The United States Entered World War I Essay Sample

Every war is a tragic event, the result of a failure to reconcile severe ideological and interest disagreements or to stop terrible men from imposing their will on others. The First World War was one of history's most terrible wars: despite the fact that none of its major protagonists intended or wanted it to happen, it ushered in thirty years of unimaginable bloodshed and sowed the seeds of civil wars that still rage today. Historians will debate whether or not the Great War might have been avoided indefinitely. But it was undeniably a war of choice for the United States. Germany never threatened nor had the capability to launch a trans-Atlantic attack.

President Woodrow Wilson informed a joint session of Congress on January 22, 1917, that the United States must remain neutral in World War I in order to achieve "peace without victory." He returned to Congress eleven weeks later to request a declaration of war against Germany. A sequence of German moves triggered the swift change of events, according to some historians, leaving Wilson with no alternative than to join the war in Europe. Since the start of the war, German U-boats have killed a large number of civilians in the United States.

Most historians agree that the United States' entry into World War I tilted the scales against Germany, and that without it, the Allies would have lost, "defined as having to make a compromise peace with the Germans primarily on German terms," according to Kennedy. By the spring of 1917, things were not looking good for the Allies. They had suffered a major setback in Italy, the French army was dealing with a huge mutiny problem, and Russia was on the verge of losing the Eastern Front due to the toppling of the tsar. We can't tell what impact continuous US neutrality would have had; counter-factual history is, by definition, a speculative endeavor. However, we are aware of the ramifications of the United States' choice to join the Allies in the spring of 1917. At home, the choice to go to war inevitably resulted in a campaign of repression of individual liberties unprecedented in history. Newspapers were forbidden for making even minor criticisms of government policy, Eugene Debs and other anti-warriors were imprisoned for giving speeches, and vigilantes openly assaulted anybody who did not parrot the hyper-patriotic gospel, in their perspective.

The aftermath of the United States' and its allies' triumph resulted in an even greater catastrophe. The harsh settlement reached in Paris, as Wilson had predicted, did not last. If the president had agreed to some of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge's and his supporters' demands, the peace deal might have received Senate approval. However, American inclusion in the League of Nations would not have prevented the growth of fascism, Nazism, or the Communist International, all of which contributed to the outbreak of World War II. The horrible irony is that the United States' involvement in World War I almost certainly increased the likelihood of a subsequent, far bloodier global conflict. The United States made the correct decision. Because the Germans were killing many Americans who refused to understand that the US wanted to remain neutral, the US made the appropriate decision to join the war. Many Americans were killed unfairly as a result of their actions. If the US had done nothing, the Germans would have continued sinking ships and murdered the Americans who accompanied them.

In addition, the Allies were on the verge of losing the war. They were worn out from years of fighting (trench warfare) that had taken a long time to gain ground/advance. Following Russia's withdrawal, all German troops moved to the Western Front. This was a major setback for the Allies. The Allies would have most likely lost if it hadn't been for the United States. Germany, in the end, was not going to give up. They were determined to win. "Victory would imply peace forced upon the loser," President Wilson stated. Meaning, if the Allies won the war, Germany would be forced to face the consequences, bringing the conflict to a close (such as death, destruction and more).