What lessons can be learned from the United States actions in WWI?

Question

What lessons can be learned from the United States actions in WWI?

Answer 1

Great question.  Had we not gotten involved in WWI, there was a little corporal fighting in Flanders who might well have been killed - Herr Hitler - winner of the Iron Cross Second Class - a grim, skinny little war hero.  

But since we entered the war and brought it prematurely to a peace - Herr Hitler survived to go on to bigger and better things.

We could easily have stayed out of WWI.  The Lusitania figured prominently in our entry into that war.  But years later we find that it was full of arms for England in violation of a treaty not to get involved in arms running.  

Anyway, we did get involved - ended the war - leaving Germany in tact   (the loser) and France in absolute ruin (the winner).  It was an odd peace - a peace which led then to WWII.

Answer 2

Interventionism is a good thing, and don't trust the world community.

Answer 3

A lot of money can be made from the war-industrial complex.

Answer 4

Just because you save someone's country one day, it doesn't mean they will appreciate you just a few years down the road?

Answer 5

Europe is incapable of sorting out their political miseries w/o outside intervention/help from the USA.

Answer 6

Stay out of a WW until the end, choose the winning side / basically wait, build a war machine, and help out in the end, then for sure the side you choose will be the victor. Just like coming in at the end of WWII at the end. Then you come out as a superpower because all the other countries already pretty much destroyed each other, and now your the only country that hasnt lost all of the military equiptment.

Seemed to be a trend when we got into WWII, so I believe it was a lesson.

Other lessons were figuring out the importance of Submarines, and airplanes and survalence, better communication and getting info back to commands faster.

Also we learned that chemical warfare is bad and should be avoided unless the other country uses it.

Unity of command, IE the US had the upper hand by waiting on becoming the Allied supreme commander in both WWI (General of the Armies Pershing) and WWII (General of the Army Eisenhower)

Answer 7

that the japanese got better at volleyball because of the nintendo wii