Page - 800 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

800 The Pyrrhic Victory : The Breakthrough Battle of Flitsch-Tolmein troops : ‘Auch 5.000 Mann unter amerikanischer Flagge hätten sofort bedeutende Aus- wirkungen.’1873 In Washington, the idea began to take hold. The crisis among the Allies in the late autumn of 1917 led to President Wilson in- creasingly taking on the role as spokesman of the enemies of the Central Powers. This situation also caused Wilson to abandon his initial refusal, and to agree that the USA should also be represented in the Allied Supreme War Council. He sent his personal confidante, Colonel Edward Mandell House, to the conference in Paris in Novem- ber.1874 The Italian ambassador in Washington, Macchi di Cellere, telephoned Secretary of State Lansing almost every day in order to ask whether the USA had finally also de- clared war on Austria-Hungary. The French government, which was at that time in crisis following the resignation of the Painlevé Cabinet on 15 November, also began to put pressure on the Americans to declare war on the Danube Monarchy. The former American President, Theodore Roosevelt, began a high profile campaign in the USA, in which he demanded that his country enter the war against Austria-Hungary. In this regard, a step had anyway already been taken, since Wilson’s decision to actively participate in the Supreme War Council of the Allies meant that the USA wished to be involved in the coordination of the Allied troops, and not only against the Ger- man Empire, but also against its allies, in particular Austria-Hungary. Roosevelt wrote a leading article, in which he claimed that the USA was supplying money, coal and ammunition to Italy in order to enable it to wage war against Austria. ‘Wenn wir mit Österreich wirklich noch Frieden haben, verletzen wir unsere Pflichten als Neutraler in flagranter Weise und sollten dafür von einem internationalen Gerichtshof verurteilt werden.’ However, he went on, if the USA were already at war, then they had made a cardinal error by only dealing a soft blow. ‘Hätten wir zum Zeitpunkt des Bruchs mit Deutschland auch Österreich-Ungarn den Krieg erklärt und entsprechende Maßnah- men gesetzt, hätte es das Desaster für Cadorna wahrscheinlich nicht gegeben.’1875 A widespread campaign against Austria-Hungary was begun in the USA, in which it was accused of having established a vast espionage network and of acts of sabotage.1876 The accusations were unfounded, and there was no organised intelligence activity, but this was of no interest in the general war hysteria, which needed its victims. However, the Americans faced significant problems in revising their policy towards Austria-Hungary, since Wilson had still stated  – upon declaring war against the Ger- man Empire  – that the allies of Germany had taken no hostile action against the USA. Since then, the Austrians had consistently been at pains not to provide the USA with a pretext for opening hostilities. Furthermore, there were individuals and groups in America who repeatedly spoke out against a blanket judgement of Austria-Hungary. They also made attempts to counter the Czech propaganda, which called for the de- struction of the Monarchy. The leader of the Czech émigré groups, Tomáš G. Masaryk,