The British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970; Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950) used to get mighty hot under the collar when the topic of American society came up and this column is just one example. During his 1922 American speaking tour Russell rambled-on about how prone Americans were to confuse the truth with commercial messages; believing that altruism was seldom a motivating factor behind a single American undertaking. He will have none of the thinking that America's main concern for jumping into the meat grinder of 1914-1918 was entirely inspired by "wounded France" and "poor little Belgium" but was rather an exercise in American self-interest.
Read the thoughts of one W.W. I veteran who regrets having gone to war... "Not pacifists, but soldiers, have signed what several editors term one of the most striking and remarkable appeals for peace that have come to their tables."
Veterans of the 1914-1918 slaughter called for their respective governments to "oppose territorial aggrandizement" and demanded "that an international court be established to outlaw war"; following the establishment of said court, the immediate effort "to disarm and disband sea and air forces and destroy the implements of warfare" should begin. The American Legion Commander-in-Chief, Alvin Owsley (1888 - 1967), was among the signators.
Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.
During the closing months of the American presence in France, one element can be found in the majority of the letters written to loved ones at home: "The French aren't treating us as nice". In the war's aftermath, writer Alexander Woollcott (1887 - 1943) attempted to explain the situation to his readers; what follows were his observations. In the later years of the First World War, the American journalist Alexander Woollcott (1887 - 1943) served as a writer for the Doughboy newspaper The Stars & Stripes. In this roll he was able to travel far afield all over the American sectors of the front where he saw a great deal of the war: flattened villages, ravaged farmland, factories reduced to ruble. In the attached article from 1920, Woollcott reported that the war-torn provinces of France looked much the same, even two years after the Armistice. He was surprised at the glacial speed with which France was making the urgent repairs, and in this article he presented a sort-of Doughboy's-eye-view of post-war France.
More on this topic can be read here
In the attached magazine interview, Kaiser Wilhelm's son and fellow exile, Crown Prince Wilhelm III (1882 - 1951, a.k.a. "The Butcher of Verdun"), catalogs his many discomforts as a "refugee" in Holland. At this point in his life, the former heir apparent was dictating his memoir (click here to read the book review) and following closely the goings-on at Versailles.
Click here to read an article about the German veterans of W.W. I.
H.L. Mencken and George Jean Nathan, editors of The Smart Set, surmised that as the Europeans bury their many dead among the damp, depressing ruins of 1920s Europe, America is neither admired or liked very much:
"...the English owe us money, the Germans smart under their defeat, the French lament that they are no longer able to rob and debauch our infantry." | 
