The US enters the war in 1915.....

Dam I had an inkling that they would be bad, it would put World War One on par or worse than any other conflict the US has ever had in your worse case.

The US got off fantastically lucky for casualties OTL, if they had to deal with the same grinding attrition of the other Entente armies it would be a bloody affair indeed.

I think if the US enters 2 years early instead of merely making up for the Russians withdrawing, they'd speed up the war by a lot more than 1 year. They might be able to wrap it up by Christmas 1916, before Russians had any thoughts of revolution.

Not so much. As others, and myself, have pointed out, despite the size it had a small army and virtually no one with combat experience or a mass pool of reserves and artillery. It was not yet the 'Arsenal of Democracy' of 1941-45. However, doughboys stop a bullet as well as anyone else.

If TR makes some movement towards preparedness in 1914 maybe they can move faster than OTL and really get into the fight in 1916. However, I don't think that they'd have the same impact until 1917, which still probably neuters the German plans for an extreme victory offensive and the Germans fall back to the old German border to defend the homeland.
 
Did the reluctance to fight have anything much to do with preparedness or lack of it? Most Americans just didn't see the European war as their business, and that didn't significantly change until Germany declared open season on American shipping.

I think it must have been a factor but I don't know how big. The preparedness controversy was going on in 1915 which gained traction among many important people mainly in the northeast. While it failed it likely did so due to the nature of the proposals rather than an opposition to the US being more prepared. Despite the failure of the special proposals others replaced them in the months following that were supported politically and signed into law. In addition a lot of small detail improvement was undertaken in 1915, which further makes me believe that the US wasn't supportive of the military as long is it was done in a certain way.

As for the link between preparedness and willingness for war but I don't find it surprising that the US declared war at the height of their military power since 1898. I can't imagine them being quite so keen if they hadn't sorted out their preparedness and mobilised and exercised their entire army, NG and all.
 
in my opinion I think American casualties will be at least over what we had World War 2 Theodore Roosevelt will also be seen in a different light. and will not be as popular in my belief compared to are timeline.
 
in my opinion I think American casualties will be at least over what we had World War 2 Theodore Roosevelt will also be seen in a different light. and will not be as popular in my belief compared to are timeline.

I suspect this would be true in almost any "comeback" scenario.

If it's 1912, he has regained the Presidency by tearing the GOP in half, so will face a Congress dominated by Democrats and anti-TR Republicans. Add to this that his bellicose stance on WW1 will horrify even quite a few Progressives, and this presidency is unlikely to be a success. If OTOH he simply lives longer and returns in 1920, he does so at a time when the Democrats are so weak that the GOP probably can still win even should there be a second Bull Moose revolt. IOW he will need the party more than the party needs him, so is unlikely to be able to push Progressive measures through, with the party hostile and the public indifferent. Either way his second presidency will be a pale shadow of the first, achieving far less.

For my money, TR made his bed when he promised not to run in 1908. He could have gotten away with it then. But after his departure, any subsequent "comeback" would have been just a huge anticlimax. All in all, perhaps he was lucky that it didn't happen, so that he could be remembered for his successful presidency of 1901-09.
 
One thing the US can do is ramp up it's industry and farming. In OTL, they got caught rather short on both when they entered the war (spring planting had to be vastly increased, as one example). Still, as others have pointed out, there aren't going to be any troops over there for a while... you can rush training only so much...
 
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