It is worthy of note in this connection that
the three great wars in which the United States of America engaged have
been wars for freedom. The Revolutionary War was for the liberty of the
colonies; the Civil War was waged for the freedom of manhood and for the
principle of the indissolubility of the Union; the World War, beginning
1914, was fought for the right of small nations to self-government and
for the right of every country to the free use of the high seas.
More than four million American men were under arms when the conflict
ended. Of these, more than two million were upon the fields of France
and Italy. These were thoroughly trained in the military art. They had
proved their right to be considered among the most formidable soldiers
the world has known. Against the brown rock of that host in khaki, the
flower of German savagery and courage had broken at Chateau-Thierry.
There the high tide of Prussian militarism, after what had seemed to be
an irresistible dash for the destruction of France, spent itself in the
bloody froth and spume of bitter defeat. There the Prussian Guard
encountered the Marines, the Iron Division and the other heroic
organizations of America's new army. There German soldiers who had been
hardened and trained under German conscription before the war, and who
had learned new arts in their bloody trade, through their service in the
World War, met their masters in young Americans taken from the shop, the
field, and the forge, youths who had been sent into battle with a scant
six months' intensive training in the art of war.
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