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.On 16 January 1917, Zimmermann sent atelegram to the German ambassador in Mexico instructing him to  make Mexico a pro-posal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, gen-erous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to re-conquerthe lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona ceded to the United States in thenineteenth century.8 Zimmermann also suggested that Mexico encourage Japan tothreaten America s Pacific island possessions.British intelligence cryptographersscored a major triumph when they both intercepted and deciphered the telegram.Britainpresented the telegram to the Wilson administration at the end of February and its con-tents were released to the public in March.To many Americans, Germany s hostileintent against the United States now seemed clear.Rather than fighting just to protectAmerican trade or the rights of neutrals to travel in the war zone, the ZimmermannTelegram seemingly illustrated a clear and present danger that Germany posed to theterritorial integrity of the United States.In March 1917, German U-boats sank threeAmerican merchant ships further underscoring that American lives were now at risk.The Declaration of War in the United StatesThe tangible physical danger that Germany posed to the nation s territorial and eco-nomic security convinced Wilson to ask Congress for a declaration of war in April.Yetin his war address, Wilson did not dwell on these threats to the nation s borders or econ-omy.Instead, he quickly summarized Germany s crimes on the high seas then went onto cast the war in broader, idealistic terms.The United States, he declared, had  no quar-rel with the German people. Instead, the United States was fighting against the  littlegroups of ambitious men who used the German people as pawns to aggrandize theirpower.The nation was fighting, he intoned,  for the rights of nations great and smalland the privilege of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of obedience. Inaddition to underscoring the principle of self-determination in his war address, Wilsonframed the war s purpose in a phrase that has resonated in American foreign policy eversince: the world, he declared  must be made safe for democracy. 9 In outlining thenation s war goals, Wilson took pains to emphasize that the United States had no selfishends to serve in fighting the war, emphasizing that the country expected no financial orterritorial compensation for its part in the war. We are but one of the champions of therights of mankind, Wilson pronounced.THE UNITED STATES IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR 11The lofty goals that the president gave the country helped inspire many men headedinto the army.Once there, however, they would often discover that the war developedits own logic.Overseas, the reasons that men fought usually differed dramatically fromthe initial vision outlined by the president and accepted by the majority of Americansin April 1917.Congress overwhelmingly supported Wilson s request for a declaration of waragainst Germany, but approval was not unanimous. I shall always believe we could andought to have kept out of this war, House majority leader Claude Kitchin, a Democratfrom North Carolina remarked during the Congressional debate over the war resolu-tion.10 The United States officially declared war against Germany on 6 April 1917.Thenation did not enter the war against Austria-Hungary until 7 December 1917, mostly toprevent Italy from leaving the war after its defeat at Caporetto and never declared waragainst the Ottoman Empire or Bulgaria.FIGHTING IN THE FIRST WORLD WARWith the nation now officially at war, Wilson quickly resolved that the UnitedStates needed to play a definitive role on the battlefield both to ensure an Allied victo-ry and to give the United States enough clout to influence the eventual peace settlement.Many Americans were uneasy about sending troops into the bloody morass that hadproduced cataclysmic casualties at the Somme and Verdun.This sentiment wasexpressed best by Senator Thomas S [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]