The United States, Great Britain, the First World
FROM ASSOCIATES TO ANTAGONISTS: THE UNITED STATES, GREAT BRITAIN, THE FIRST WORLD WAR, AND THE ORIGINS OF WAR PLAN RED, 1914-1919 Mark C. Gleason, B.S. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS May 2012 APPROVED: Geoffrey Wawro, Major-Professor Robert Citino, Committee Member Michael Leggiere, Committee Member Richard McCaslin, Chair of the Department of History James D. Meernik, Acting Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Gleason, Mark C. From Associates to Antagonists: The United States, Great Britain, the First World War, and the Origins of WAR PLAN RED, 1914-1919. Master of Arts (History), May 2012, 178 pp., bibliography, 144 titles. American military plans for a war with the British Empire, first discussed in 1919, have received varied treatment since their declassification. The most common theme among historians in their appraisals of WAR PLAN RED is that of an oddity. Lack of a detailed study of Anglo- American relations in the immediate post-First World War years makes a right understanding of the difficult relationship between the United States and Britain after the War problematic. As a result of divergent aims and policies, the United States and Great Britain did not find the diplomatic and social unity so many on both sides of the Atlantic aspired to during and immediately after the First World War. Instead, United States’ civil and military organizations came to see the British Empire as a fierce and potentially dangerous rival, worthy of suspicion, and planned accordingly. Less than a year after the end of the War, internal debates and notes discussed and circulated between the most influential members of the United States Government, coalesced around a premise that became the rationale for WAR PLAN RED.
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