Wilson’s shameful treatment of black soldiers set race relations back decades.
“Wilson’s shameful treatment of black soldiers set race relations back decades.” [dfwgator, post 13]
President Wilson’s poor treatment of black Americans was neither limited to soldiers, nor to wartime. The Progressive movement was at the time quite racist; Wilson began removing black workers from official positions right after his inauguration, as a sop to Southern interests - reversing years of gains and wiping out what meritocracy had been put into place in federal hiring.
The war was a sideshow to Progressives, who cared little about actual military objectives or outcomes; instead, they applauded the chance to remake American society along the lines of their pet “scientific” theories of reform. “Never let a good crisis go to waste” was a motto then, as now.
They very nearly succeeded in creating a utopian totalitarian state. Progressives had for over a generation decried the wealth, complacency, and self-indulgence that Americans lavished on themselves and their families. Herbert Hoover, premiere engineer/manager of his day, was heard to complain the “supper was one of the worst pieces of extravagance we have in this country,” and bien-pensant lackeys in the federal government leapt at the chance. Not merely to propagandize and create a nationwide network of “anti-sedition” informants, but to radically revamp most aspects of daily American life - each excused, of course, as being “vital to the war effort.”
It’s arguable that the scheming and machinations of Progressive officials and politicians actually degraded US military planning and execution.