4/4/2007

America enters ‘The war to end all wars’
By Robert Adair

On April 6, 1917 the U.S. House of Representatives endorsed the declaration of war against Germany, passed by the Senate two days earlier.  The United States was now an active participant in World War I.  For over three years President Woodrow Wilson had tried to keep America out of the conflict and made every effort to find a peaceful alternative.

In order to explain the entry of the U.S. into World War I in a short article it is necessary to remain within stringent parameters; however, the real challenge lies in briefly identifying the major linkages that comprised the underpinnings of the event.  When the subject is presented in a history course, terms such as Triple Entente, Triple Alliance, the Allies, the Central Powers, etc. seem to be the key points. 

In those classes it appeared easy to identify the causes of the war.  An assassin killed Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife in June 1914.  The Austria-Hungary Foreign Minister, among others, blamed the murders on Serbia.  Not much time was spent on whether the Serbs were guilty or on the complex background surrounding the relationships of the Austria-Hungary, Serbian and Russian interests in the region. 

A period of "quiet" that followed the murders caused some nations to believe that a peaceful settlement was possible.  Closer scrutiny of the period shows that the quiet time was actually the lull before the storm.  Countries were aligning themselves in accordance with previous agreements and along perceived requirements of national interests.  Germany's support of Austria-Hungary's plan to issue an absurd ultimatum to Serbia, Russia's threat to mobilize if anyone moved against the Serbians, France's refusal to accede to Germany's demand to declare neutrality, allowing the Germans to occupy Verdun as proof of their declaration, were all taking place behind the scenes.

A cataclysmic chain of events was set into motion that fateful August 1914.  Even today scholars have differing views about the one or two single factors that lit the fuse.  The cold hard fact is, regardless of who tipped the scale, military mobilization was ordered, and with the way the nations had instituted mobilization procedures, there was no way of stopping once it was launched.  Today, nations like the U.S. have levels of readiness, stages of preparedness to meet contingencies that can be elevated or reduced on the order of the Commander-in-Chief.  The European system started with the call up of units, reserves and conscripts and it ended with the execution of the attack.

This system of mobilization had its origin in the mid 1880s as the various European nations experimented with ways to prevent being surprised and caught off guard. According to Barbara Tuchman in "The Guns of August," the concept of mobilization was based on fallacious tenets: economics, military stockpiles and the very nature of European life would not allow for a long, protracted war, so this meant all wars would be of short duration, maybe three to four months at most.  

It was an awesome task that befell President Wilson and his administration to keep the U.S. out of that conflict for almost three long years.  This was made difficult for many reasons.  The U.S. was now a world trading power.  It provided food, raw material and industrial machinery of all kinds to every nation in Europe.  Furthermore, although the government leaned toward the side that Britain took, there were thousands of relatives and descendents from the Central Powers countries who had to be considered.

Additionally, this world trader status made the government pay a great deal of attention to international law and the rights of nations at sea.  In fact it is within this venue that the U.S. finally took part in the war.  As the war continued on many fronts, all involved began to look for ways of reducing the other's capacity to wage war.  Various goods were declared contraband, and both the Allies and the Central Powers began to halt and board shipping on the high seas.  Each time an incident occurred, the United States government would complain vehemently, until the next occurrence.  No one incident was worth going to war over.

Early in the war President Wilson had offered his services to all the belligerents.  One of his first efforts was to convince the British to sign the Treaty of London, but after a long series of notes back and forth the British declined and their practice of visit and search at sea would continue.

Then the Lusitania was sunk by German submarines on May 7, 1915 with 128 Americans on board.  Though America did not enter the war until April 1917, the incident played a major role in the slow, inevitable slide into the conflict.  President Wilson sent a strong protest asking the Germans to disavow the submarine commander, make reparations for those lost and to pledge that German submarines would not attack passenger liners or merchantmen in the future.  After several attempts to secure these demands, the U.S. contented itself with the fact that it appeared the Germans were not attacking passenger-carrying ships.

On August 19, 1915 the British liner Arabic was sunk with Americans aboard.  The Germans disavowed the incident, however, they offered an indemnity and gave orders to their submarines to follow international law.

Then came a twist of irony.  The Allies had begun the practice of fitting merchantmen with large caliber guns on the deck to be used against anyone attempting to stop them.  The Germans complained that such a move put their submarines at risk since they had to surface to search the ships for contraband.  President Wilson asked the Allies, especially Britain, to cease its practice because it would endanger all merchantmen. His request was ignored.

Several more initiatives on the part of President Wilson to bring about peace failed in 1916 and early 1917.  He realized the necessity of approving funds to modernize the naval forces and took the necessary steps to begin preparation of U.S. military assets, should all else fail.  And it did.

President Wilson gained re-election in 1916 on the slogan; "He kept us out of war."  Hindsight would have allowed them to add, "but not for long."  The president formulated a diplomatic note to both belligerents, asking them to let him know what they would require in order to end the war.  The response from the German government was not encouraging.  Moreover, on January 31, Germany suddenly announced that beginning the next day, submarines would attack any and all shipping in the earlier-defined war zone.  The British liner Laconia with Americans on board was torpedoed on February 25 and several American vessels were sunk.

On April 2, 1917 President Wilson went to Congress with a request for a declaration of war, saying the nation would fight, "for the ultimate peace of the world and the liberation of its peoples, the German peoples included; for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience.  The world must be made safe for democracy."


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