Commemorating the First World War Centennial in Kansas
The following virtual programs are upcoming from the National WW1 Museum and Memorial:
Tues. April 6th 7:00 CDT Pershing Lecture Series: The Armenian Massacres
Tues. April 13th 7:00 CDT Modernity and Culture Change
Sun. April 18th 2:00 PM CDT Lawrence of Arabia: A Life and a Legacy Part 1
In March of 1919, President Wilson’s top advisor ‘Col.’ Edward House authorized William C. Bullitt (1891 – 1967), who was a minor U.S. diplomat attached to the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference, to lead an eclectic committee to make a clandestine visit to Russia. Their charge was to attempt to negotiate a treaty between the U.S. and the Bolshevik government, end Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, lift the Allied blockade of that country, and allow the Allies to withdraw their troops from Russia. Bullitt received a proposal from the Bolshevik government that would have realized all these goals (and more, if the Bolsheviks could be trusted to repay war debt), but the Allied leaders at the Paris Peace Conference were unwilling to accept the offer. The British, in particular, were not inclined to strike any deals with Communists.
The ‘battle’ over the site of Sgt. Alvin York’s heroic deeds on October 8th, 1918 continues. Recently the research of ret. Col. Douglas Mastriano, Ph. D, has been called into question, with at least one critic accusing him of academic fraud. Mastriano, the driving force behind The Sgt. York Discovery Project, is an historian who frequently appears on CSPAN and has lectured at the U.S. World War One Museum in Kansas City as recently as 2018. If you don’t know much about Sgt. York you can read his story by clicking here, and if you’re not familiar with the saga of the searches for the site you can read more about that by clicking here. To read more about the latest news, including the accusation of academic fraud, you can click here.
Catherine II (1729-1796), Empress of Russia, who is popularly remembered as “Catherine the Great”, undertook a large settlement program where Germans wishing to flee from the shifting borders, petty wars and religious disputes of the 18th century in Central Europe would be welcomed to set up colonies in the lower Volga River valley. These settlers were allowed to keep their language, religion, culture and communal associations. Religious-based groups, such as the Mennonites and the Moravians, took advantage of this.
Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call Sat. March 20th 10:30 AM CDT a program especially for children
National Medal of Honor Day Thurs. March 25th 7:00 PM CDT
Both of these events are FREE, but you must register at this link.
Monday, February 22nd 7:00 PM CST “Soldier Activism”
Tuesday, March 9th 7:00 PM CST “How The Philippines Shaped America’s First World War”
Both of these are FREE. Registration is necessary. Go to this link.
Non-secular, charitable fund-raising in the U.S. prior to World War One consisted largely of pennies put in cups or cans. Beginning with the massive effort led by Herbert Hoover’s Commission for Relief in Belgium the nation was introduced to large-scale secular charity.
This organization, headed by future President Herbert Hoover, was dedicated to delivering humanitarian aid to Belgium. The Schlieffen Plan, which the Germans were following in 1914, had made no provision for the administration of either occupied Belgium or France. Without the intervention of these Americans, catastrophe would have resulted. You can read a detailed article about this by clicking here.
John Maynard Keynes, the great Cambridge University economist who revolutionized macroeconomic theory, was Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s economic advisor at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. Keynes repeatedly urged that all war debts be reduced or eliminated, but he didn’t succeed in swaying anyone to his point of view, not even Woodrow Wilson. Keynes was disgusted with the final treaty as he felt it was morally and economically unsound. He returned home and promptly wrote a book called The Economic Consequences of the Peace. You can read an excellent article about Keynes and his Versailles experience by clicking here.
Over fifty years ago, when I was training at the U.S. Army Engineer center, we actually had a section of training, as I recall known as “Field Forts”, where we were exposed to the principles of constructing trenches and dugouts, as if the army was going to fight another war like the Western Front, which at the time was fifty years (and three subsequent wars) in the past. This isn’t as surprising as it sounds, though; in Basic Training we were instructed in the “art” of bayonet fighting, even though the little bayonet for the M-16 rifle was mostly good for opening C-Ration cans.
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