"March 1917" by Will Englund

Above: "March 1917. On the Brink of War and Revolution" Will Englund. 323 Pages.

Wilson, reluctantly concluded the US must enter the war on the side of the Entente as war events suggested the real possibility of a dark tyranny sweeping away democracy should the Central Powers prevail.

I completed reading this book today.

"March 1917" is the second book I have read covering, more or less, the same subject. The first was, "1917 - Lenin Wilson and the Birth of the New World Disorder," by Arthur Herman (read in late 2018). This current book, rather than focusing on the year 1917, zeros in on the month of March, 1917.

March 1917 was a critical juncture in history. The United States, had remained neutral during the first three years of World War I. US President Woodrow Wilson, who was elected to his first term in 1913, had campaigned on a promise to keep America out of war.

Wilson faced a new dynamic four years later as he began his second term. Europe seemed bent on self destruction in a stalemated fight to the death between belligerents, the Central Powers (Germany, Austria Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria) and the Triple Entente (England, France, and Russia).

On the Eastern Front, just ten days after Wilson had given his second inaugural address on 05 March 1917, Tsar Nicholas I abdicated the Russian Throne. Russia's commitment to honor its alliances with France and Germany became tenuous. With the Russian threat on the Eastern Front reduced, Germany would soon shift its Eastern Front troops to the Western Front to mount a putative war ending assault on France's and England's exhausted armies.

In the face of seeming growing German advantage in March 1917, does Wilson keep the US neutral... or does he enter the war on the side of the Entente?

Why not fight for the Central Powers? After all, there are a lot of loyal German Americans in the United States.

But, events over the last three years have shifted American public opinion to side with the Entente. US ire was raised when in 1916 British Intelligence intercepted a telegram from Germany's foreign minister, Zimmerman, to his counterpart in Mexico, seeking a Mexican/German alliance to face off against the United States.
Also, in 1916, the Germans unleashed a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare that was to result in the sinking of numerous, neutral American cargo ships.

Wilson, much to the chagrin of the grounded and pragmatic, former President Teddy Roosevelt and senior conservative Senator, Henry Cabot Lodge, both supporters of US intervention on the side of The Entente, clung to the notion that he must honor his promise to keep the US out of war.

But, as time passed, Wilson started to budge from his doctrinal isolationism. He apperceived that a future world... where Germany wins WWI... would not be safe for Democracy.

By backing a March 1917 proposal put forward by his fellow Democrats to arm US merchant ships, Wilson showed conservatives, who thought the idea was half- a-loaf foolhardy, that, at least, he was open to some form of retaliation against German aggression on US merchant ships.

The book describes the March 1917 events surrounding Wilson's transformation from an isolationist to a war president. Wilson, reluctantly concluded the US must enter the war on the side of the Entente as war events suggested the real possibility of a dark tyranny sweeping away democracy should the Central Powers prevail.

The book is full of skillfully told, emotion stimulating stories. A flush moment in the book for me was Englund's narrative about Jeannette Rankin's first Congressional roll call. Rankin, newly elected from Montana, was the United States' first female Congressional Representative. She was a "rock star" of her day. She travelled the nation by train and spoke to sell-out crowds at each whistle stop. She was a Democrat. It had been on the strength of the Montana miners' union's support that she was elected. Also, she had backing from many feminist groups, many of which were against US entry into WWI

Read from the book:

"In the galleries, and on the floor itself, men and women yelled and clapped for her. This time it wasn't a hoax - it was the real Miss Rankin from Montana - and she was mobbed by well-wishers. Eighty-year-old "uncle Joe" Cannon, the Illinois Republican, told her, 'If you are looking for a grandfather, you might adopt me.' The roll was called with the usual confusion and inattention and boisterous conversation. But then the clerk got to Montana, and rapped his desk for attention Finally, the House grew still, and he called out Miss Rankin's name. The members burst out cheering, she blushed and smiled, and finally she stood up and bowed, first to the Republicans, then to the Democrats."

Later in the narrative is a detailed description of the Congressional war vote, including a word picture of Rankin's tearful ambivalence as she considered her vote... which would be a vote against war.

And, read Wilson's stirring, summation as he addressed Congress in asking for a declaration of war. :

"Finally he drew close to his conclusion: 'There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But right is more precious than peace.'"

Every third chapter or so swings to Russia, where simultaneous with Wilson's dilemma, a three-centuries-long dynasty was ending and a new era of uncertainty was on the horizon. This period ultimately paved the way for the creation of the Soviet empire.

Much of the material used by Englund to chronical the events occurring in St. Petersburg in 1917, comes, published for the first time, from the diary of James Houghteling, a native of Chicago, from a family of bankers, who served as a special attachee to the U.S. Embassy in St. Petersburg during the first few months of 1917.

America was hopeful, during this period that an interim Russian government led by Alexander Kerensky, a "moderate socialist" who seemed reasonable, would lead Russia back into the family of nations and not become a fomenter of revolution as was the goal of the Bolsheviks. Of course, that was not to be. A year later, the Communist Bolsheviks would prevail and usher in 80 years of tyranny over the Russian people.

You think Antifa/BLM types represent material danger to America today? Here's an example quoted from the book of real revolutionary resistance:

"The intrepid Canadian Florence Harper, writing for Leslie's Weekly, along with photographer Donald Thompson, wangled a ride from Petrograd out to Kronstadt, the huge Russian naval base on an island in the Gulf of Finland. They were among the first foreigners to visit the base following the revolution, and Harper, not entirely sympathetic to the rebellion, was shaken by what they learned there. The sailors of the Baltic Fleet had a reputation for radicalism, and it was well earned in 1917. They had seized the commanding admiral and 68 officers when news of the revolt in Petrograd first reached Kronstadt, and began conducting a late-night trial, but grew bored and killed them all, Harper was told. Then the sailors began hunting for other officers. Some barricaded themselves in their homes, which the sailors bombarded with naval guns. Those who were caught were mutilated, tortured and killed. Others tried to escape across the ice, but were shot down as they fled. Survivors were stripped of their clothing - sailors had a particular dislike for epaulettes - and incarcerated in the freezing hold of a ship."

A huge strength of this book is how it is suffused with first hand accounts of the events of March 1917 which laid the foundation for the world we live in today. Read of former President Teddy Roosevelt pushing to organize a division of Marines to go fight in Europe. Witness insider conversations between Colonel House and his patron, Woodrow Wilson. Learn of conservative Senator Henry Cabot Lodge's disdain for Wilson when he refused to retaliate against Germans for sinking US merchant ships with their submarines. And, much more.

Beyond the scope of this book is the denouement of World War I, including US troop build-up, the debilitating Spanish Flu, Wilson's attempt to end the war with his Fourteen Points, and his failure to prevail at Versailles with more modest sanctions against against Germany than were ultimately set.

There is more "fly on the wall" story telling in this book than the analysis heavy emphasis of the Arthur Herman authored book I read two years ago, For that reason, "March 1917" is a no-put-down, more interesting read.