly prophesied.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13Once lead this people into war
0:34:13 > 0:34:17and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance.
0:34:17 > 0:34:23A spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fibre of our national life.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26BATTLE CRIES
0:34:26 > 0:34:30Conflicts arose between America and her allies -
0:34:30 > 0:34:34conflict between America's need for munitions and Allied needs,
0:34:34 > 0:34:39between the demand of the Allies for immediate reinforcements
0:34:39 > 0:34:43and America's determination to build a great army,
0:34:43 > 0:34:45as befitted her station among the powers.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51Allied missions, headed by Marshal Joffre for France,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55and by Mr Balfour and General Sir Tom Bridges for Britain,
0:34:55 > 0:34:57pleaded for American soldiers.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02The Allies would have to wait.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06America was irrevocably determined upon her course.
0:35:06 > 0:35:12The Yanks were coming, but they would come as a United States Army with a United States general,
0:35:12 > 0:35:14General Joseph Pershing.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18They would come in the fullness of time and not before.
0:35:20 > 0:35:23Until then, the Allies must make shift to do without them.
0:35:28 > 0:35:31But for encouragement, as a token of what would follow,
0:35:31 > 0:35:37a handful of Americans headed by Pershing came to Europe to show the flag.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40They disembarked at Liverpool to a hero's welcome.
0:35:40 > 0:35:43As we stepped off the gangplank onto British soil,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47the band struck up The Star-Spangled Banner,
0:35:47 > 0:35:51this being the first time in history that an American army contingent
0:35:51 > 0:35:53was officially received in England.
0:35:53 > 0:35:56BAND PLAYS US NATIONAL ANTHEM
0:35:59 > 0:36:02ENTHUSIASTIC CHEERING
0:36:04 > 0:36:08They went on to London, followed by the same tumultuous cheering.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12MUSIC: Elgar's "Pomp And Circumstance March No 4"
0:36:41 > 0:36:44Pershing was greeted by the King.
0:36:44 > 0:36:51It has always been my dream that the two English-speaking nations should some day be united
0:36:51 > 0:36:53in a great cause.
0:36:53 > 0:36:56And today my dream is realised.
0:36:57 > 0:37:02Together, we are fighting for the greatest cause for which peoples could fight.
0:37:02 > 0:37:07The Anglo-Saxon race must save civilisation.
0:37:11 > 0:37:15The triumphal progress continued into France.
0:37:15 > 0:37:17# Over there, over there
0:37:17 > 0:37:21# Send the word Send the word over there
0:37:21 > 0:37:26# That the Yanks are coming The Yanks are coming
0:37:26 > 0:37:31# The drums rum-tumming everywhere... #
0:37:31 > 0:37:33In Paris, it swelled to a frenzy.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37# Send the word Send the word over there... #
0:37:37 > 0:37:43All felt that they were present at the magical operation of the transfusion of blood.
0:37:45 > 0:37:49Life arrived in floods to reanimate the mangled body
0:37:49 > 0:37:55of a France bled white by the innumerable wounds of four years.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09At his new headquarters in the Hotel Crillon,
0:38:09 > 0:38:14Pershing was called out onto the balcony by the crowd in the Place de la Concorde.
0:38:14 > 0:38:19A breeze caught the folds of the French flag and in a spontaneous gesture,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23the normally unemotional American pressed it to his lips.
0:38:23 > 0:38:25CHEERING
0:38:25 > 0:38:27BAND PLAYS "Over There"
0:38:38 > 0:38:45No conquering army could have had a more rapturous welcome from its own people than France gave
0:38:45 > 0:38:51to this handful of inexperienced, untried, but vigorous and cheerful American soldiers.
0:38:51 > 0:38:57As yet, their fighting value was almost nothing, but their moral effect was everything.
0:38:57 > 0:39:03To the onlookers in the streets of Paris, it was one of the most poignant moments in history.
0:39:03 > 0:39:07The New World was coming to redress the balance of the Old.
0:39:10 > 0:39:14# And we won't come back till it's over over there
0:39:18 > 0:39:22# And we won't come back till it's over over there. #