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PRESIDENT WILSON FIGHTS HIS WAR: World War I and the American Intervention by Harvey A. DeWeerd

PRESIDENT WILSON FIGHTS HIS WAR: World War I and the American Intervention

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Pub Date: Aug. 26th, 1968
Publisher: Macmillan

An American general staff view of the American military presence in World War I. DeWeerd, a Rand tactician, stresses the military rather than the political aspects of American involvement. For the most part, he ignores Wilson, making it instead tough-skinned, tough-talking General Pershing's war. DeWeerd chides the Administration's ""unwillingness . . . to envisage participation in the war until late 1916."" But once the American generals took to the field. DeWeerd faults only their excessively high military goals: ""We tried to do too much in too many fields too quickly."" But, of course, in his view, ""we"" did it. Most of the material here will be familiar to World War I buffs, for the author quotes lavishly from secondary sources. The book appears as the third in the Norton-edited series. ""The Wars of the United States."" A few America-firsters and Pershing admirers will find this satisfying reading. Perhaps they'll be interested to know that ""When he wanted to, Pershing could turn off a sentence that had a kick in it like an army mule."" Perhaps not.