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What American Soldiers Really Faced in WWI (Part 2) — The Wars History Erased. The armistice ended the combat. But for American soldiers, the war was far from over.

Part 1 covered the combat horror. Part 2 reveals the wars history deliberately forgot—truths systematically erased because they complicated victory narratives.

This story reveals the wars history erased: 350,000 Black soldiers who fought with distinction returned to lynchings and the Red Summer of 1919. More American soldiers died of influenza (63,000) than combat (53,000)—a pandemic the military suppressed. 200,000 troops endured months of purposeless occupation in Germany while families waited. Veterans came home to a nation that celebrated a war that didn't happen, carrying trauma with no name and no treatment. When 43,000 desperate veterans marched on Washington in 1932 demanding promised bonuses, their own military attacked them with tanks and tear gas. These truths were systematically erased because they complicated the victory narrative.

Chapters:

00:00 Intro
03:10 The Other Wars
14:05 The Spanish Flu
23:31 The Occupation and Long Wait Home
30:33 The Return and The Silence
41:38 The Letters We Almost Lost

📽️ WATCH PART 1:    • What American Soldiers Really Faced in WWI...  

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📚 SOURCES:
This documentary draws from the same archival foundation as Part 1, with additional focus on specific topics:

PRIMARY ARCHIVES:
National Archives and Records Administration
Veterans History Project, Library of Congress
State historical societies and university archives

KEY SCHOLARLY WORKS:
Faulkner, Richard S. "Pershing's Crusaders" (2017)
Keene, Jennifer D. "Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America" (2001)
Kennedy, David M. "Over Here: The First World War and American Society" (1980)

ADDITIONAL SOURCES FOR PART 2:
Sammons, Jeffrey T. and John H. Morrow Jr. "Harlem's Rattlers and the Great War: The Undaunted 369th Regiment and the African American Quest for Equality" (2014)
Barbeau, Arthur E. and Florette Henri. "The Unknown Soldiers: Black American Troops in World War I" (1974)
Grotelueschen, Mark Ethan. "The AEF Way of War" (2007)

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