‘American troops change a German street sign in a town in the St Mihiel salient on the Western Front in 1917. ‘Hindenberg Strasse’ is renamed ‘Wilson USA”, courtesy of the Imperial War Museum, © IWM, HU 56409

‘If the U.S. Had Not Entered World War I, Would There Have Been a World War II?’

An article in New Republic considers the implications of America’s entry into the First World War and the potential role this played in causing the Second World War.

Author Michael Kazin considers the First World War as “indisputably a war of choice” for America and that Americans were “bitterly divided” over the decision. It concludes that the “terrible irony” of American entry was that this “probably made that next and far bloodier global conflict more likely”.

This is the first entry in a debate between Michael Kazin and John M. Cooper over the United States’ entry into First World War.

To read the full article, visit the New Republic website here.

Date of article publication: 06/07/2014

Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News