On this day, it's an appropriate time to ask, what was the long-term impact of WWI on the US? In a word, "Immense."

To the state, war is afferent, the centripetal effect that pulls power to the center. WWI established that principle in the US as the national government experimented in top-down economic and political control and became enamored with it. When the next "war" came–the 1930s Great Depression, an antagonist that appeared indestructible–a centrally managed command structure came into being and received only tepid opposition. Apr. 6, 1917 opened the way for the New Deal.

The Blue Eagle

The course of the journey is traced in the 1935 book The Blue Eagle From Egg to Earth by Gen. Hugh S. Johnson. It is an autobiographical work rather than a historical examination, but Johnson was in the center of developments from war to war and presents a revealing perspective. In 1933 he was named administrator of the New Deal's National Recovery Administration (NRA), a grandiose attempt to revive the economy that employed a "Blue Eagle" logo as a propaganda tool.