Stephen McClanahan

11/22/10

Mr. Roth

AMERICA AND WORLD WAR I

Thesis: America's entering of The Great War (World War I) was a futile attempt at patriotism
that lead to the deaths of more men than would have been if they had not entered and proves that
people, however “peaceful” they seem, create war even when unnecessary in order to prove their
superiority.

When World War I first began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, America
had no intention of joining the war. President Woodrow Wilson had stated that they would not join, and
pushed for a peaceful agreement to end the war. However, once Germany sank the British liner
Lustinia in 1915, with 128 Americans on board, America sent out messages to Germany stating that
they would not tolerate such treatment of civilians. Though Germany complied with these messages,
they suspected that the U.S. would retaliate by joining the war. In an attempt to stop America before
they could ally themselves with the Triple Entente, Germany sent out a coded message to Mexico in an
attempt to rally them to war against the U.S. . However, Britain intercepted the message, decoded it,
and sent it to America. Using this a a rallying cry to the citizens of the U.S., President Wilson pushed
for an active stance in the war, and by 1918 the U.S. was sending an estimated average of 10,000 fresh
troops per day into France.

While the rallying cry used by Wilson to pull the U.S. into World War I was effective, it was
also unnecessary. Had the U.S. not gone to war, they would have been left in the same position as they
were in before: Mexico never would have declared war on them, because they had not joined, and
instead could have pushed their agenda of peace more thoroughly, quite possibly ending the war before
the original ending period. In reality, America's joining of World War I was merely a chance to tell the
world that America would not back down, even from a challenge that was not rightfully theirs. As a
result, many more men died than likely would have had the U.S. not joined, leading to the death total
estimated at around 9,000,000 combatants, making it one of the most brutal wars in world history.

America's joining of the Great War also reveals to us something about human nature. While we
seemed to have good intentions at the time, backing up a “righteous cause”, we also jumped into a war
after just coming out of one our biggest. Though separated by 52 years, America was still feeling the
harsh blows of the Civil War. With one of the biggest totals of loss of American lives in history, our
country should have been peacefully continuing to restore itself in the best way possible. However, we
jumped into yet another war during this time, proving not only that people are dissatisfied with peace
and lust for action, but also that human kind knows not what is best for themselves.

In the end, America's joining of the war was a foolish mistake that cost many troops their lives
and set a negative connotation on peoples understanding of American ideals at that time for years to
come.