Ted Poe: “100 years ago, the world was in a war so big that it was called the war to end all wars. World War I started in 1914 and…”

“100 years ago, the world was in a war so big that it was called the war to end all wars. World War I started in 1914 and involved 32 nations. It pitted the Allies against the central powers and stretched across five continents. The United States was isolationist at that time and was not in the war. But in 1917, the British intercepted a telegram called the Zimmerman Telegram from the German Government to Mexico, encouraging Mexico to join Germany. In return, Germany would help Mexico take and conquer Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. So after the sinking of seven U.S. merchant ships by submarines, the sinking of the Lusitania, and the publication of the Zimmerman Telegram, the United States Congress declared war in April of 1917. Four-and-a-half million Americans signed up to fight, including a friend that I later got to know by the name of Frank Buckles, who was 16 when he joined the war in World War I. He lived to the age of 110 and died in 2011. American doughboys like him proved the decisive difference. Just a year after the U.S. was in the war, the war was over on the 11th day of the 11th month at the 11th hour. In all, there were 30 million casualties worldwide, civilian and military. Mr. Speaker, after the war, the United States became an international power. So 114,000 doughboys died over there in the great World War I. When they got home, an equal number died from the Spanish flu that they had contracted when they were in Europe. Mr.…”