Woodrow Wilson: He Kept Us Out Of War

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president and the current president during World War 1. Wilson played one of the most important roles in the war. Wilson Became the first democratic president elected to a second term since Andrew Jackson when he was reelected. He received 49% of the votes over republican Charles Evan Hughes. What got him the bulk of his votes was his campaign slogan “He kept us out of war”, he was exhausted from the stress and traveling of the campaign.
Nationally many people thought of him as a weak or soft leader because he did not want to enter the war. Wilson tried made every attempt to stay out of the war for 2 years. He believed that “to fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless

brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life”. The U.S was shipping goods and weapons to the Allies over in France even though we had not yet entered the war. So much that by the time the U.S entered the war they were almost depleted from there workers and supplies. This caused some problems of its own. The British, who had the strongest navy, took advantage of it by blocking the ports so German ships could not deliver supplies and ammo to the soldiers. The Germans started sinking all boats around the ports with their U-boats (or submarines). They didn’t care if it was military or civilian boats they shot it down.
What finally made President Wilson give in was the sinking of the Lusitania, a British ocean liner which was at one time the world’s largest passenger ship, carrying 124 Americans. It was sunk by German U-boats after Wilson and Germany agreed to end the blockade if they stopped sinking civilian boats. Wilson was shocked by the attack and after that Wilson asked congress to declare war on Germany in 1917.
Many Americans were pleased that the U.S finally joined the war. But now low on resources and man power the U.S had to fight. In the next months the U.S had built an army of over 4 million and sent 2 million soldiers overseas to France. There was no way Germany could win now after years of fighting France not gaining ground. They were out manned and over powered. The U.S had fresh bodies that hadn’t been lying in trenches for months on end. Wilson called this was a "war to end war."
Former President Roosevelt told Wilson he was coming to talk to him and no matter what Wilson said. He approached the President and proposed to him his idea. Roosevelt wanted to send his old unit called the “rough riders” over to fight. The rough riders were Roosevelt’s unit when he fought in the Spanish-American war. Wilson denied the efforts of Roosevelt’s later on. Wilson did not believe that sending men that were much older than the German soldiers would benefit the U.S.
Word got around the U.S was going to send troops over to fight with France. A telegram send by Arthur Zimmerman, secretary of the German empire, to Mexico was intercepted and reported to the U.S. The telegram read that if the U.S mobilized troops overseas, then Mexico would attack the U.S from the south. In return if Germany won they would give Mexico back three of the territories they had lost to the U.S previously. Modern day New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona would have been returned to Mexico. The telegram was later known as Zimmerman’s Note.
In my opinion Woodrow Wilson was a good leader. He had good war tactics and was able to keep the U.S out of war for almost 3 years.