Case Study
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the United States must be neutral in fact.
00:10As well as a name.
During these days that try men's souls as the war began President Woodrow Wilson was
00:20determined to maintain a position of neutrality in
00:25the conflict and American tradition
dating back to the founding fathers the neutrality would
00:30not be easy but it did offer
00:35certain advantages Jefferson talked
about fattening on the falling phase of the Old World at while
00:40a fight we get rich from selling all of them
things and that's that's the way the United States thought at this time
00:45within a few weeks the beginning of the war it became clear
00:50that this was going to be a glittering opportunity for the United States economically.
00:55First of all those people who exported to Europe particularly
01:00in foodstuffs and cotton which can be used for gunpowder incidentally.
01:05Suddenly and found the prices of their products going out in the American economy
01:10is moving up rapidly and this is likely to
01:15continue provided Britain and France are going to go on buying.
01:20But there was a problem they were running out of money
and Woodrow Wilson had the problem of wrestling with that
01:25knowing of course that he was getting deeper and deeper into
01:30a strong association with Britain or France or the economy was at stake.
01:35Consequently there was a steady flow of American credit.
01:40Going towards Britain France putting in question really the issue of impartiality.
01:45A number of other factors also made it difficult for the United States to remain neutral.
01:50First of all geography in Britain and the United States are
01:55linked by the Atlantic Secondly the British had command of the seas.
02:00Or at least the surface supersedes and therefore they were able
02:05to make their will felt by controlling commerce on the Atlantic.
02:10At least until the subarrays got Gary and then this is the whole question
02:15of the prior relationship of America and Britain geo
02:20politics geography ethnic solidarity with all these things
somehow seem to push the United States towards becoming a kind of silent partner of
02:30Britain and France during the war it's difficult to remain neutral because
02:35neutrality works only as long as
the nations at war the belligerents are prepared to respected.
02:45All the waters surrounding Great Britain and Ireland.
Including the whole of the British channel are hereby declared to be
02:50a war zone nothing would influence American policy so heavily as German submarines.
03:00When Germany declared open submarine warfare in
the waters off Great Britain Wilson insisted upon
03:05defending the right of US citizens to travel safely to Europe the issue exploded.
03:10When the German submarine sank
03:15the British liner lucid Taenia nearly 1200 lives were lost.
03:20Including 128 Americans it had a huge effect it was the first time that World War One
03:30this really came home to the United States and I think that
Americans had the feeling that this war could impact them and
03:35could impact them directly Theodore Roosevelt wanted the United States to declare
03:40war on the strength of this at the same time
03:45Brian the sector state wanted a soft response.
03:50Recognizing that if the United States took
03:55a very hard line that this might have
the effect of Eventually leading the United States into
04:00war Wilson insisted in the end on forcing
the German government who were reluctant to do this to apologize and offer all sorts
04:10of arrangements that were going to make the C safer in future for
04:15passengers wanting to travel on the stump in 1916
04:20Wilson touted his record keeping America out of the war but
04:25soon after his reelection events would combine to make continued neutrality
impossible if success backwards we must follow in early one 1917 again declared
04:35unrestricted submarine warfare that they were getting quite
04:40desperate the British blockade was really biting on Germany by
04:45early 1970 There was a shortage of food vital resources and so I
04:55think one one understand from the German point point view the sense of
05:00having to do something decisive in this first first they took.
05:05Then in February one 1917
05:10foreign secretary Arthur Zimmerman sent a secret telegram to Mexicoproposing
05:15an alliance against the United States in the event of
war and of course there's a long history of U.S.-Mexican antagonism.
05:20So in a way to the European mind where it seemed
05:25our needs sensible and logical take advantage of this but it was of
05:30course an intimate piece of diplomacy and it really
05:35was foolish because there was no way that the Mexican government of
that day was going to ally itself with Imperial Germany against
05:40the United States amid further calls for war Wilson severed diplomatic relations with
05:45Germany after German submarines sank
05:50five American vessels wilson asked Congress to declare a war to make the world safe for
05:55democracy I think he has concluded by this time that
06:00he and the United States must influence the outcome of this war
06:05that it must be a piece that's based on American like
06:10principles not old-style European power politics that have
demonstrated their depravities and this conflict and so as
06:15Wilson's feeling that that the United States must play a role that he must play a role
06:20and that the only way they can do this is as a belligerent not as
06:25an introduction that day has come when America is
06:30privilege just spend her blood and might for the principles that gave birth and
06:40happiness and the peace which she has treasured God helping her she can do no other