Committing troops to Europe would require full military mobilization: diverting industries to wartime production and boosting U.S. entry into the war but risks escalating tensions that could draw the United States into a more costly exchange.ĭeclare war on Germany and enter the war on the side of the Allied powers. investments without requiring full mobilization for war. Take offensive actions short of war by launching small-scale retaliations at German submarines or calculated acts of sabotage in Mexico.This option allows the United States to seek retribution for German aggression and protect U.S. shipping, and does nothing to incite an attack from Mexico. This option requires the fewest resources, focuses primarily on domestic U.S. interests at home and abroad temporarily but would not altogether deter aggression, leaving the United States to face many more attacks. merchant ships crossing the Atlantic.This option could protect U.S. Strengthen defensive measures but remain neutral, including by reinforcing the U.S.-Mexico border and arming U.S. shipping and the risks of hostility with Mexico, weighing these against the considerable risks and costs of entering the war.Ĭabinet members should consider the following policy options: Cabinet members will need to evaluate the threat posed by the telegram to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson has convened his cabinet to decide whether and how to maintain neutrality, or whether it is time to enter the war. The telegram further proposes an alliance with Mexico, promising that, if the United States enters the war, Germany will support a Mexican campaign to reclaim the territory it lost to the United States in the 1830s and 1840s. mainland.īritish intelligence has just shared an intercepted telegram, written in January by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the Mexican government, revealing that Germany intends to resume unrestricted submarine warfare on the United States starting in February. Not only could the Central Powers try to leverage Mexico to tie down American troops and equipment that otherwise would have been sent to Europe, but they could also trigger a conflict that directly threatened the U.S. policymakers feared the possibility that Mexico could ally with Germany and the other Central Powers to bring the war to U.S. An ocean separated the United States from the war in Europe, but U.S. meddling in the Mexican revolution that had persisted since 1910 left the neighbors with a mistrustful relationship. Growing tensions with Mexico, also a neutral country, underscored this danger. With the war expanding, policymakers began to wonder how much longer neutrality would even remain an option. businesses and banks, who had loaned vast sums to the Allies, risked enormous loss if the Allies were defeated. After the sinking of the Lusitania, many policymakers argued that German attacks constituted violations of American neutrality and necessitated war, while others saw the war as offering opportunities to promote democracy worldwide and prevent future wars. On the other hand, some Americans contended that Germany’s aggression could not be ignored. Though they found the shipping attacks egregious, many observers doubted that Germany could launch a significant attack on the U.S. Some Americans saw the war in Europe as too remote to pose sufficient threat to the United States to justify the costs of war. Entry into the war would require a massive mobilization of both people and industries, as the United States lacked the military resources and personnel needed to commit ground troops abroad. On one hand, neutrality allowed the United States to trade while reserving its own resources and keeping personnel out of harm’s way. ships after this incident, but the American public was enraged, and debate over the merits of neutrality grew louder. This policy was widely considered a violation of international law and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Americans, including the 128 killed in the 1915 sinking of the passenger liner Lusitania. The German navy adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, sinking any ships found approaching British waters, including neutral vessels. ships overwhelmingly composed Allied supply lines, however, they became a target. trade with the Allies tripled to $3 billion annually. Even so, it maintained trade with the Allies (France, Russia, and the United Kingdom), supporting them with arms and food exports, to the great advantage of U.S. The United States, however, remained neutral, unwilling to commit its resources or personnel to a foreign war. By its third year, World War I had taken millions of lives in Europe and throughout the world.
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