Morale in the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I

This dissertation examines the morale of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I to determine its competence. When examining morale military psychologists cite the importance of three factors: cohesion, esprit de corps, and biological and psychological needs such as health, rest, and nutrition. Morale, however, has more to it than the battlefield determinants, particularly in World War I. Societal values also played a key role. Officers and soldiers came into the army with idealistic and romantic expectations of war and service. Those expectations were particularly strong because the army used conscription without sufficient training to overcome prewar perceptions.;This dissertation attempts to answer the question: how was the morale of the AEF? The morale of the AEF was poor. Most of this dissertation examines the causes for poor morale. Chapter 2 discusses the AEF's poor unit cohesion caused by a host of different factors. Chapters 3 and 4 describe the poor relations among officers caused by the rift between citizen-officers and professionals that contributed to poor officer leadership. Chapters 5 and 6 discuss the poor health of the AEF and the problems the medical system had in dealing with casualties. Finally, Chapter 7 describes the AEF's poor condition in the Fall of 1918, when it tried to launch the largest offensive in American history.;This dissertation also describes the effect of poor morale on the AEF. Poor morale served as both an indicator of inferior battlefield performance and a factor in the Americans' tactical problems. The sorry state of the AEF in November, 1918 would probably have precluded it from continuing to fight into Germany in 1919. That is why studying morale is important. It provides an evaluation of an army at the tactical level by assessing more than just tactics. In the case of the AEF, poor morale was a cause and a symptom of tactical ineffectiveness.