Wilson's Neutrality

Historians argue about whether or not the United States should have been involved in world war one and in particular, whether we should have gone to war against Germany. The entrance of the United States into the war not only helped liberated allied countries like France, and prevent a German takeover over Europe, it ultimately won the war for the allies. The reasons that warranted an entrance by the United States into the war were not only right but they were also very justified. “On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson went before a joint session of Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany.” He uttered the following: “WHEREAS, The Imperial German Government has committed repeated acts of war against the

But the United States went to war because of a telegram which was intercepted by a nation (Britain) that needed its help in the war. In a challenge to Wilson’s Neutrality, Robert Tucker states in his book called Woodrow Wilson and the Great War: reconsidering America’s neutrality, 194-1917 that: he did maintain neutrality in thought but supported a system in which American action was not neutral. American neutrality, "in action," created a de facto Anglo-American blockade in respect to Germany. Drawing largely on Wilson's papers and those of his close advisor House as well as Lansing, the secretary of state, Tucker argues that Wilson did remain neutral in heart. On this point, it seems that the portrait of the president does not quite fit Tucker's evidence. The documents point to evidence of Wilson's own self-deception. While Wilson certainly did believe he was neutral, he had a long-standing well-documented bias in favor of Britain and against Germany. Wilson was predisposed to be an Anglophile. He admired British political institutions. His Presbyterianism came from the British Isles. His mother had been born in Britain. Before becoming president he often took his holidays in Britain. His view of Britain caused him to interpret information in a way that favored British interests and penalized Germany, even as the war progressed and he grew irritated at British violations of American neutrality. He referred to his ambassador to Germany, James Gerard, as "an ass" in the margin of a dispatch passed on to his future wife Edith Galt. He told his friend, House, in 1914 that the Kaiser had built a war machine and then lit the fuse. He referred to the Germans as "selfish and unspiritual" in conversations with House in