[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Pages 5726-5727]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING WORLD WAR I

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, today, exactly 100 years ago, on this very 
floor, the United States declared war on Imperial Germany and entered 
the First World War on the side of the Allies. The decisions that led 
to that monumental declaration forever changed America's destiny, 
economy, military, foreign policy, and culture.
  Today also marks the beginning of our National Centennial remembrance 
of America's service in World War I for the sacrifices made by all 
Americans and for the more than one-quarter of a million American 
casualties, including over 100,000 dead, most of whom were lost in a 
mere 6-month period from May to November 1918.
  By the war's end, my great-grandfather and his three brothers would 
all serve. My great-grandfather's brother, my great-uncle, Frank 
Chamberlain, was killed in action. This is his pipe that he was 
carrying when he was killed in France, his dog tags, and his uniform 
insignia that I was able to inherit from my great-grandfather.
  He lays peacefully in France under a white marble military 
gravestone, a scant, faceless hint of the man who was once filled with 
laughter and humor, who held dreams, hopes, and goals for the future. 
Frank was 19 years old.
  On April 6, 1917, our country was forever changed, and it began right 
here on this very floor. It is only fitting, Mr. Speaker, that we give 
remembrance to its beginning here today. I am indeed indebted to the 
fine work of Dr. Eric B. Setzekorn of the United States Army's Center 
of Military History for his material from ``Joining the Great War,'' 
which forms the basis for today's remembrance.

       After the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of 
     Austria on the 28th of June 1914, which led to the military 
     mobilization across Europe and declarations of war by early 
     August, most Americans took solace that the Atlantic Ocean 
     shielded the United States from the conflict. The Chicago 
     Herald summed up the popular support for isolation from 
     Europe's strife in its article that said: ``Peace-loving 
     citizens of this country will now rise up and tender a hearty 
     vote of thanks to Columbus for having discovered America.''
       Germany's invasion of neutral Belgium brought Great Britain 
     into the war and divided Europe into two great camps. Britain 
     joined France and Russia to form the Triple Entente, more 
     commonly referred to as the Allied Powers. Opposed to them 
     were Germany and Austria-Hungary, making up the Central 
     Powers.
       President Woodrow Wilson believed that the immoral nature 
     of European politics created entangling alliances that 
     transformed a regional conflict into a global war that 
     threatened world peace. The President delivered a Declaration 
     of Neutrality to this very Congress on the 19th of August 
     1914, calling on all citizens to remain ``impartial in 
     thought, as well as in action.'' However, between late 1914 
     and early 1917, the escalating conflict tested American 
     traditions of isolationism as it threatened to draw the 
     Nation closer to the war.
       The initial German offensive against France ended in 
     September at the Battle of the Marne, after which both sides 
     attempted a series of flanking maneuvers to gain the 
     advantage. Neither side proved capable of overcoming the 
     killing power that machine guns and rapid-firing artillery 
     brought to the defensive, and the battle lines all along the 
     Western Front stabilized in a vast system of trenches 
     stretching from Switzerland all the way to the English 
     Channel. This was a new type of warfare, with soldiers 
     subjected to prolonged stress and danger, with little chance 
     for daring heroics or martial glory.
       Behind the trenches, the development of sophisticated 
     supply systems that were able to support millions of men and 
     massive levels of firepower and the ability to rush reserves 
     to block any potential enemy breakthrough led to a vicious 
     stalemate.
       On the broad expanses of the Eastern Front, Germany and 
     Austria were locked in a brutal war of attrition with Russia, 
     where logistics and artillery shells counted far more than 
     bravery.
       To break through the deadlock, the combatants attempted to 
     smash through enemy lines with ever larger offensives. 
     Attacks in 1915 saw tens of thousands of soldiers and 
     hundreds of artillery pieces deployed along only a few miles 
     of the front, trying to win through sheer weight of numbers 
     and ordnance. The result was thousands of dead and gains 
     measured in yards after weeks of constant fighting.
       Poison gas, first used by the Germans in April 1915 and 
     later adopted by every nation, added to the daily misery and 
     danger. By 1916, as the industrial economies of Germany, 
     France, and Britain became fully geared toward war 
     production, battles increased in scale and destructiveness. 
     In the fight of the fortress of Verdun between February and 
     December, the French and Germans suffered more than 1 million 
     casualties combined.
       On the first day of the Somme Offensive on the 1st of July 
     1916, the British and French fired more than 2 million 
     artillery shells into the German lines in support of 19 
     divisions attacking along only a 20-mile front. Despite this 
     colossal weight of numbers, the British alone suffered 57,000 
     casualties on the very first day and did not break the German 
     defenses. By the time the Somme ended in mid-November, all 
     sides had suffered more than a combined 1 million casualties, 
     while the front moved fewer than 10 miles. As a result, 
     Verdun and the Somme became synonymous with the slaughter and 
     destruction that defined the Western Front.
       As the stalemate in France continued, U.S. political and 
     public opinion began to shift from neutrality toward support 
     for the Allies. German atrocities in Belgium, at times 
     exaggerated by Allied propaganda, shocked many Americans. 
     Additionally, in early 1915, the Germans began an effort to 
     isolate the British Isles by using submarines, known as 
     Unterseeboote, or U-boats, to attack British merchant 
     shipping.

                              {time}  1215

       The German campaign, which consisted of the unrestricted 
     sinking of any merchant vessel bound for Britain, was 
     portrayed by American newspapers as a cowardly and immoral 
     method of warfare.
       On the 1st of May 1915, a German U-boat sank the British 
     liner RMS Lusitania, killing 1,198 men, women, and children, 
     including 128 American citizens onboard. After the attack, 
     The New York Times called on President Wilson to ``demand 
     that the Germans shall no longer make war like savages drunk 
     with blood.''
       Fearing that such action could pull the United States into 
     the war, and concerned over British violations of American 
     shipping rights, President Wilson continued his policy of 
     neutrality. Seeking to take the moral high road, he 
     proclaimed: ``There is such a thing as a man being too proud 
     to fight . . . There is such a thing as a Nation being so 
     right that it does not need to convince others by force that 
     it is right.''
       However, after the Germans sank the French passenger ferry 
     SS Sussex in March 1916, Wilson threatened to break off 
     diplomatic relations with Germany. In May, the Germans 
     pledged to abandon unrestricted submarine warfare, though 
     they reserved the right to attack legitimate targets such as 
     armed merchant ships or those vessels carrying war materiel.
       As Germany's submarine campaign damaged its relations with 
     the United States, America's economic relationship with 
     Britain and France expanded. Faced with a war of attrition, 
     the Allies relied on agricultural and industrial resources to 
     support their war efforts.
       Despite a British blockade that severely cut American 
     commerce and its friendly relations to the former central 
     powers, U.S. trade with Europe more than doubled from 1913 to 
     1917. U.S. companies not only provided civilian goods, but 
     also war materiel. Bethlehem Steel alone supplied the Allies 
     with over 20 million artillery shells between 1914 and 1918, 
     while major weapons manufacturers like Remington and 
     Winchester sold

[[Page 5727]]

     rifles and guns. Allied governments relied heavily on the 
     U.S. banking industry for billions in loans to finance their 
     war.
       Despite the United States' growing economic ties to the 
     Allies, the American public still preferred that the Nation 
     remain neutral. The British Government's brutal suppression 
     of the 1916 Easter Rising in Ireland angered many Americans--
     and certainly, Irish Americans--as did its continued 
     violation of American neutral shipping rights through its 
     blockade of Germany.
       As the casualty list grew during 1916, most Americans were 
     thankful that they had not been drawn into the carnage 
     engulfing Europe.
       In November 1916, President Wilson won reelection by a 
     narrow margin, largely on the slogan, ``He kept us out of 
     war.'' However, circumstances changed rapidly in early 1917. 
     Many Americans began to volunteer for the French, Great 
     Britain or Canada, like my Uncle Frank.
       Germany's increasingly desperate strategic situation led to 
     a resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare on the 31st of 
     January 1917. This action broke the earlier pledge of the 
     Germans to respect passenger shipping and convinced President 
     Wilson to break diplomatic relations with Germany on the 3rd 
     of February 1917.
       Soon after, the British Government provided Wilson an 
     intercepted communication from the German foreign secretary, 
     Arthur Zimmermann, to the German envoy in Mexico. In the 
     telegram, Zimmermann proposed that if the United States 
     joined the war on the Allied side, Germany and Mexico should 
     enter into an alliance. In return, Mexico, by taking up arms 
     against the United States, would receive from Germany 
     supplies, financial assistance. Once a victory was achieved, 
     Mexico could claim territory in Texas, New Mexico, and 
     Arizona.
       The State Department released the telegram to the 
     Associated Press on the 28th of February, and the American 
     public opinion turned sharply, as many became convinced of 
     German duplicity and aggressive intentions. No longer was the 
     war seen as simply a horrific folly by the European powers, 
     but rather as a clear indication of the danger of unchecked 
     militarism.
       With the abdication of the Russian czar in February 1917 
     and the rise of a provisional representative government, 
     Americans came to see the war as a struggle that pitted 
     democracies against aggressive, authoritarian imperialists.
       Faced with this clear contrast, President Wilson addressed 
     this very floor on April 2, 1917, in a joint session of 
     Congress declaring his desire that: We shall fight for the 
     things which we have always carried nearest our hearts--for 
     democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to 
     have a voice in their governments, for the rights and 
     liberties of small nations, for universal dominion of right 
     by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and 
     safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.
       On the 6th of April--100 years ago today, where I am 
     standing--with concrete evidence of German hostility to the 
     United States, to international peace, and to liberal 
     democracy, Congress of the United States declared war on 
     Germany.

  The first act of war committed on Germany was executed that very day, 
when the United States Army's 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry marched from 
Fort Jay, New York, to Hoboken, New Jersey, boarded and seized the 
German ships in the harbor and interned the German crews. I had the 
privilege to command the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry in Iraq in 2003-
2004.
  Among the ships seized that day on April 6, 1917, was the SS 
Vaterland, a luxury liner later renamed the USS Leviathan. This luxury 
transport would send 10 percent of all doughboys to France and bring a 
great many of them home as well.
  The last American World War I veteran was Frank Buckles, who enlisted 
from Oakwood, Oklahoma, in August of 1917. He died only 6 years ago, in 
February 2011, at age 110.
  I had the privilege to know a great many World War I veterans. The 
last time I saw my great-grandfather was when I came home on leave as a 
young Army captain. As we had a very pleasant visit and it came to a 
close and I had to go, he told me: ``Don't go yet. I want to give you 
something.''
  He returned from his bedroom with some items in a cigar box that I 
remember looking at as a kid. He said: ``I want you to have these.''
  I said: ``I can't take these, grandpa. Those were your brother's.''
  He said: ``You will take them because I know you will keep Frank's 
memory alive.''
  He was right. They have been displayed by me ever since, wherever I 
have been.
  As we reflect today on the declaration of war 100 years ago on this 
very spot in 1917 that began the United States entry into World War I, 
let us embark on a national centennial remembrance for all Americans of 
that day who sacrificed so much for our Republic. They are all gone 
now, but as long as we who knew them have breath and remember them, 
they will live.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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