The US Waiting to Enter WWI
July 1914 was the start of the first war that swept across Europe and reached across the ocean. April 1917 the United States entered te war. Nearly three years had passed before the war pulled the other side of the ocean into its bloody mess.
Why did the United States wait so long to enter World War I? What factors dragged them in? Too often we don’t know these answers though we think we do. Some of us think this was so far back that it doesn’t matter.
To say there is only one answer would to minimize the war and all those involved. War was not something anyone of sane mind would jump into.
Keep It in Europe
Like many politicians, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson was hesitant about going against public opinion. Politicians are highly impacted by the feel of their citizens on specific topics. The war involved Europe, and many Americans felt like it should stay across the ocean. It was a European war, not American. During this political hesitation, Germany took the advantage and continued “unrestricted submarine attacks on all Allied and neutral shipping within prescribed war zones”. (1) They knew they had free reign with America on the sidelines. No one else had the ability to fight back.
America still refused to act beyond severing diplomatic ties with the offensive country. They didn’t…
