World War One

Wednesday April 11, 2012

     So we started talking about Chapter 3 today.  I think we skipped Chapter 2 because we have done WAY too much stuff regarding the Civil War this semester!  So Chapter 3 discusses the First World War.  We started talking about if the U.S. was justified in getting involved in WWI, or if we only got involved in order to protect the interests and investments of the wealthy.  I think yes and no that our involvement in the war was justified.  Yes because the U.S. was keeping up their relationships by helping their Allies.  Plus, war is always good the the economy, ha ha.  I do not think we were justified because the war was not really necessary for us.  We only joined because our friends invited us.  So yes, we did get involved because many wealthy people had investments in Europe and wanted to protect their interests (which is not necessarily a good enough reason to go to war in my opinion).
     We spent a great deal of time today discussing the Espionage Act.  There are three main parts to this act:  1. a censorship on the press, 2. it is illegal for people to make false claims, and 3. it is illegal to affect opinion within the military (meaning try to make the military think differently/badly about its government).  Out of all of these I believe that the censorship of the press is the most important, and not only in a time of war.  It is important during a time of war because there has been several times when the press knew more about military operations than the federal government itself!  It is important to keep military operations under secrecy because if anything leaks out it could result in the unnecessary deaths of soldiers.  The press should be censored during a time of war because it not only keeps soldiers safe, but it makes the country look more united.  It looks bad if our government says one thing, but the press says an entirely different thing.  The only bad side to censoring the press during wartime is that the government can tell the people only what they want us to know (which means they can lie to us - like the number of people being killed in Vietnam compared to the number of enemies that we were killing).  I think it is important not to censor the press when we are not at war too.  This is basically the federal government telling the press, and even individual people, that the government trusts the people and lets them print what they want.  However, there is always the clear and present danger aspect.  I think the government would step in if someone published something that defaced the government or tried to get people riled up to start a revolution or something like that.
     We also compared the Espionage Act with the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798.  The Espionage Act was more focused on its points and stated that it was only for wartime.  This act directly affected how we handled the situations that later came from WWII.  The Alien and Sedition Acts, however, were more political acts.  This act was the first of its kind and later of things were based off of it (or learned from its mistakes).  The Alien and Sedition Acts let to Marburry versus Madison.  These acts also allowed for the political parties to fight against each other more.
     We ended class today talking about the Alien Act of 1918.  This act made it illegal to use disloyal or slanderous language when talking about the U.S. government, the armed forces, or anything dealing with American patriotism.  This act also made it legal for the any level of government to deport anarchists, even if they were legal citizens.  Many were deported, but were not guilty of the acts that they were accused of.  About 11,600 people were deported during this time.  My question is: what makes a person get deported for anarchy?  What were the guidelines or limitations?  If the person said anything, attended a meeting, wrote anything slanderous, or simply if someone accused them of it?  To me, this period of people being afraid of anarchists seems quite similar to later events when people were afraid of communists.  I do not agree that this legislation was right.  During wartime the government was already censoring what people published, but then they tried to censor what people thought!  Talk about a government being too controlling.  I understand that the government was only trying to protect their best interests and that of the American people, but people have a right to believe whatever they want.  Now, however, if these people act upon their beliefs of anarchy, then there is a problem, but they should still be allowed to think about and talk about different forms of government and the problems with our government.  I don't believe that there has ever been a time throughout the history of the Earth that people have not had some complaint or another about their government, it seems only human nature to me.  People complain about the government especially when it directly effects their lives, like going to war, available jobs, and the economy.  We blame the government for any problems with the economy because it is easier to blame the entire government as a single person.  So, to try to censor what people believe, even during a time of war, seems useless because people will still feel that way.  Deporting people for their beliefs about the government only makes matters worse.  First, it makes America look intolerant to other people's believes.  It also makes the people who were deported mad, and they might come back with a vengeance.  Heck, I am not surprised that the 11,000 people who were deported under the Alien Act of 1918 did not all get together and plan an attack on the American government.  It seems to me that deporting people for their beliefs will only come back to bite America in the bottom.  These people who were non-violent with their beliefs of anarchy could come back in the violent form of terrorists.  
     So far, we have had amazing discussions in class and I am really enjoying this book!  I think our discussions from the last two classes were definitely better than a lot of our other discussions on the other two books.  My group leads discussion on Monday and I can't wait to read the chapter and find some good, solid questions to ask the rest of the class.