A big "what if?"

I’m sort of reading a book called “Savage Peace” which is about he year 1919 and how our country was changing after WWI. There’s a lot in this book and this is not a review or summary. But the book got me thinking about something.

Bear with me – some of the questions might seems absurd or profane or just downright obnoxious to even ask, but for the sake of an odd argument I will ask them.

What if the United States had never entered WWI – on anybody’s side? What if we remained neutral?

It is important to note that we did not jump into this war and unlike WWII some decades later, we were not attacked and forced into it. President Wilson did a Kerry flip-flop on this one, first being against the war and then later committing troops and materiel to the effort.

The U.S. lost more than 120,000 men in the war. That’s bad.

Had we not entered the war Germany would have likely won the war. I imagine the landscape and mapping of western Europe would be hugely different than it is today. Germany’s borders might be bigger. Who knows how France would look today. But … and this is a big but …

If Germany HAD won the war, would there have been a climate for someone like Adolph Hitler to rise up in its aftermath, when the Germans had been beaten literally and figuratively by the world? Part of his message was one of Aryan pride. If the Germans had been on top, his message might have been lost and he may never have risen to the level of power he took on in later years.

No Hitler- then probably no WWII, no Holocaust. That’s good.

What about Russia? Some people accused Russia of being in cohoots with Germany in WWI when they stopped fighting which allowed Germany to focus its manpower on the western front of the war in Europe.

If the U.S. had not entered, would Germany have added Russia to its list of conquests? If that had happened – would there have been a Bolshevik revolution and the Communism and its world-wide campaign that followed? If not, then that’s good.

If we had not entered into the fight would we have built up our military to be strong enough to stave off a possible invasion or attack by Germany at some future point? That could be bad.

Back to France. If our omission from the war caused France to lose territory, become occupied and whatever else followed – would they have continued their colonial efforts and presence in Indo-China? If not or if they had left sooner, what would have happened in Vietnam?

Back to Russia – if perhaps no Communist revolution, then would Mao have surfaced in 1949 to lead China into its own Communist overhaul?

If none of this, would Japan have decided in 1941 to attack the U.S. anyway?

If this hadn’t happened, would we have helped rebuild them into the modern society they are today rather than remaining somewhat feudal in their government, culture, structure?

To carry the communism thing further, what happens to Cuba? The corrupt Batista regime might still have been overthrown by Castro and Che and company but without Russian support, would they have been communist or just possibly a new government?

I guess you could keep asking these questions on and on. Perhaps historians have addressed this and come up with good answers and reasons why we are better off for having fought in WWI but I’ve not read or heard them.