According to Kolin, "Wars allow state power to expand in scope and scale so that government can create a steady, permanent erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law" (Kolin, Chapter 2). In the case of World War I, this was indeed the case - the First World War changed and shaped our nation in many ways, giving us both a unique hold on the world economy and responsibilities toward our citizens and those abroad. The expanding state of power and propaganda in the US as a result of the First World War a very bad thing, having made America responsible for a number of atrocities and problematic actions, particularly in the post-war years.
Brewer (2009) notes the vital nature of propaganda in order to hide some of the more uncomfortable facets of war life and the restriction of civil liberties during World War I - evidently, black American soldiers fought in a segregated military during that time. However, to maintain the illusion that they were being treated well, propaganda films such as the CPI film The Training of Colored Troops "neglected to show the unheated tents that served as winter housing and inadequate medical care," vying instead to show positive yet stereotypical portrayals of happy blacks eating watermelon and generally behaving in front of the white man, while still seeming to be inferior to them (p. 65). This is but one example of the hypocritical steps America took to win the First World War while still maintaining the status quo - no longer did they have to worry about fighting for freedom for all.
Chomsky (2002) also talks about the propaganda state, allowing the government and organizations to do terrible things while also protecting their own interests at the expense of the common person. In World War I, Woodrow Wilson was elected president "on the platform 'Peace Without Victory'"; instead of this, however, Wilson's administration spent the next six months waging a powerful propaganda campaign that made the American people clamor for war (Chomsky, p. 11). By emphasizing jingoism and fanaticism, outright making up events and atrocities for the American people to be angry about, the John Dewey circle and others were able to manipulate the American people into becoming more warlike, turning their passive disinterest in a European war into bloodlust for the Huns.
Kolin (2011), in particular, notes the imperialist aggression that occurred at the hands of American during and immediately after the First World War. "Empires are incompatible with democracy, which has been seen throughout human history. To maintain and expand power, an empire must limit dissent, rolling back democracy; only mass democracy could challenge the authoritarian polices of the US government" (p. 131). This is exactly what the American government did through its propaganda machine, altering their democracy somewhat in order to limit protests and make it seem as though entry into World War I was something that was necessary - and even better, something they came up with themselves.
In Edwin Black's book Nazi Nexus, the author brings us an intriguing thesis: many of the destructive and subversive elements of the Holocaust can be linked inextricably to American business interests. The German war machine was not fuelled solely by domestic business interests; America also had a great deal of investment in the Nazis, with many influential business figures even sympathizing with them. Henry Ford, apparently, became convinced in 1920 of a secret Jewish cabal that would control the world through the media and the economy; as a result, was responsible for a significant amount of anti-Semitic publications that found their way to Germany just in time for Hitler's reign. Many businesses and business leaders, including Norman Rockefeller, supported Germany's eugenics programs in their search for creating the Aryan race. In essence, in the wake of FDR's excessive and increasing government control over businesses, many large private enterprises were more willing to entertain the financial control and capital Adolf Hitler was willing to invest in their companies. Businessmen hated the New Deal, and so they tried to stop it however possible - even if that meant allying themselves with Hitler (whose ideas regarding eugenics they were already on board with).
General Motors, known normally as one of the most wholesome, American car companies in existence, was largely responsible for most of the Reich's cars and trucks used in the war. Before GM came along, Germany was largely horse-drawn; afterwards, Germany was prepared for war, with the help of automobiles and trucks. GM provided the Third Reich with the tools needed for mass production, further mobilizing and arming them with modern-day technology that would allow them to become the threat they turned into in the early 1940s.
IBM, the famous computer and electronics company, was also surprisingly complicit in the creation and organization of the concentration camps in the Holocaust. The tattoo at Auschwitz was first an IBM number; furthermore, IBM machines were actually set up at the Auschwitz concentration camp as well. Hollerith Gruppe machines were installed in Krakow, at the center of the Nazi operations, crunching numbers and providing statistical information regarding exactly how many Jews they could systematically starve and murder, allowing them the data required to effectively transport them from work camps to death camps.
In conclusion, the righteousness and moral fortitude often attributed to the United States in World Wars One and Two is not the whole truth; the various economic and social factors that came into play as a result of our success and entry into world wars are far from virtuous. In the wake of the New Deal and government interference in an increasingly mechanized and powerful economic class, powerful companies and leaders started to turn towards Hitler's Reich for business and ideological inspiration - companies like GM and IBM provided cars and machines to help fuel the Nazi war effort, all in an attempt to support Hitler's eugenics programs and to sabotage FDR's attempts to regulate big business. The result is a much darker and more morally ambiguous America than most people care to admit when looking back on our history in the midst of the two World Wars.
Works Cited
Black, Edwin. Naxi Nexus.
Brewer
Chomsky, Noam. Kolin.
