Editing Charles G. Dawes (section)

==World War I==
[[File:Brig. Gen. C. G. Dawes NARA - 55209476 (cropped 2).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Dawes in uniform, 1918]]
Dawes helped support the first [[Anglo-French Financial Commission|Anglo-French Loan]] to the [[Entente Cordiale|Entente powers]] of $500 million. Dawes's support was important because the [[House of Morgan]] needed public support from a non-Morgan banker. The Morgan banker [[Thomas W. Lamont]] said that Dawes's support would "make a position for him in the banking world such as he otherwise could never hope to make".<ref>[https://mises.org/journals/jls/19_1/19_1_4.pdf ''Merchants of Death Revisited''] [[Mises Institute]] p. 61</ref> (Loans were seen as possibly violating neutrality, and Wilson was still resisting permitting loans.)

During WWI, Dawes was commissioned as a major on June 11, 1917, in the 17th Engineers. He was subsequently promoted to lieutenant colonel (July 17, 1917), and colonel (January 16, 1918). In October 1918, he was promoted to brigadier general.<ref>''The New York Times''.  October 4, 1918.</ref> From August 1917 to August 1919, Dawes served in France during WWI as chairman of the general purchasing board for the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). His proposal to Gen. Pershing was adopted informed the [[Military Board of Allied Supply]], on which he served as the American delegate in 1918. When the war ended in November, he became a member of the Liquidation Commission of the [[United States War Department]]. He was decorated with the [[Distinguished Service Medal (U.S. Army)|Distinguished Service Medal]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://valor.militarytimes.com/recipient.php?recipientid=17453|title=Valor awards for Charles G. Dawes}}</ref> and the French {{Lang|fr|[[Croix de Guerre]]|italic=no}} in recognition of his service. He returned to the US aboard the [[SS Leviathan|SS ''Leviathan'']] in August 1919.<ref>''The New York Times''.  August 7, 1919.</ref> Dawes published a memoir of his World War I service, ''A Journal of the Great War'', 1921.

In February 1921, the U.S. Senate held hearings on war expenditures. During heated testimony, Dawes burst out, "Hell and Maria, we weren't trying to keep a set of books over there, we were trying to win a war!"<ref>{{cite book|last=Dunlap|first=Annette B.|title=Charles Dawes Gates: a Life|page=144}}</ref> He was later known as "Hell and Maria Dawes" (although he always insisted the expression was "Helen Maria", an exclamation he claimed was common in Nebraska).<ref>{{cite web |title=Vice President Dawes |url=https://forbeslibrary.org/blog/2014/06/16/vice-president-dawes/ |website=Forbes Library |access-date=July 12, 2018}}</ref> Dawes resigned from the Army in 1919<ref name="Davis"/> and became a member of the [[American Legion]].