133: Heading “Over There:” “Black Jack” Pershing & Creating WWI’s American Expeditionary Force

“Lafayette, nous sommes ici!” (Lafayette, we are here!)

This is the story of a nation building an army from nothing.

After years of trying to avoid entanglements with and war in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson has asked Congress for a declaration of war against Germany. But that’s easier said than done.

The US might be the world’s greatest industrial producer and have a large population, but will the nation’s population of heavily first- and second-generation American citizens (or non-citizens), speaking roughly 50 different languages, answer the call to arms? Can production be turned from civilian-focused (or British and French focused) to the needs of an instantaneous expeditionary force? In short: is it even possible for the largely isolationist United States to train and muster a world-class army? And if it is, who can take the reins of this formidable force that will be far larger than any that the nation’s most storied military commanders–from George Washington to Ulysses S. Grant–ever led? And can that leader keep the British and French from trying to take those reins? From “amalgamating” US troops into their own armies?

You’re damn right there is. Welcome to America’s story, General John J. “Black Jack” Pershing.

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