USA and the Soča Front

The Interpretation of the New York Times and the London Times

Abstract

The special correspondents of The Times -London and the New York Times, G. Ward Price and Perceval Gibbon, followed the events at the 121h Soča Front in the end of October 1917, reported on the offensive of the Austrian and German troops at Kobarid and on the utter defeat of the Italian army which followed. Thomas Nelson Page, the American ambassador in Rome, also reported to the US administration in great detail on the events at the Italian battlefield. The analysis of his reports showed that both correspondents reported fully and in a timely fashion about the conditions at the front, but despite that they would periodically fall for false and far too optimistic information they got from the senior Italian general staff officers. The internal reports that Page sent to the administration in Washington were realistic. Both major newspapers would also periodically publish extensive analyses of the military situation, prepared by the unnamed military analysts in London and Washington or New York. These analyses corresponded to the actual situation. Namely, the military analysts also very objectively predicted the progress of the offensive. They were of the opinion that if the Italian army struck through the Karst region before the German-Austrian offensive, they could have invaded the very autre of the monarchy. In this case the Slovenian territory would turn into one big battleground.