Introduction The Second Greatest Fourth

Abstract

the morning of the fourth of july, 1918, dawned overcast in paris, with a threat of rain that could spoil the elaborate schedule of ceremonies planned for the day.¹ Raymond Poincaré, the president of France, had sent a formal greeting to Woodrow Wilson proclaiming that America’s Independence Day would for that year become a day of national celebration in France as well. Later in the morning, in what might have been taken as a metaphor for the Allies’ military progress during the previous six months, the sky cleared.