A little historical nitpicking: The U.S. decision to enter World War I was determined by a number of factors; one was repeated German campaigns of unrestricted submarine warfare. Another which we tend to forget these days was American interception of the Zimmerman telegram (carefully enabled by the British) in which Germany offered Mexico U.S. territory if Mexico helped Germany against the U.S.
I believe that the American people formed the impression in 1917 that the choice was not between fighting or not fighting, but between fighting Germany at once when they still had Britain and France as allies, or fighting Germany alone later when Britain and France had perhaps been defeated. At the time of the U.S. entry into the war, Russia was weakening and soon collapsed, and the Germans although tired and hungry were quite hopeful that the forces freed for redeployment would enable victory in the west. What put the Allies over the top against Germany was the defeat of the German spring offensive in 1918, militarily primarily by the British and French. The ability of Britain and France to pursue the war at that point was considerably helped by large American loans which enable Britain and France to buy American supplies. There was frequent incidents in the spring in which victorious but starving German soldiers would capture Allied supply dumps, and sit down and start eating instead of pursuing the retreating Allied forces. The counter-offensive from August 1918 was greatly helped by American soldiers and the growing American army in France contributed largely to German desperation and willingness to accept defeat - they knew that the future would get worse and that if they kept fighting long enough, Germany itself would be invaded. Allied tanks (invented independently by the British and the French) which Germany had not the military perspicacity or the industrial capacity to match were a crucial technological factor. Doug Woodard St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada On Sat, 4 Dec 2004, bmolloy wrote: > Hi Luc, > (Snip) > ----- > Original Message ----- > From: "Legal Eagle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 1:24 PM > Subject: Re: Re[2]: [Biofuel] The Balfour Decision Reconsidered > > > > Hey Gustl; > > > > Few people know that Balfour was a reward for Zionists helping, through > vast > > influence and money, to save Britain from a most humiliating defeat at the > > hands of Germany. What is also not well known is that Germany had > wanted,in > > victory, to call the whole thing off and return things to the way they > were, > > having more than amply proven their point and then along come the ever so > > opportunistic Zionists and coersed Britain into sticking with the war and > > the Zionists would deliver the US into the fray. > > > Nice argument. Again (see my reply to Gustl) s'pity we can't get the facts > right. The "ever so opportunistic Zionists" (whoever they are) may indeed > have promised Britain pie in the sky but that had no bearing on the decision > by the United States to enter World War One against Germany. That was driven > largely by the fact that a victorious Germany would have controlled the > Middle East, then just coming of age as the world's primary oil producer. > However, that alone would not have swung a very reluctant Congress behind > the decision. The > trigger was the sinking of the Lusitania - an ocean liner heading for the > United States with US citizens on board - by a German submarine. As it was, > the US waited until the eleventh hour - April 1917, when the Central Powers > were falling apart under Allied pressure - before entering the conflict. And > only then because an increasingly desperate Germany had declared open season > on all shipping, including US ships. _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://wwia.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/biofuel Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel archives at Infoarchive.net (searchable): http://infoarchive.net/sgroup/biofuel/
