Case Study

Link Video Transcripts

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