In chapter 14, “War is the health of the state,” Zinn discusses the beginnings of WWI and how America became involved. President Woodrow Wilson had originally satiated that he wanted America to stay neutral in the war. This changed when Germans announced they would be sinking any of American’s submarines that tried to bring supplies to them. Wilson used this as reasoning for why he must “stand by the right of Americans to travel on merchant ships in the war zone” (361). Zinn implies that this was an excuse as he discusses the unrealistic thought that America would be neutral, when they were sending war materials to German enemies. That in and of itself is inserting America into the war. Zinn somewhat implies that Wilson used this as an excuse to join the war, due to other intentions. This also goes along with W.E.B Du Bois theory, that capitalism is insincere because it is protecting class conflict. Zinn writes, “American capitalism needed international rivalry – and periodic war – to create an artificial community of interest between rich and poor, supplanting the genuine community of interest among the poor that showed itself in sporadic movements” (364). Basically, Zinn believes Wilson wanted the war in order to prolong and support a separation of classes, but used the Germans saying they’d sink any of their submarines, as an excuse to insert America. I thought this was an interesting view, but after reading a lot of Zinn’s book by now, I’m not really all that surprised.
The other thing I thought was interesting about this chapter was the Espionage Act. This was used to stop anyone from interfering with the war. Zinn discussed that even if they weren’t presenting danger to anyone or the war, anyone who spoke out or wrote something about the war, could be imprisoned. Zinn brings up an interesting point when he says, “But was not the war itself a ‘clear and present danger,’ indeed, more clear and more present and more dangerous to life than any argument against it?” (366). I thought this was very interesting, because he’s completely right. Arresting people for speaking out against the war, and saying they are presenting danger, is kind of ironic when there is a world war going on. Zinn discusses the country tightening their control over citizens and says that the country has never been so highly policed than it was during this time. And yes, during a world war, you probably need control over citizens, but Zinn also brings up so many points which point to the fact that Americans were somewhat forced to support the war.
I thought the point about Woodrow Wilson saying that the US would stay neutral in the war, but never actually having those intentions was interesting. This made me think about the idea of “white mans burden” and how America thinks its superior and without real reason they feel the need to swoop in and save the day.
I thought the same thing about the hypocritical language surrounding the Espionage Act and the bizarre use of the word “danger” in the rhetoric supporting the war. It seems to me that this act protected the upper classes, politicians, and businessmen from the “danger” of them losing their power or status during the war. That was the only danger they were afraid of and didn’t care if they put the lower classes in actual danger on the battlefields.
I agree with you about Zinn’s point about the Espionage Act as well as some of the other actions by the US government. I think he made an interesting point by addressing how the US government went out of their way to make the war seem like it was a good thing for them when it really wasn’t. All the extra steps they went through to try and convince the American people should say something about how the people actually felt.
Your blog post made me think of a broader point of American politics and global relations in general – economics and class always play a greater role in politics and the general decision-making of a country than we tend to realize at face-value. Although Wilson tried to claim that we needed to get involved in the war due to security threats from Germany and for the protection of the American people, taking a closer look allows us to see the economic motivations behind the decision. Not only would we directly benefit from a German defeat, but we would also be accomplishing multiple other goals by entering the war – solidifying the structure of capitalism, and finding a reason to squash growing socialist sentiment. Although at first glance we may not realize it, there are always economic motivations behind the decisions of every country.