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[Music]
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country
[Music]
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created
[Applause]
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[Music]
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on this wall
[Applause]
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[Music]
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pier 54 New York City
on May the 1st 1915 2000 passengers
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boarded one of the fastest most
luxurious ships in the world the
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Lusitania
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she was a city of wonderful steady ship
chat for red funnels and she was a
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beautiful sight to say she really was
EDA Stanley and her family were heading
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home to England and into the midst of
the most brutal conflict man had ever
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experienced the first world war was
almost a year old and any transatlantic
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crossing was made potentially dangerous
by the presence of German submarines
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still the passengers felt safe after all
the Lusitania was a passenger ship
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[Music]
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on her last day at sea the Lusitania was
approaching the Irish coast
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[Music]
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it was two o'clock in the afternoon and
you could see all this coastline was a
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beautiful day could have been any better
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terrific bang dad knew what he was I
mean that he knew done when he was at
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Alpena
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the single German torpedo did such
damage that the Lusitania could launch
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only six of her lifeboats before she
went down
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we could not take the people and they
were begging to be taken in any reader
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capsized and everybody would have gone
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1,200 rounded they he was 12 on a drone
more rather was saved
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among those who drowned were a hundred
and twenty-eight Americans
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the memory has faded for all but a very
few some of whom you'll hear from but
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because it has affected so much of what
has happened since the bulk of this
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program is about the First World War the
Great War they called it it began in
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June of 1914 with the assassination of
the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria
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Hungary he was shot by a Serbian
nationalist
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in Sarajevo Ferdinand had governed in a
circle of European royalty that also
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included the king of England
the Tsar of Russia and the Kaiser of
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Germany and together their colonial
empires dominated most of the Earth's
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population and when the competitive
Kaiser seized upon the assassination as
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a pretext to begin a European war he
found the other Royals only too willing
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to go along all of them sought to widen
their influence none could possibly
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realize how radically they were about to
alter the course of the 20th century in
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the summer of 1914 the generation that
would fight the First World War was
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enthusiastic about doing so those young
men who were so quick to answer their
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nation's call to arms had no reason to
anticipate the hell ahead
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[Applause]
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in the German city of Coblenz
twelve-year-old yo Keem von Elbe began a
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diary August 5 1914 the city is full of
soldiers they were singing this song on
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on to fight the are born on on to fight
for the fatherland to Kaiser bill him
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the have sworn to president
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[Music]
the optimism of the Germans was matched
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by their allies in Austria and by their
enemies in Russia in France and in
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England as soon as I enlisted I was in
the crowd of Val other 1890 and 20 year
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old and we thought was going to be a
tremendous tremendous lot to go and not
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the Kaiser of his strategy
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everyone everyone thought the war would
be over Christmas and they really badly
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wanted to get to France to get in the
fighting
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[Music]
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[Music]
the Germans attacked first
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and very quickly they were through
Belgium and into France the romantic
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notion of war that so many young men
carried into battle was very quickly
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shattered the new weapons of war were so
ferocious that by the end of the first
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year French casualties alone would
approach a million man
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[Music]
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nobody in York expected these important
casualties and when they came they were
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utterly crushing
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[Music]
the first dreadful experience was that
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of the victims of what was called the
massacre of the innocents in Germany
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these boys from high school or college
who were given a couple of months
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training and sent off to the front and
who died in tens of thousands in a few
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weeks
[Music]
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nothing like that had ever happened
before to any country in York and
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moreover this was the flower of German
youth they were they the best educated
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young men they were from middle-class
families almost exclusively and they had
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no expectation at all this terrible
thing was going to happen
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[Applause]
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Americans had never dreamed that a war
on the other side of the ocean could
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affect them the US was officially
neutral and most of its citizens assumed
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it would stay that way
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people were going about their own
business object being to make money good
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business everything was very pleasant
indeed it's hard for people who weren't
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there them to realize how enormous see
the world has changed our New Year's Day
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President Wilson had open house at the
White House
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[Music]
and he could go down a we went down once
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I was a little kid I was I was taking
off went downward and stood a little cue
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and it moved up and we all went through
shook his hand shook hands with the
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President on New Year's Day
[Music]
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but certainly America was changing the
pace of life was quickening
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almost overnight Henry Ford's historic
assembly line had lowered the cost of
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making cars as well as the cost of
buying them the mass-produced Model T
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came in one color black
but at 295 dollars it was the first car
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priced within reach of ordinary
Americans we played baseball in the
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streets there was no problem of playing
baseball when horses and wagons
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dominated to traffic it only became a
problem when automobiles and trucks
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[Music]
so much in America was changing as
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Europe went about its ugly war
[Music]
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that this first movie that I attended I
recall the scene where there was a great
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deal of shooting as they came to the
front of the screen and that figures got
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larger and larger and I thought they
were coming at me and I started
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screaming so badly that had to take me
out of the movie houses as moviemaking
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techniques improved movies became an
American obsession and it was in the
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movie houses that Americans were exposed
to the war in Europe in the movie house
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it still seemed glamorous we went every
Saturday morning and dis devoured the
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pictures of the war beautiful uniforms
of the dashing mounted cavalry with her
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flashing sabers in the Sun driving into
battle and oh I thought that would be
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something else I was just just eighteen
to go
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[Music]
the movies were the perfect proving
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ground for the new art form called
propaganda Americans saw and soon
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sympathized with the British view of the
Germans
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[Music]
by early 1915 the war in Europe was good
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for America u.s. banks were lending huge
amounts of money to Britain and France
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who in turn used the money to buy arms
from American factories with the war
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Americans were in the greatest economic
boom in their history during the war
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everybody worked before the war my
father brought home six or seven dollars
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a week now he brought home checks for
one hundred one hundred and ten dollars
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a week it was like it was like bringing
home a check for a million the war had
00:12:08
another effect it virtually cut off
European immigration to the United
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States causing a labor shortage in
American factories and that forced
00:12:18
northern employers to look for the very
first time at the substantial black
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labor pool of the American South black
newspapers we went down south and told
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them and come on up Chicago with us
we'll get you a job and take you you
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know I have to stay down here and be
lynched employed
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my relatives and uncle cousins came
north he was getting into factories and
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steel mills jobs that just wouldn't have
been available to blacks under normal
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circumstances this great migration from
the South kept America's economy strong
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and vigorous while the increasing
economic stake in Britain and France
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encouraged greater support for their war
against the Germans but the war was not
00:13:22
going well and the idea that Americans
might yet have to be involved was now an
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issue all over the United States with
the support of former President Theodore
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Roosevelt potential volunteers began to
train for battle
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[Music]
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by Christmas 1914 the armies of Europe
had completely bogged down and fighting
00:13:49
had spread to Russia Africa and the
Middle East the empires drew on their
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colonies for manpower 60 countries were
eventually represented in the conflict
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the Germans had expected to win in 42
days but they had not anticipated what
00:14:06
would happen on the Western Front in
France on the Western Front the German
00:14:13
assault had finally failed and soldiers
on both sides had raced to dig an
00:14:18
elaborate trench system that stretched
for 300 miles from the English Channel
00:14:23
all the way to Switzerland on New Year's
Day in 1915 the young men who had gone
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off to fight glorious battles were now
trapped in a desperate war of attrition
00:14:40
[Music]
00:14:48
someone said to us excitedly Jack Smith
I said what about him instead he'd been
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chopped
the first swab of the battalion to be
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shot
I said what yes he's dead speak shot he
00:15:05
put his head too far over the cipher
gossamer and that caused a bit of a
00:15:13
sensation amounts their balance they
thought well this is not exactly what we
00:15:21
come for father business but later on
from that day onwards but we were to the
00:15:29
trenches it was three killed four kill
five kill 20 killed a hundred kill by
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then we was Veterans
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a young American poet Alan Seeger was
among those looking for adventure when
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he joined the Foreign Legion to fight
for France his diary reveals how seldom
00:16:00
he found it it's a miserable life
shivering in these wretched holes in the
00:16:06
dirt we're not leading the life of men
at all but that of animals living in our
00:16:12
holes on the ground and only showing our
heads outside to fight into feed
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[Music]
where we be there about six months
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coveted but wet so practically all day
absolutely chewed up my life for you to
00:16:32
say and to think we wanted to come to
this whole I said yes we didn't know
00:16:43
[Music]
every so often one side or the other
00:16:46
seized a few hundred yards of territory
only to be forced back again
00:16:51
surrendering what had costs hundreds of
lives to win the front never moved more
00:16:56
than a mile or two in either direction
00:17:02
by the spring of 1915 the generals had
concluded that the best way out of the
00:17:07
stalemate was to blast the enemy out of
their trenches
00:17:15
[Music]
00:17:21
the same factories in assembly lines
that had begun to contribute to life in
00:17:26
the 20th century we're now retooled to
create massive killing machines
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this was the industrialization of war
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[Music]
00:17:53
[Music]
they're just a splintered types of trees
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there's the corner of the shell holes
and no glare no grasp it was just like a
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lunar landscape
really
00:18:13
[Music]
that night the rats they grew to
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enormous sizes feeding on the bone and
the corpse was that it was it possible
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to get to get the dead buried
we put dead bodies in the bottom of the
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trench so that we could stand on the
prefer to keep drawing and in some
00:18:52
occasion dead bodies was put on the top
of the trench to make it higher so that
00:18:57
we could walk a bit better
instead of crouching
00:19:05
and contributing to the stalemate word
new weapons by now the machine gun had
00:19:14
been perfected to the point that a
single soldier could command as much
00:19:18
firepower as 40 riflemen
00:19:23
[Music]
the tank made its first appearance
00:19:28
invented by the British to get through
the dense thickets of barbed wire that
00:19:32
protected the enemy trenches and in
April 1915 the Germans introduced the
00:19:39
most terrifying weapon of all
poison gas no one had ever seen it
00:19:46
before this is the moment when chemical
warfare was invented it scared the
00:19:57
living daylights out of the Canadian
troops that were hit by it
00:20:07
the First World War had become a contest
not of fighting spirit but a
00:20:12
technological night and for the soldiers
caught in the middle of it there was no
00:20:18
way forward and no way back there was
simply endurance your saw a little bush
00:20:31
yes whoa that bush was somebody creeping
up on you the perfect sword of that net
00:20:40
war would have been somebody with no
imagination whatsoever
00:20:46
we all had too much imagination
[Music]
00:20:55
so many men who had been through these
dangers and anxieties their love broken
00:21:04
they were the victims of shell shock you
know there is a breaking point for most
00:21:11
people for anybody really robbed of all
humanity and courage and everything else
00:21:19
makes life worth living really he's
descended of something less than human
00:21:30
the stalemate in the trenches continued
through 1915 and into 1916 when the
00:21:36
generals decided to go back to their
original weapon their men
00:21:43
[Music]
the river some northern France early
00:21:52
summer 1916 along a front 25 miles wide
a massive Allied army prepared to attack
00:22:03
thousands of British tummies as they
recalled would lead the charge and they
00:22:08
would follow one of the most intense
bombardments in the history of warfare
00:22:12
and artillery barrage would last an
entire week
00:22:18
[Music]
the battle of the somme was about to
00:22:23
begin
00:22:25
that must be a thousand gods if there
was one it was a terrible roar for
00:22:32
Borden tonight but the foolish officers
said tomorrow boys will be over the top
00:22:40
and don't worry sis
there'll be no trenches there how she'll
00:22:47
have blown to pieces there were no
Germans there they're blown to pieces
00:22:53
all you have to do is to walk over and
take those trenches in fact he says
00:23:00
you'll carry your rifle like a bag
[Music]
00:23:10
the Germans after the shelling they
simply come out of the dugouts
00:23:14
grabbed their machine guns and then
waiting for the Townies
00:23:19
[Music]
they just simply shrugged them down so
00:23:27
you're cutting down grain they didn't
get 200 feet in the trench when German
00:23:37
machine gunner said I stopped firing
because I was sickened by what we were
00:23:44
doing
00:23:50
it was the bloodiest day in British
history 20,000 men killed 40,000 wounded
00:24:00
and yet the day after and four days
after that young men continued to be
00:24:05
ordered out of their trenches and into
near certain death
00:24:12
how it volunteer Alan Seeger was killed
on July the 4th on the same morning Ted
00:24:18
Francis waited for the signal to go
[Music]
00:24:23
officers are down below us in the
trenches with a whistle and where they
00:24:29
blow that whistle away double - out of
the trenches and make for this German
00:24:34
tips and it's et season though still
four or five minutes but we look at each
00:24:42
other and say I would also do this sub
were visibly shaken some were crying and
00:24:54
of course when the whistle went our we
had to scramble over
00:25:01
[Music]
the battle of the somme would come to
00:25:13
define the futility of the First World
War
00:25:16
it went on for six more months at a cost
of a million men and at the end of it
00:25:23
the Allied armies had moved a grand
total of five miles the guns of the
00:25:29
Somme were so loud and so insisted that
they were heard across the English
00:25:33
Channel in London a hundred and fifty
miles away in every country that was
00:25:42
involved in the war there were growing
problems at home after so many years of
00:25:47
struggle the disillusionment of the
battlefront now extended to the home
00:25:51
front Russia in particular was right for
revolution its people were starving and
00:25:56
it's battered army was on the verge of
defeat in February 1917 a food riot
00:26:04
broke out in the city of Petrograd which
had been called Saint Petersburg in no
00:26:09
time Russia was embroiled in full-scale
revolution the ruling family led by Tsar
00:26:17
Nicholas was brought down
300 years of royal rule were replaced by
00:26:24
a provisional government that stubbornly
decided to continue the war
00:26:31
the Germans chose this moment to help a
Russian revolutionary returned home from
00:26:37
exile the man who spoke for a socialist
movement known to Russians as the
00:26:42
Bolsheviks his given name was flattered
me Leonov he's better remembered as
00:26:47
Vladimir Lenin
00:26:50
sascha Bryansk II served as Lenin's
bodyguard spoke with a lot of gestures
00:26:59
rushed forward calling us through the
lands saying power had been taken over
00:27:06
by the bourgeoisie that went on with the
bloody war a new order had to be
00:27:11
established to ensure the power of the
working class Lenin and the Bolsheviks
00:27:18
hoped to create the world's first
communist state where all land capital
00:27:22
and political power would be given to
the people for many Russians it would
00:27:28
mean the end of privilege
[Applause]
00:27:33
victory of the Bolsheviki would mean the
end of Russia that we that we knew I
00:27:42
remember one evening at our country
place I was running down the lawn to
00:27:51
call my mother to tell her that supper
was ready and I suddenly stopped and he
00:27:56
was all the beauty around the roses the
trees the park the lawns it was a
00:28:04
beautiful place it was sunset and I
stopped and said all this disappears all
00:28:13
this will be gone
that was the one moment I remembered
00:28:19
that feeling of fear that the whole
world of which I was pardoned was a
00:28:23
support and it would
in October 1917 Lenin encouraged an
00:28:31
insurrection against the provisional
government that had replaced the fallen
00:28:34
Tsar the end came at the Czar's old
wooden house
00:28:44
I ran up the carpeted stairway in the
very first room I saw soldiers standing
00:28:53
with their rifles ready I shouted down
put down your weapons
00:28:59
defenders just dropped their weapons
00:29:07
we saw the fires in the Nike and then
after five or six days the shooting died
00:29:15
there were no more guns so we knew it
was over and we knew that we eventually
00:29:24
he had warned
[Applause]
00:29:31
with Lennon's victory Russia quickly
withdrew from the war but the Germans
00:29:38
had seen their plans succeed only to
find that they now faced a new opponent
00:29:46
it was clear to most Americans now that
Germany regarded them as an enemy to
00:29:53
President Woodrow Wilson resisted the
demands to get involved for a while but
00:30:00
by 1917 the Germans had increased their
attacks on unarmed ships and then they
00:30:05
brazenly urged Mexico to invade the
United States the president felt he had
00:30:12
no other option on April the 2nd 1917
Woodrow Wilson stood anxiously before a
00:30:21
special session of Congress and asked
for a declaration of war he hoped it
00:30:27
would be the war to end all wars he said
it is a fearful thing for me to try to
00:30:35
lead a great peaceful people into war
it could be one of the most terrible and
00:30:42
disasters of all wars but let me tell
you this right is more precious than
00:30:49
peace
00:30:52
the idea of a last great war
00:30:58
and being part of it
was very very strong strong appeal and
00:31:05
it certainly influenced me a great deal
I said this we never got to see another
00:31:12
war this is the time to see it
00:31:27
in the summer of 1917 American troops
landed in France returning the favor of
00:31:33
Lafayette's the French soldier who would
fought with America during the
00:31:38
Revolutionary War one of the officers he
said it loud enough for everybody he did
00:31:45
not see and he was weary disease
Lafayette Lafayette new lovely it would
00:31:52
Lafayette
Lafayette we are here
00:31:59
[Music]
there was coverage at the end of our
00:32:03
being and when the Americans decided to
have a go
00:32:08
I was absolutely a said array they were
untouched by the anxiety
00:32:20
doubts that had afflicted everybody else
by that stage they were they were
00:32:27
American no they were American they
worked the Americans were supposed to be
00:32:31
they were enthusiastic they were also
badly armed poorly trained and like the
00:32:39
Europeans before them completely
unprepared for what lay ahead
00:32:45
[Music]
00:32:50
the train came through from the front
00:32:56
and we got the gold board of course
which we did it sooner we couldn't get
00:33:02
on it
and asked guys how was up there what's
00:33:06
going on and what are you doing and it
was a hospital stream I can see these
00:33:17
four kids like me youngsters but the
lake are two arms go on well this is a
00:33:32
kind of a cold water treatment all of a
sudden to realize what law was like you
00:33:40
grew up very quickly surroundings like
that there is no longer freshman studies
00:33:50
it was a real world
00:34:07
by 1918 with thousands of Americans
pouring into France
00:34:11
every day the Germans decided they had
to do something massive
00:34:17
[Music]
the March 1918 the German army tried its
00:34:25
last major gamble last major offensive
on the Western Front it was successful
00:34:29
was a remarkable moment the Western
Front moved war of movement finally
00:34:35
arrived and after years of impasse the
Germans suddenly threatened to overwhelm
00:34:40
the Allies and actually captured the
French capital Paris the Germans had a
00:34:48
fire they called it sweeping fire
everything upon earth got hit they were
00:34:56
wounded or died the threat to Paris was
so severe than a million people simply
00:35:03
left the city the Germans got to within
30 miles at this point these still semi
00:35:13
trained American divisions
we're thrown into the bath along with
00:35:18
the French managed to stop the German
drop
00:35:23
[Music]
the Germans had put everything into this
00:35:30
last desperate effort and when it was
over they were finally spent along the
00:35:37
Western Front that autumn the focus
shifted from war to peace
00:35:48
on the 10th of November the Kaiser was
forced into exile by his own government
00:35:53
a victim of the war he had helped to
start this not me so deeply that I can't
00:36:04
tell you I has a little picture of the
Kaiser in my room
00:36:08
but did I do I put a black tie around
the picture to show my other sorrow for
00:36:17
this tremendous change in history and
finally at the 11th hour on the eleventh
00:36:28
day of the eleventh month November 1918
the Germans formally surrendered
00:36:40
and suddenly the guns stopped and there
was a terrible shock as if somebody had
00:36:49
hit me over the head with a big pan
[Music]
00:36:58
and sudden hush after four years of
continual gunfire and become part of our
00:37:07
life that seemed to be something missing
00:37:11
we didn't believe it June
00:37:16
[Music]
[Applause]
00:37:30
[Music]
00:37:47
one of the greatest calamities in human
history was over and America's veterans
00:37:52
began to return home
[Music]
00:38:03
the trouble was that having made the
world a safer place American veterans
00:38:07
returned to a very uncertain future the
economy that the boomed during the war
00:38:14
was now shrinking factories were laying
off workers just as veterans came
00:38:20
looking for jobs we had no help to find
a job
00:38:26
no grants to go to school to finish our
college education when you took your
00:38:33
discharge that was it you had no more
connection with the government are they
00:38:41
with you you were on your own
00:38:50
[Music]
00:39:00
in the winter of 1918 Europe was a
disaster the empires of Germany Austria
00:39:08
and Russia had been shattered
leaving destitute nations in their wake
00:39:13
[Music]
even the victors Britain and France
00:39:21
grappled with ruin and rage
[Music]
00:39:30
in all nine million men had died
00:39:37
every family had lost someone a father a
son a brother
00:39:48
a cousin a friend
[Music]
00:40:07
for years the wounded in the maimed
haunted the streets of every city in
00:40:13
Europe
[Music]
00:40:18
and even those who had escaped physical
harm were forever changed by the great
00:40:25
war
00:40:29
subtabs
are thinking about the war toward three
00:40:32
o'clock and my brother beat it
my best friend be killed
00:40:39
I wonder why live lie dead bed how is
it's the sideline a and they're all dead
00:40:47
I lost all my youth I lost the best
years of my life you might say and I
00:40:57
lost her many friends it was all lost
for me I mean a few medals don't make up
00:41:05
for that you know
00:41:08
nobody wins in a war they lost we didn't
win
00:41:21
into this chaos traveling to a post-war
peace conference in the French town of
00:41:26
Versailles came President Woodrow Wilson
with him President Wilson brought his
00:41:31
so-called fourteen points which called
for liberty and self-determination for
00:41:36
all even the enemy the people of Britain
and France greeted Wilson ecstatically
00:41:44
for he represented the hope of democracy
00:41:49
but the British and French governments
were interested in revenge the Versailles
00:41:56
peace treaty is the politics of hatred
it was the encapsulation of every
00:42:02
mean-spirited element on the Allied side
the new Soviet Union was completely
00:42:09
excluded from the peace conference and
not one victorious power was ready to
00:42:14
give up a colony sowing the seeds of
future discord Britain and France added
00:42:20
several colonies by carving up the
Middle East as for the Germans they were
00:42:27
forced to accept conditions that would
humiliate and impoverished them for
00:42:31
years
in the end Versailles was about
00:42:35
punishment not peacemaking in many ways
all those men who died nine million men
00:42:41
died for nothing
[Music]
00:42:51
almost before it was over then it was
clear that the legacy of this war would
00:42:56
be anything but the end of all wars
within 30 years these same nations would
00:43:03
all fight again over precisely the same
ground
00:43:15
the war had shown technologies dark side
but dark or bright technology was here
00:43:21
to stay and in the decade that followed
an electric pulse of change ran through
00:43:26
America we'll see that on the next
episode of the century America's time
00:43:32
thank you for joining us I'm Peter
Jennings
00:43:36
[Music]
