U.S. troops of the 1st Division, the first American troops to land on French soil, parade in St. Nazaire, France, June 26, 1917 during World War I. (AP Photo)

Upcoming events at the University of Kansas Dole Institute of Politics will include Presidential Lecture Series installments on United States involvement in World War I, plus Fort Leavenworth Series events exploring Asian military history.

The Dole Center announced its early spring lineup on Wednesday.

“We are looking forward to beginning the semester with these excellent historical programs,” Dole Institute Director Bill Lacy said in a news release.

Events are free, open to the public and located at the Dole Institute. Find more information, as well as later additions to the spring schedule as they become available, on the Dole Institute’s website, doleinstitute.org.

2017 Presidential Lecture Series: “The U.S. and the Great War: 100 Years Later”

This year’s series coincides with the 100th anniversary of the United States entry into World War I. KU professor emeritus Ted Wilson will facilitate the following four lectures featuring experts on different facets of the war.

• “America’s Road to War,” 7 p.m. Feb. 2. Michael Neiberg, noted scholar and chair of war studies in the Army, will explore the complex paths of politics, economics and cultural divisions that brought America into the war.

• “A Giant with Feet of Clay: The American Military in the Great War,” 7 p.m. Feb. 9. Richard Faulkner, professor with the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, lays out how the American Expeditionary Forces played a pivotal role in the brutal campaigns that led to Germany’s defeat on the battlefield.

• “Americans All: The Homefront in World War I,” 7 p.m. Feb. 16. Noted scholar from Chapman College Jennifer Keene will discuss responses of Americans to the introduction of the draft, economic mobilization, the patriotism crusade and its effects.

• “Boldness and Frailty: Woodrow Wilson’s Fight for the League of Nations,” 7 p.m. Feb. 23. Acclaimed biographer of Woodrow Wilson and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, John Milton Cooper will paint a portrait of Wilson and his transformative leadership. He arguably established a new way of thinking about international relations that, 25 years later, ushered in the United Nations.

2017 Fort Leavenworth Lecture Series: “History for the Military Mind”

Lectures featuring military historians and experts will cover the birth of combined arms during World War I, the rise and decline of Napoleon, withdrawal from Vietnam, the Tet Offensive and more.

• “The Chinese Way of War,” 3 p.m. Feb. 2. Gary Bjorge will examine Chinese military thought from ancient times to present, through the lens of the Huai Hai Campaign, the largest campaign fought by Chinese Communist forces during the Chinese Civil War (1946-49).

• “The Western Way of War,” 3 p.m. March 2. Joseph G.D. Babb explores the role of foreign advisers as well as influence of the western way of war on China and Japan.

• “The Tet Offensive,” 3 p.m. April 6. Marine Corps veteran Wilburn “Bud” Meador Jr., a watch stander at the U.S. Embassy and all USAID posts in Saigon in 1967, shares the story of perhaps the most strategically important struggle of the Vietnam War.

• “Withdrawal from Vietnam,” 3 p.m. May 4. Decorated veteran and Vietnam expert James Wilbanks will explore the U.S. withdrawal and Vietnamization program here.