Congress. This two hour discussion was hosted by the center for strategic and international studies. Welcome to csis. Im dr. Mark warren the head of the project on military and diplomatic history. Thank you all especially for braving todays weather. Our project is focused on history. Were delighted to cohost todays event with the world war i Centennial Commission and the csis project on prosperity and development and dan rundy who runs that project here, thank you to you for your support. When we think about when historians think about one of the most important points in history world war i comes out at number one. Americans tend to be fixated on other wars like the civil war and world war ii. It is the most important and were here today to try to provide some additional awareness. 100 years ago to this very day, Woodrow Wilson appeared before joint session of the congress here in washington to deliver his 14 points speech and wilson had been a professor at princeton and was president of that institution and he drew upon his academic colleagues to come up with principles for european peace which ultimately became the 14 points. Its worth remembering a little bit of Historical Context. This was, in fact, rather presum shus act to be doing this. At the time of the speech the u. S. And army and marine corps were still getting organized and the u. S. Had yet to fight a significant battle in europe. And it was certainly far from clear as to who was actually going to win and we were at the same time giving our ideas for peace to country who had seen a whole generation of people killed. For those who dont remember the 14 points i will give a very brief overview that panelists will go into more detail. A lot of the points concerned restoring and reestablishing countries that had been damaged by war. There was talk of giving a right some sort of right to selfdetermination to colonial people. Senator warren, if you could grab a seat here will so point four talked about the need to reduce arm manhattan and point 14 talked about an International Governing Body which led to the league of nations. In the 14 points remain a matter of great controversy and youll hear about some of that today. For some people their naive idealism. To those more sympathic to wilson, they laid the ground work for todays rules based world order. The impact has been profound. The 14 points greatly influenced the final year of the war and also very much influenced the peace. Wilsons world view at least as interpreted by some the 14 points created what has been called wilsonism. Before i introduce senator warner i wanted to recognize a few other people who have helped make this event possible. Ambassador todd sedgwick. If you could raise your hands. He serves on the Advisory Board of the commission and came to us at csic with idea that became this great event. Dan rundy of project unpressed for development. His staff is also been great in helping the details including checking people in here, all the other administrative details and chris metsker. The commissioner of the world war i commission is going to come here, probably got delayed by the weather as many have. Hopefully he will get here when conditions permit. Before we bring up our panel of distinguished historians who are three of the very top historians of world war i were going to hear from another member of the world war i Centennial Commission, the honorable john warner who is also a csic counsellor. Its a former five term senator from the commonwealth of virginia and secretary of the navy. At the age of 17, he volunteered for active military duty, which i didnt realize. Serving first as an enlisted sailor in the final years of world war ii and as a lieutenant during the korean war. In 1969 he received a president ial appointment as under secretary of the navy and later became secretary of navy during the period of conflict in vietnam. Between 1974 and 1976, senator warner was confirmed by the u. S. Senate to serve as administrator for the American Revolution bicentennial administration, 1979 was elected to the senate and served five consecutive terms establishing a record of being the second longest serving senator in the history of the commonwealth of virginia. And during all of his 30 years in the senate he served on the Armed Services committee and his final years the Committee Members elected him to leadership positions as a ranking republican then for his last six years he was full committee chair. So ladies and gentlemen, please welcome senator john warner. [ applause ] thank you very much for that resounding introduction. Youre in good luck today, each of you come through this questionable weather to join us because i got a terrible cold and i cant talk for about five minutes. How about that . The most dangerous thing ever to give a retired senator a microphone with no prescriptions on whos going to take it back and away from him. But im quite anxious as you are to move on to wonderful Panel Discussion on a subject that is really becoming quite interesting all across the country. I must confess that my father was an army captain United StatesArmy Fifth Division in world war i in the trenches. He was a medical doctor and he was right out on the front lines doing the triage as they brought the wounded in. He had the difficulty task of saying we can save this one, we cant save that one, and i remember he had his little tin army hat with a red diamond with the Fifth Division on it in our library and it was he admonished my brother and myself, i only wear that hat and that of course was a challenge to my brother and i to steal it at any time. So i grew up with a really a wonderful man who had served and seen that war and for me now to have the opportunity in my final years of life to share with you and many others an interesting afternoon like this with five individuals who have given their careers over for a minute to put together a monologue and to share with you their own information on a vital subject. I thought how best to prepare my very few remarks and i went back and read about three books and one of them was john eisenhowers book and that brings me to just a little bit of a personal message that id like to give you and that is that eisenhower clearly puts in here, this is president Ike Eisenhowers son. I was privileged to know him. He laid out the very carefully and very objectively the case that the failures after the fighting to come together internationally and at that moment in history after the enormity of the carnage and suffering all over europe, to put together something that would help foreclose thank you so much foreclose any future similar strife like this and he said a mere 23 years since the armah stis we were right back into world war ii. Now some of the reasons for that were the very serious and Failing Health of president wilson. I must say im a politician. I studied politics and been active in it all my life and it was fascinating to go back to my first trip to read a lot of the things that wilson had tried to do and of course the subject today is the 14 points, but surrounding the 14 points as the league of nations and the fact that we were going to enter a treaty and we had this opportunity and we had shown the world that this little somewhat inconsequential collection of states had suddenly come in to be one of the major powers of the world, and its absolute clear case that our contributions and sacrifices led to the final victory and the defeat of the German Military and their allies. So it was important but what greeted them as wilson started around, they called it the league fight. I guess that was a way to demean it. President wilson toured the country giving speeches pleading for members in the league of nations, quality of thought of these debates was usually far more elevated than any other political debate since the civil war. For American Foreign policy this conflict elicited breadth and depth of discussion that had not arisen before and that remain unmatched since. So we got off to a good start and there was a lot of enthusiasm, but then it sort of began to steadily go downhill. President wilson was an early convert in the concept of collective security and around it shaped many of his policies braen after the world war i experience. He represented u. S. At the peace conference where he succeeded in making the idea a reality of getting the league incorporated in the treaty of versailles. The treaty was much more than the league of nations. The articles concerned a whole lot of things but congress rejected and he no matter how hard he traveled it really is extraordinary in my readings. He just he was determined to get this done. But along the way, i mean, he encountered reluctance within his own party, the democrats, the republicans were growing in strength and i even found this in another book. Nearly every leading republican cordially this is an interesting use of words nearly every leading republican cordially despised wilson while the president regarded most of them with anger and contempt. Nor did good fellowship extend broadly within the restricted parties themselves. Wilson challenged americans to build a new world order by joining the league of nations by saying at versailles in 1919, quote, shall we or any other free people hesitate to accept this great duty . Dear dare we reject it and break the heart of the world. Well, congress did reject it. If you go back in as ive done and as im sure my panelist have done. There are time and time again references to if wilson had only shown the slightest willingness to compromise he could have seized it and fashioned a compromise agreement. But he refused this is perplexing to me anyone from capitol hill being among the american negotiators in paris. Well, that was a direct affront to the congress of the United States. They shouldve been had seats there and but they didnt and then he avoided counsel with noncongressional leaders. He didnt even want to meet the senior politicians of both parties to get their viewpoints. Bitterly fought midterm elections in november 1918, had the United States divided by government by awarding majorities in the houses of congress to wilsons republicans opponents and that the tide shifted with that. That circumstance for the cooperation of peace making and league machine and it went down here from there. But then we have to reflect on the sadness that he experienced in his own physical situation. He suffered a very major heart attack on his trip as a consequence of that, he had to abandon his trip across the United States urging the people to in turn come back and tell your congressional leaders, particularly the senate of the need to have this league of nations and the treaty of paris and to ratify the treaty. But all of it ended up in failure and im sure our speakers are going to address it in some detail. So i want to conclude, though, talking a little bit about what were doing as an organization. Were holding forums, much like this one wherever we can all across the country. Were very active. Weve got a Remarkable Group of volunteer trustees, commissioners. Theyre very diligent. Very attentive. This one right here in the front row, the good ambassador is one of their leaders, the chairman as we call him marvelous good rough and tumble, hes just a grand fellow. Were coming along and were making some Good Progress and it is my hope that this will continue to build in its importance but were up against one problem that nobodys to blame, nobody really had the foresight to see it, but the Pershing Park was put together many years ago and selected by the powers to be to locate his statue there and along came another succession period of legislation by congress saying that there be no more memorials on the mall. Well, then we were confronted now with no alternative to Pershing Park. We were stopped by law. But in our work as trustees and volunteers on getting Pershing Park ready to receive a national memorial, were clearly seeing the strong disadvantages and eisenhower points it out in his book and its as follows. Every single Major Military memorial that this country takes pride in is on the mall. Every one. You start with the washington monument, our war of independence. You go to the civil war regrettably at the other end represented by magnificent structure to abraham lincoln, a very powerful president to this day id ollized by people. Theyre the two boundaries and in between, you have the world war we start in succession. The first was the Korean War Memorial was built, then the Vietnam Veterans memorial was built and lastly the world war ii memorial was built and thats why we feel ever so strongly that our National Monument to world war i should likewise be on the mall and equated in significance to the other great memorials. And there are a group of us, the ambassador and i and the chairman and the members of the commission are trying to get a modest little passage through congress of a needed amendment to give the option to do it and so we havent given up. Were in this still fighting. But this session today is another Building Block to drawing americas attention to the importance of this. The casualties in world war i were extraordinarily high. Terry handby uses the statement that the combined death and wounded in world war i exceeded any of the major battles that we experienced in world war ii. So i think we all have a moral obligation to see that this anniversary of 100 to the armistice coming up november the 11th of this year is done with the dignity befitting all of the sacrifices made by that generation 100 years ago and my father among them im proud to say. So i thank each of you for finding the opportunity to come today. I particularly thank our panel and the csis has been a second home for me for years. I was just a youngster crawling through the halls of congress when admiral burke and dave apshar began to put together the concept of this marvelous organization. It represents the premier crew among the growing importance of think tanks in the nations capitol. Im going to say this bluntly. Im free to say whatever i want to say now and ive watched in the 30 years i was in senate the concept of think tanks and you could almost name on ten fingers the number in town in those days grow to where theyre in the hundreds today but they perform a very vital function. They can have forums like this. They have no restrictions whatsoever on what should be said. Theyre devoid of politics, most of them. Sure, plenty of politicians like myself love to come here. Ive spoken here many times through the years but its not looked upon as a political organization. Its largely supported by contributions from within the private sector almost entirely, occasionally a government grant or two, but theyve done a magnificent job of really filling somewhat of a gap that is existed here between what congress is able to do and the executive branch are able to do by working together. Theres a void in there and these think tanks like csis can move right in and do a lot of the analytical work and hold the hearings and forums that somehow Congress Finds awkward in doing. So my hats off to csis. I thank each of you and now let us proceed to get to the heart of the matter and weve said what we have to say. I listened to my introduction. I always think of teddy roosevelt. He was about to march up San Juan Hill and i used to love to ride horses. He pulled his horses up for a rest and he turned to his aidedecamp and he said, aide, whichever one gets to the top of the hill first can become president of the United States with this rather young sergeant. He said thats very interesting, i have to tell you, honestly mr. President , all i ever want in life is to return home safely and become sheriff. Well, im now the sheriff of my own county. [ applause ] thank you very much. Thank you, senator warner for those wonderful remarks. Im going to introduce our panel of speakers in the order that they will be speaking and with the support of dan rundys program weve been able to bring you the very top people on this subject and so were delighted to be able to bring you a quality presentation. The first person speaking will be jennifer keen. She is the professor and chair of the History Department at chapman university. Shes also the current president of the society of military history. Shes published three books on the american involvement in the First World War. The first is dough boys and the remaking of america, second, world war i the american soldier experience and three, the United States in the First World War. Among the many awards she has received for her scholarships, to france and australia, fellowship in international studies, shes currently working on several projects related to the world war i centennial including a book on africanamerican soldiers and a new sin think sis of the American Experience during the war under contract with Oxford University press and shes also a member of the historical Advisory Board and we heard about from the senator. Next will be michael nyburg who is seated next to me. Hes the department of National Security and strategy at the United States army war college. He too is the author of many highly regarded books on the First World War and also on the second world war. His 2011 book, dance of the furries, was named one of the five best books