World War I
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was a strong supporter of Britain and France, but also supported the nation's neutrality policy. He called for preparation of a large, powerful army and was active in the privately-funded Plattsburg Training Camp Movement to train potential officers. When war came in 1917 Stimson was one of eighteen officers selected by former President Theodore Roosevelt to raise a volunteer infantry division, Roosevelt's World War I volunteers, for service in France in 1917. President Woodrow Wilson refused to make use of the volunteers and the unit disbanded. Stimson served the regular U.S. Army in France as an artillery officer, reaching the rank of colonel in August 1918.
Read more about this topic: Henry L. Stimson
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“Yes; quaint and curious war is!
You shoot a fellow down
Youd treat if met where any bar is,
Or help to half-a-crown.”
—Thomas Hardy (18401928)
“We should often blush for our very best actions, if the world did but see all the motives upon which they were done.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (16131680)
“The dead have been awakenedshall I sleep?
The worlds at war with tyrantsshall I crouch?
The harvests ripeand shall I pause to reap?
I slumber not; the thorn is in my couch;
Each day a trumpet soundeth in mine ear,
Its echo in my heart.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (17881824)