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HIST 112 US 1877- present Chapter 20 Part 2 U.S. Involvement in World War I — Transcript

by History Class with Dr. W · 1,864 words · 360 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:01[Music]
0:12it was not always easy
0:14for the united states to maintain its
0:16neutrality
0:17and there were a number of episodes that
0:19pushed wilson nearly to the brink
0:22of declaring war there were difficulties
0:25honestly with both sides in this war the
0:28british
0:28were not thrilled that the united states
0:31did not join them
0:32immediately and support their side in
0:34the war
0:35and they weren't thrilled that the
0:36united states was trading goods with the
0:39other side
0:40there were several incidents in which
0:42british naval forces
0:44stopped american ships they enforced a
0:46blockade
0:48in the northern atlantic that ensnared
0:50american ships
0:51at times and yet it was
0:55with germany that american interests
0:58really
0:58broke the british may have occasionally
1:01stopped
1:02american ships and caused a little bit
1:03of trouble for american merchants
1:06the germans on the other hand were
1:08engaged in
1:09unrestricted submarine warfare again
1:12this was a
1:13relatively new technological development
1:16we've seen
1:17uh submarines in one form or fashion all
1:20the way back to the civil war but
1:22by world war one they were capable of
1:25cruising in the
1:26the high seas and and the oceans with
1:29some
1:29uh effectiveness and unrestricted
1:32submarine warfare simply means that the
1:35germans
1:36felt free to sink any and all ships
1:39that they thought might be aiding and
1:41betting
1:42their enemies and so this led to a
1:45number of american ships
1:46being sunk by german submarines
1:51americans found this kind of warfare
1:54barbaric uh you might think back to some
1:57of the earlier wars
1:59in uh world and american history you
2:01think back to the revolutionary war and
2:04uh soldiers would sort of line up
2:05against each other in the open
2:07and may the best side win now in part
2:10it was the american willingness to
2:13engage in guerrilla warfare
2:16that broke with those traditions that
2:17helped to win that war
2:20but this was something that had not been
2:23seen
2:23before the sneakiness the deviousness
2:26of those german submarines lurking
2:29beneath the surface
2:30unseen and then rising to the surface
2:33only quick enough to launch an attack
2:35and send a torpedo at its enemy
2:37and then going back under the water it
2:39was a very uh sneaky and devious way to
2:42wage a war
2:44and many americans turned against the
2:47germans for
2:48their willingness to fight this way
2:52but it was one attack in particular the
2:54attack
2:55on the british luxury liner the
2:58lusitania
2:59which occurred in may of 1915
3:03that really turned the opinions of many
3:06americans
3:06against the germans the lusitania was
3:11the fastest and most glamorous luxury
3:13liner
3:14of its era and this was a british luxury
3:18ship it had
3:19cruised across the atlantic a couple of
3:21times and
3:22on this particular voyage was sailing
3:24from new york
3:25back to england there was a lot of
3:29concern
3:30about sailing on the high seas at this
3:33time
3:33the uh germans had made it publicly
3:36known that they were
3:38engaged in unrestricted uh submarine
3:41warfare and they would sink any ship
3:43that they thought
3:44they needed to in fact passengers
3:48who boarded the lusitania would have
3:51been hard-pressed to avoid
3:53warnings and notices much like the one
3:55you see there
3:56on your screen and i'm certain
3:59that many of the passengers on the
4:01lusitania or other ships would have
4:04felt very uneasy about traveling the
4:06seas
4:07at that time nonetheless most people
4:10would have found it hard to believe
4:12that the germans could sink such a
4:14prominent
4:15luxury liner as this
4:18and yet uh a german u-boat
4:22captain or submarine captain spotted the
4:24lusitania just as it was approaching the
4:26english channel
4:28and put a torpedo into its side
4:32the lusitania went down in the seas
4:35and about 1200
4:38passengers were killed in this attack
4:40and you see the
4:42dramatic rendering of what this attack
4:44might have looked like
4:46there in the picture at the bottom among
4:49those killed were 128 americans
4:53as well and you can imagine the outcry
4:57that this uh created in the united
5:00states
5:00and just consider if something like this
5:02were to happen today
5:04uh any foreign nation attacking uh an
5:07airplane or a ship or something with 128
5:10americans killed
5:11there would have been a great call for
5:14an american response and there was at
5:18that time as well
5:19and woodrow wilson was feeling pressure
5:21from the american people
5:23to declare war against germany at that
5:25time and i think
5:26this is perhaps the key moment when we
5:29look back to wilson's
5:30um childhood his experience with the
5:33civil war
5:34and simply the thought that
5:38war is such a horrible thing he did not
5:41want
5:41to get the united states tangled up in
5:44this war
5:47but there's more to be said about the
5:49lusitania as well
5:50and that is that the germans knew that
5:53secretly
5:54below the hold below decks the lusitania
5:57was in fact
5:58carrying ammunition and war supplies
6:02for the british it was carrying war
6:05goods and the germans had intelligence
6:07uh indicating that the lusitania was
6:10loaded up
6:11with these wartime goods and so that now
6:15the
6:15the public was not aware of this at that
6:17time so this is kind of a debate
6:19and discussion among historians looking
6:21back with this knowledge
6:23uh it adds a layer to the discussion
6:26were the germans justified
6:29in sinking what appeared to be an
6:31innocent luxury line or a cruise ship
6:34that in fact was carrying war goods
6:37to the other side and this is a debate
6:39that has gripped
6:41historians from then to now
6:44wondering whether the british and the
6:46americans hadn't made a
6:48terrible mistake in their own right by
6:50putting that ammunition
6:52on board in the
6:55immediate context however the lusitania
6:58did have
6:59one very dramatic effect at that time
7:02and that is that it swung almost
7:05unanimously
7:06the american uh public opinion in
7:09support of the british even though they
7:11don't
7:11they don't know about the ammunition
7:13that was below the decks
7:15the germans at this point are viewed as
7:18just an
7:19unconscionable evil devious enemy
7:22and american opinion now swings around
7:26in support of the british
7:27even if we remain neutral
7:30after the attack on the lusitania
7:36the following year woodrow wilson was
7:39re-elected as president in the
7:411916 presidential election
7:45his platform was based largely on the
7:48idea that he had kept
7:50the united states out of war and as you
7:53see
7:53in the picture here a campaign truck
7:57for woodrow wilson during the 1916
8:00presidential campaign
8:02and you see several of the references to
8:05the idea that wilson maintained
8:07neutrality and kept us out of the war
8:09in fact one of the statements there who
8:11keeps us out of war
8:14and again it in some ways it might have
8:15been an easy choice
8:17to join the war after the attack on the
8:19lusitania
8:22but wilson didn't and so he wins
8:23re-election on this
8:25platform the idea that the united states
8:27is is going to remain neutral and going
8:30to remain out of the war
8:31and yet even at that time woodrow wilson
8:34privately complained
8:36to the secretary of the navy he said i
8:39can't keep this country out of war
8:41they talk of me as though i were a god
8:43any little
8:44german lieutenant can put us into the
8:46war at any time
8:48by some calculated outrage
8:51and so he seems to be referencing here
8:54an attack like the lusitania another
8:56attack like this
8:58and it would have been impossible for
8:59the united states to
9:01remain neutral
9:05and so wilson wins re-election in 1916
9:09based largely on this promise to keep
9:11america out of the war
9:13and yet it is less than six months later
9:16that the united states in fact did
9:19declare war
9:20april of 1917.
9:23so what happened within this space of
9:26just a couple of months
9:27that completely changed wilson and
9:30america's stance
9:32on neutrality well a number of important
9:35developments
9:36in the war itself one of which is the
9:39crumbling of
9:41russia and we will come back and and
9:44talk more about
9:45the russian revolution uh at a later
9:49juncture but it's in the midst of world
9:51war one that russia
9:53essentially crumbled unto itself uh and
9:56fell
9:56into revolution and so russia abandoned
10:00the war and so now the germans were no
10:02longer fighting the
10:04two-front war that they had been engaged
10:06in before
10:08and so the germans decided to make one
10:10last
10:11attempt to win the war quickly they
10:14resumed
10:16their unrestricted submarine warfare
10:19in february of 1917 and
10:22once again began to occasionally ensnare
10:26american shipping in the process of
10:29attacking
10:30almost everything on the high seas
10:33now the germans understood that a policy
10:36like this
10:37might bring the united states into the
10:39war and so they were taking
10:41something of a calculated gamble here
10:45their thought was even if the united
10:48states grew so
10:49outraged that they decided to declare
10:51war that it would take
10:53several months perhaps six months or
10:55more before the united states could
10:57raise an
10:58army muster troops train them
11:01get all of the weaponry prepared to
11:04really make an impact in the war and so
11:08while we know in hindsight that this
11:11gamble
11:11did not work out for the germans we can
11:14also see that in some ways it it's a
11:16logical
11:17and perhaps reasonable risk that they
11:19were taking to try to end the war
11:22because it would take the united states
11:25several months
11:26to really make an impact on the war
11:30another event that occurs in this time
11:33that uh helped to push the united states
11:36into the war
11:37was known as the zimmermann telegram
11:40and this was a letter that was
11:42intercepted by
11:44uh actually british intelligence in
11:47february of 1917 february 24th
11:51of 1917. this was a letter that was sent
11:55from a man named zimmerman who was the
11:57german foreign minister
11:59to his emissary in mexico and so oddly
12:03enough this is a letter from the germans
12:05to the mexicans and what zimmerman
12:08suggested in this letter
12:10was that if mexico joined the war effort
12:13against the united states
12:15that the germans would help mexico
12:17regain the territories
12:19that they had lost to the united states
12:21in the mexican-american war this is back
12:23in the 1840s
12:25and so places like arizona and new
12:28mexico
12:28and parts of california would actually
12:30be given back
12:32to the mexicans this letter was
12:35intercepted by british intelligence and
12:38it was released to the media
12:41and created a bombshell
12:44in the press the american people were
12:47outraged by this
12:48and again it's further evidence of the
12:51depths
12:52that the germans were willing to sink in
12:54order to
12:55win this war the unrestricted submarine
12:59warfare
13:00the zimmermann telegram the perhaps
13:03gloomy
13:04prognosis on the fate of britain and
13:07france as the war continued
13:09these are all things that eventually
13:12forced
13:12the united states into the war and on
13:15april
13:166 1917 wilson
13:19read his war message uh before congress
13:22declaring war
13:23on germany his speech was met with
13:27thunderous
13:27applause and yet as he left the stage
13:30woodrow wilson
13:32uh was heard to say don't they
13:34understand
13:35they've just asked me to send american
13:37men to die
13:49[Music]
13:59you

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