The Importance Of Woodrow Wilson For WW I

World War I was the deadliest conflict in human history, causing tens of millions of casualties on all sides. A series of events before, during, and after the U.S. involvement had a major impact on our government’s domestic and international strategies in different ways. Under President Woodrow Wilson, our country remained neutral until 1917 and then entered the war on the side of the Allied powers, including the United Kingdom, France, and Russia. After the conflict, the United States never officially joined the League of Nations and remained isolationism.

For three years, the United States remained neutrality as President Woodrow Wilson opted to keep the country out of the bloodbath happening in Europe. When World War I broke out in July 1914, President Woodrow Wilson called for Americans to be ‘impartial in thought as well as action.’ Wilson did not want to see the war make Americans against one another. Given the distance between the United States and Europe, Americans readily adopted Wilson’s neutral attitude although approximately one-third of American citizens had been born in Europe or were children of European immigrants. However, many Americans chose sides instead of neutrality. Some German Americans in the Midwest and some Irish Americans along the East Coast felt that the Central Powers were supported in their actions. Many Americans had come from Germany or Austria – Hungary. Millions of Irish Americans harbored great grudges over the centuries of Great Britain’s control of their motherland. They hoped that Ireland would gain its independence as Britain became entangled in the war. Many Jewish Americans who had fled Russia to escape the Czarist governments’ murderous pogroms against Jews expected for Russia’s failure. Most Americans, however, sided with Britain and France, both of which had strong historic ties with the United States. Three different positions on the war also formed among Americans. One group, the isolationists, believed that the war was none of America’s business and that the nation should isolate itself from the hostilities. A second group, the interventionists, felt that the war did affect American interests and that the United States should intervene in the conflict on the side of the Allies. A third group, the internationalists, occupied the middle ground. Internationalists, such as President Woodrow Wilson believed that the United States should play an active role in world affairs and work toward achieving a just peace but not enter the war. While U.S. policy remained neutral, both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers used propaganda in an attempt to affect American public belief. German propaganda focused on Russian autocracy and anti-Semitism, which seemed to appeal only to German and Irish-Americans. Britain enjoyed certain advantages in its appeal to Americans, such as a common language and a closely aligned culture. Despite attempts by both the Allied and Central Powers to convince U.S. opinion, President Wilson and the American people remained substantially neutral. However, America’s neutrality was soon examined on what the U.S. considered free international waters. Britain refused to allow American goods to be shipped to Germany and declared all cargo in neutral waters to be contraband. Britain then began seizing U.S. goods. Although Wilson quickly disagreed with this illegal act, he did not act against Great Britain and attempted to maintain a neutral position. American ships going to German ports often found themselves illegally searched and seized, sometimes being held for months. Trade between the United States and Germany fell off sharply between 1914 and 1916. In response to Britain’s tactics, Germany set a submarine war zone around Isles, declaring that they would sink all enemy merchant ships encountered in the area. Wilson responded by declaring that Germany would be held to “strict accountability” if they damaged American ships or citizens. In an attempt to fight with Navy, Germany began to produce a new weapon of war—the U-boat. The strength of the submarine was its ability to strike without warning. During the first months of 1915, German U-boats sunk more than 90 ships. Germany’s attack reached a turning point in May of 1915. Americans reacted in unbelief when a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania, a passenger ship that was traveling from New York to Liverpool, England. Approximately 1,200 persons were killed, including 128 Americans. Germany defended the sinking of the Lusitania by correctly asserting that the ship was transporting a large supply of small-arms ammunition. This fact did little to persuade Americans that Germany was justified. President Woodrow Wilson remained cautious against any action that would lead America into the battle. Germany helped to keep the United States out of the war by finally promising not to destroy any more vessels. However, in 1916, Germany violated that agreement by sinking the defenseless French passenger ship Sussex. Another wind of protest erupted in America. Again, Germany promised not to sink unarmed ships. This agreement, called the Sussex Pledge, would not last long. On January 31, 1917, to end the military stalemate in Europe, Germany announced that it would wage unrestricted warfare against all shipping boats, neutral or aggressive, in the war zone. Although Wilson broke diplomatic relations with Germany, he refused to ask Congress for a declaration of war, arguing that Germany had still not committed any “actual overt acts” that justified a military response. The “overt acts” that would cause America into the war came during the next two months with the sinking of four more unarmed American vessels. At about the same time, newspapers issued a telegram from German Foreign Secretary Arthur Zimmerman that proposed a German-Mexican alliance. In return for supporting Germany, Mexico was to recover Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona territories. This proposed alliance concerned all Americans and was particularly difficult for those living in the southwestern United States. Wilson was forced to admit that the worst-case circumstance for the U.S was coming to reach and continuing to maintain the German threat was no longer an option. The circumstance on land began to swing in favor of the Central Powers. The Allies were weakened by years of combat Russia was torn by revolutions. In March 1917, a moderate, democratic revolution overthrew Czar Nicholas II but kept Russia in the war. In November 1917, radical communists led by Vladimir Lenin staged a revolution and gained control of Russia. Russia stopped fighting in mid-December, and on March 3, 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ended the war between Russia (soon to become the Soviet Union) and Germany. The end of the war on the Eastern Front allowed Germany to send more soldiers to the Western Front. On April 2, 1917, President Wilson asked Congress for permission to enter the war to make the world “safe for democracy”. By April 6th, his decision was passed and the U.S. officially declared war on Germany.

When the United States entered World War I, the U.S. Army was only a small part of the size of European troops. To build the army, President Wilson encouraged Americans to volunteer for service and urged Congress to pass the Selective Service Act. The law, which Congress approved in May 1917, authorized a selection of young men for military service in Europe. In an attempt to unify the nation, the Wilson administration undertook a striking propaganda campaign to sway American opinion toward intervention in the European conflict. The main point of this campaign was the Committee on Public Information, also known as the Creel Committee. Headed by George Creel, a well-known progressive journalist, the committee’s purpose was to sell the American public on the war, to communicate the aims and goals of the Allied Powers, and to discourage the Central Powers in the eyes of Americans.The committee also created and distributed millions of copies of pamphlets, posters, and leaflets exhorting the dangers of the Central Powers. The Food Administration, headed by Herbert Hoover, worked to secure the well being of the nation’s food supply. Hoover sought voluntary compliance for the food administration’s policies. To save food for export, Hoover asked Americans to observe “meatless Tuesdays” and “wheatless Wednesdays” in the name of patriotism. He also asked Americans to plant “victory gardens,” small gardens that sprouted up in backyards and empty lots, to help make Americans less dependent on the national food supply. The Fuel Administration established similar voluntary measures by giving “heatless Mondays” and “gasless Sundays.” During this time of conservation, Congress also limited the use of food materials for manufacturing alcoholic drinks. The exercise of restraint that emerged among residents in response to the war accelerated the prohibition movement, which was already sweeping across the country. The government struggled with how to provide the necessary food and munitions to troops. Wilson found himself unable to build the necessary collaboration between military and civilian agencies. As a result of disorganized and often conflicting information about the amounts of food, munitions, and money required for the war, our government found itself unable to provide troops and the other Allied Powers with much-needed supplies. Wilson placed the responsibility of arranging this valuable information into the help of the War Industries Board (WIB), headed by stock speculator Bernard Baruch. The board was charged with efficiently allocating limited supplies, standardizing the production of war goods, fixing prices, and organizing American and Allied purchasing. To minimize potential labor conflicts that would delay production, and therefore the country’s war efforts, Wilson established the National War Labor Board. The board, chaired by former President William Howard Taft, was charged with keeping order in the nation’s commercial sector by settling disputes between management and workers. The board used its power to strong-arm management into establishing higher wages and eight-hour workdays; however, the board’s most significant contribution was its acceptance of workers’ rights to unionize, which transformed management-labor relationships. Union membership had nearly doubled to three million by the war’s end. Most Americans did not understand the reasons for the war in 1914, and many wondered why the United States became engaged in 1917. It was the duty of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) to educate the public about the causes and nature of the war. The CPI had to persuade Americans that the war effort was a just cause, established powerful anti-German sentiment in the U.S. To console American citizens and to quash the dissenting political opinions of the anti-war factions, the U.S. government established the Espionage Act of 1917. Under this act, anyone convicted of supporting the enemy, obstructing military recruiting, or inciting rebellion in the military was subjected to fines of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to 20 years. Almost one year later, Congress passed the Sedition Act of 1918. To extend the powers of the Espionage Act, the Sedition Act made it illegal to speak against the purchase of war bonds or to “utter, print, write or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous or abusive language” against the U.S. government or the Constitution. These two acts gave the legal justification for almost two thousand prosecutions, many of which involved antiwar Socialists and members of a radical group called the Industrial Workers of the World. Many Americans claimed that the Espionage and Sedition Act violated the Constitution’s First Amendment. The argument was ultimately debated in the Supreme Court in the case of Schenck v. U.S. in 1919. The Supreme Court finally supported the structure and purpose of the Espionage Act. As men entered the armed forces, many women jumped into the workforce for the first time. Women demonstrated that they could succeed in any type of job, regardless of difficulty or risk. By their efforts and sacrifices during the war, women convinced President Wilson to support their suffrage requirements. He contended that granting the vote to women was ‘vital to winning the war.’ If women could do the work of men, they positively deserved the same voting rights as men. Finally, in 1919, Congress established the Nineteenth Amendment giving the vote to women. The required two-thirds of states approved the amendment in the summer of 1920, a victory more than 70 years in the making.

For President Woodrow Wilson, however, the war was not about acquiring and imperialism – it was about peace and freedom. In January 1917 after the war, Wilson had introduced the idea of a ‘peace without victory’ to Congress. In another address to Congress in January 1918, Wilson answered Lenin’s charges about the nature of the conflict by describing America’s war aims in what became known as the Fourteen Points. At the center of the Fourteen Points was his idea of ‘peace without victory.’ Wilson suggested a peace inspired by noble ideals, not greed and revenge. The Fourteen Points attempted to fundamentally change the world by encouraging openness, supporting independence, and maintaining freedom. He asked for a League of Nations to ensure ‘mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike.’ When Wilson left Versailles to return to the United States, he knew that the treaty was not perfect. But he believed that over time the League could fix its problems. He still thought that lasting peace could arise. He tried to convince the U.S. Senate to approve the treaty. But many opposed it because of the League of Nations. Congress felt it would cause us to enter unnecessary wars in Europe. As a result, the Senate never passed the treaty and negotiated the treaties with the Central Powers. As a result, the common tendency was isolationism. Americans voiced resistance in any global involvement that they viewed as not in their national interests. After World War I, the United States wanted “normalcy”, get back to what it does best, get back to economic success, innovation as well as industrial expansion. They elected Republican Warren G. Harding as president. The United States endured many problems following World War I, including race relations, labor, and political radicalism. After World War I, the United States primarily gained influence. The U.S. had been a decisive force in the English and French winning the war and had revealed its large industrial might. It was well-positioned to move out of the shadows and take over the world power from Great Britain. Otherwise, inflation led to workplace strikes. Americans fear a Communist revolution in the U.S. agents arrest 6000 suspected radicals. After the war, the government changed the way they did propaganda in a way that helped them draft soldiers for the military. It also helped raise the spirits of the public during World War II. It gave the public information on ways they could help their country without having to join the military.

The war changed America’s policy in different ways. It redefined women’s rights, races, civil freedoms and America’s position in the world. Along with the huge loss of life, the war had meanings for the U.S. economically, socially and culturally. The war was a spur for the great migration of African Americans, and those who returned from the war, finding inequality intact, demanded civil rights. Besides, the conflict heralded the rise of conscription, mass propaganda, the social security state, and the FBI. It stimulated income tax, urbanization and helped make America the pre-eminent economic and military power in the world. That changed the map of Europe and created numbers of smaller, nationality-based countries out of the Hapsburg ruins, like Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia. Self-determination also established the step for U.S. hatred toward Europe’s colonial empires, with consequences like Britain’s Suez Canal collapse decades later. Wilson knew that naval power was important to American security. He also declared eight words that have been the foundation of all American foreign policy ever since: ‘The world must be made safe for democracy’. It has been the foundation of almost all American foreign policy for the last century.