In the spring of 1917 America’s entry into the war had seemed to many to herald a transnational crusade for liberal republicanism. But by the end of 1917 the hope that Washington had either the capacity or the will to orchestrate such a sweeping campaign had already been shaken. The failure to produce a constructive policy of engagement in China was no doubt in part explicable in terms of racial and cultural prejudice. It would not be until the end of the 1920s that the United States took Chinese nationalism seriously. But this refusal was not confined to China.
