Neutrality In WW1

“Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic governments backed by organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, not by the will of their people. “ President Woodrow Wilson spoke these words to set the tone for the war his country was going to fight in. Wilson had to make this speech for justify his reasoning to enter the current war that was ongoing in Europe. He knew that entering the war would be a the complete opposite of what he campaigned for in his second presidential campaign in 1916. He promised to stay out of the war, and to focus on the issues happening in America, but
Originally in 1916, Wilson had run for reelection as president on the motto, "He kept us out of war." But advocates of military preparedness argued that the country needed to get ready for eventual involvement in the war. President Wilson then sought to use American might and idealism to alter the war aims of the Allies, by making U.S. intervention based on a "war to make the world safe for democracy." On 2nd of April 1917, Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war and four days later all but six senators and fifty representatives voted for a war resolution. The Selective Service Act that was passed the following month, along with an extraordinary number of volunteers, built up the army from less than 250,000 to four million over the course of the conflict. The biggest problem the Wilson administration faced was the threat of German submarine warfare. In February 1915, the German government, in consultation with its military leaders, decided to use submarines to wage economic warfare. On May 7, 1915, the British luxury liner Lusitania was sunk without warning by the German submarine U-20. In all, 1,198 passengers died, including 128 Americans. Wilson issued a strong warning to Germany in a series of diplomatic notes. When speaking regarding the actions the United States will take against the U-Boats in the Pacific, Wilson stated, “Therefore there may at any moment come a time when I cannot preserve both the honor and the peace of the United States. Do not exact of me an impossible and contradictory thing.” In February 1917, British intelligence gave the United States government a decoded telegram from Germany that had been intercepted en route to Mexico. Zimmerman Telegram authorized the ambassador to offer Mexico the portions of the Southwest it had lost to the United States in the 1840s if it joined the Central Powers. Wilson did not publicize the interception of the