"We entered the war a year before it ended": Controversy arose in the United States over the opening of the World War I memorial

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"We entered the war a year before it ended": Controversy arose in the United States over the opening of the World War I memorial

In the United States, controversy has arisen over the opening of a new memorial to the First World War. The central figure of the memorial in Washington is the monument to General John Pershing, who commanded the American expeditionary forces in Europe. Earlier, the park itself, where the memorial was opened, bore the name of the general. It is now called the World War I Memorial.

US President Joe Biden took part in the opening ceremony of the new memorial in a virtual version.



There are several reasons for the controversy over the opening of the memorial. The first of these concerns the personality of the aforementioned General Pershing. US citizens of Latin American roots called the preservation of the John Pershing monument a "shame" and a "blow to multiculturalism."



The fact is that before going to Europe to command the American expeditionary forces, this person managed to take part (including in command positions) in a number of other wars and conflicts. So, in January 1914, John Pershing was appointed commander of the 8th American Brigade, which later took the most direct part in the punitive operation of US troops in Mexico. In American historiography, this conflict is called the Frontier War or the Pershing Expedition. The reason for the invasion of Mexico was the incident in the city of Columbus. The then American authorities accused Mexico of the attack on this settlement in the state of New Mexico. At the same time, the United States itself does not like to recall that initially the conflict flared up due to the financial interest of large American business in Mexican assets.

Now representatives of the Latin American population are calling on the US authorities to remove the Pershing monument, calling him a "colonist general." In addition, it was noted that the presence of a monument to this person could provoke an increase in tension in the States, where a fight against monuments has been unfolding in the past few months. As you know, even the monuments to Christopher Columbus were damaged.

Against this background, conservative Americans accused the country's authorities of following the lead of those who want to “forget history USA". It is indicated that the authorities should not have changed the name of the Pershing Park.

The second reason for the heated discussion of the opening of the new memorial is related to the statements of Joe Biden. The President of the United States at the ceremony said that the Great War (as the United States often calls the First World War), "changed America's perception of ourselves and changed the American place in the world."



Biden:

We have shown that we are ready to fight and die for freedom and democracy.

This statement has been criticized for one simple fact: the United States remained neutral in WWI until April 1917. The official entry into the war of the United States took place on April 6, 1917, and the real entry into hostilities took place in the fall of 1917, when the war itself was already entering its final phase.

Biden:

More than 100 years have passed, but the legacy and courage of those heroes who went to war, and the values ​​for which they fought, still live in our country.

It turns out that until the fall of 1917, the United States was not particularly interested in freedom and democracy in Europe?

From the comments of ordinary Americans:

We entered the war a year before it ended. A strange decision when it comes to protecting democracy.

Memorials, memorable places are good. But in this case, everything is controversial.

According to official US figures, the United States lost 116516 people during World War I. At the same time, the total number of American participants in WWI, again, according to official data from Washington, is 4,7 million.

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    1. +22
      April 19 2021 14: 22
      We entered the war a year before it ended.
      You were in no hurry to join the Second World War ...
      1. +8
        April 19 2021 14: 27
        Quote: WHAT IS
        were in no hurry to join ...

        Bought off by the "second front"!
        1. +10
          April 19 2021 14: 41
          Rather, they did not pay off, but in a hurry to occupy at least part of the territory of Germany, weakened by the Soviet Union! hiOtherwise, the influence of the USSR could spread to the Atlantic coast of Europe, which the American capitalists did not like very much! hi
          1. +7
            April 19 2021 14: 52
            Quote: VORON538
            to the Atlantic coast of Europe,

            It was opened on June 6, 1944 by the landing of the Anglo-American expeditionary forces in Normandy (north-west of France). They weren't in a hurry!
            1. +5
              April 19 2021 14: 58
              they just wanted to avoid losses (not human, but rather financial) by grabbing as much as possible at minimal cost, the usual logic of a capitalist. hi
              1. +16
                April 19 2021 15: 14
                Quote: VORON538
                they just wanted to avoid losses (not human, but rather financial) by grabbing as much as possible at minimal cost, the usual logic of a capitalist.

                1. The true winners in World 1 are the USA. All the money swam across the ocean.
                2. England has irreversibly lost its power.
                3. Germany ceased to be an empire and became infected with fascism.
                4. Austria-Hungary collapsed.
                5. The Russian Empire collapsed and got a civil war.
                6. The Ottoman Empire collapsed.
                7. France fell ill with tolerance and ceased to be combat-ready.

                Everything you need to know about capitalist wars.
                1. -1
                  April 19 2021 16: 02
                  This is a consequence of the PMA. But this is not the original intention of the United States. They were lucky.
                  1. +4
                    April 19 2021 16: 30
                    Pereira (Michael), Today, 16: 02, NEW - "... This is a consequence of WWI. But this is not the original intention of the United States. They were lucky ..."

                    Laugh lol As well as about the "reasonable, uncompromising" hand of the market in the 90s! crying
                    1. +1
                      April 19 2021 17: 42
                      Glad you are having fun.
            2. -13
              April 19 2021 15: 04
              Quote: Uncle Lee
              Quote: VORON538
              to the Atlantic coast of Europe,

              It was opened on June 6, 1944 by the landing of the Anglo-American expeditionary forces in Normandy (north-west of France). They weren't in a hurry!

              Actually, the Americans entered the war in the Mediterranean region in 1942. At the same time, they were still driving b / d in the Pacific Ocean.
              1. +1
                April 20 2021 04: 27
                Actually, the Americans entered the war in the Mediterranean region in 1942. At the same time, they were still driving b / d in the Pacific Ocean.

                Well, yes, well, yes ... Only to be more precise, almost at the end of 1942, and at the same time, they were not in El Alamein :) They landed after it. In Italy for a WHOLE year (from July 1943 to August 1944), they stomped back and forth and then they could not liberate all of Italy, right up to the landing in Normandy. That is, they fought so-so.
                In 1945, when the United States was planning a landing on the Japanese Islands, the Americans seriously hoped to fight Japan for another goal and a half, least... And it was not the atomic bombing that forced Japan to surrender, but the lightning-fast (actually in 2 weeks) defeat of the Kwantung grouping by the Red Army (700 thousand people, 7 ground, 2 air armies).
      2. +8
        April 19 2021 14: 29
        Quote: WHAT IS
        We entered the war a year before it ended.
        You were in no hurry to join the Second World War ...

        But they consider themselves to be the main victors in both wars.
        Russia is not a sin to learn from the experience of the Anglo-Saxons, saving its population in future conflicts.
      3. +4
        April 19 2021 14: 41
        For two years they threw wood into the fire, but they thought about how to enter without stepping ... And yet they came up with Pearl Harbor - an ideal solution that made them a victim of aggression. And wrap up ...
      4. +2
        April 19 2021 14: 51
        This cannot be said.
        The United States has fought in Europe since June 44, but the war has been with Japan since December 41. It was also World War II.
        1. 0
          April 20 2021 04: 33
          The United States has fought in Europe since June 44, but the war has been with Japan since December 41. It was also World War II.


          Well, to be more precise, in Europe they have been marking time since July 43. Only now, Italy could not be liberated for a whole year, until the second front was opened. And during this time the Red Army defeated the Wehrmacht and the SS near Kursk, after which, just went to the state border of the USSR.
      5. -3
        April 19 2021 15: 02
        Quote: WHAT IS
        We entered the war a year before it ended.
        You were in no hurry to join the Second World War ...

        The USA entered the WWII on December 7, 1941.
        1. +1
          April 20 2021 00: 05
          Quote: Aaron Zawi
          Quote: WHAT IS
          We entered the war a year before it ended.
          You were in no hurry to join the Second World War ...

          The USA entered the WWII on December 7, 1941.

          That's right, but only against Japan! And Germany was not yet an enemy!
        2. +2
          April 20 2021 00: 20
          Quote: Aron Zaavi
          The USA entered the WWII on December 7, 1941.

          you have chosen a slippery slope wink if we admit that entering the war with Japan is entering the Second World War, then we will have to admit that the Second World War began with the invasion of Japan into China in 1937, and not Germany into Poland, thus the whole tale about "Hitler and Stalin who unleashed the second one is going to hell. world ". Moreover, the question arises, what was the United States doing from 1937 to 1941, with very unpleasant answers.
          if not to admit it, the United States entered the war in 1944 request
      6. +2
        April 19 2021 15: 23
        Aha mattress toppers jackal! that PMV, that WWII to finish off the wounded and nishtyaks know how to saw
      7. 0
        April 19 2021 16: 31
        Quote: WHAT IS
        You were in no hurry to join the Second World War ...

        Likewise, they entered the second against Germany a year before its end!
        In time for the birthday cake section, scavengers!
      8. 0
        April 19 2021 18: 37
        We entered the end to accept the surrender and seize the FRG
    2. +4
      April 19 2021 14: 27
      -We have shown that we are ready to fight and die for freedom and democracy.
      And for the victory of the "evergreen" all over the world.
    3. +4
      April 19 2021 14: 30
      The monument should represent the "blue" black man with a tattoo "will not forget his native Alabama Mum" .And stand koleknopriklonennym, amid the cotton fields. ..This version of the Pershing monument will suit everyone in the usa.
      1. +3
        April 19 2021 14: 50
        A little earlier, BLM and other Antifa in the United States demolished and poured paint on monuments to the heroes of the Civil War in the United States, demolished monuments to Columbus and other great people, politicians of the past, who, at least somehow, concerned contacts with the black population of the states in past centuries.
        Today, new monuments are at stake: monuments to "a fictional struggle for democracy and freedom."
        Because entering the war "by calculation", on the side of "obviously presumed winners" is hypocrisy and deceit, but not heroism!
        Therefore - apparently the fate of all monuments in the United States, except for the monument to a bearded woman and a statue of a non-binary gay poet - to be demolished and slandered because the United States is a gathering (not all, but many, especially those who are activists of all kinds of bad movements) rabble and emigrants without kin and the tribe. The human mass is unable to identify itself with the Motherland and the Homeland, because all of them in 1-2-3-4 or 5th generation arrived there!
        I will not be surprised !!! If in 2-3 years in the United States there is no country - Uganda or Rwanda under control - a racially correct black descendant of slaves!
    4. +3
      April 19 2021 14: 39
      Now representatives of the Latin American population are calling on the US authorities to remove the Pershing monument, calling him a "colonist general" (c)
      So after the First World War they were looting in our Far East. They always poke their noses around the world, colonialists! hi
    5. +3
      April 19 2021 14: 52
      If it comes to that, what kind of monuments and memorials can be left in the United States?
      You dig any and you will stumble upon dirt and meanness. Even in the 2nd World War they climbed, however, as well as in the 1st, just not to miss a piece of the pie, and before that they were completely trading with the Reich.
    6. +9
      April 19 2021 14: 54
      the conflict broke out due to the financial interest of large American business

      All conflicts unleashed by the United States flare up in the interests of big American business.
    7. +2
      April 19 2021 15: 38
      They grease themselves at the very last moment and then shout loudest of all that they themselves have defeated everyone)
    8. +1
      April 19 2021 16: 06
      Quote: Aaron Zawi
      Quote: Uncle Lee
      Quote: VORON538
      to the Atlantic coast of Europe,

      It was opened on June 6, 1944 by the landing of the Anglo-American expeditionary forces in Normandy (north-west of France). They weren't in a hurry!

      Actually, the Americans entered the war in the Mediterranean region in 1942. At the same time, they were still driving b / d in the Pacific Ocean.

      I agree, the Yankees were pulling the Japanese away.
    9. +1
      April 19 2021 20: 08
      Good German said

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