Why We Are At War (1917), by Woodrow Wilson

The official reasons for the entry of the United States into World War I on April 6, 1917 are stated in Why We Are At War, by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson.

The book is a collection of speeches by Wilson that cover a three-month period from January to April 1917:

• A January 22 speech to the U.S. Senate in which Wilson talked about the involvement of the U.S. in the peace talks after the war.
• A February 3 message to the U.S. Congress that announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Germany following that country's declaration of unrestricted submarine warfare.
• A February 26 request by Wilson to Congress for the power to declare war against Germany, if necessary. He also requested a new policy of "armed neutrality" to help protect merchant ships.
• An April 2 request by Wilson to Congress to officially declare war against Germany.
• The official declaration of war on April 6.
• An April 15 message to the country about what was needed to fight the war.

As you read these speeches, you see the gradual process used by Wilson to convince Congress, the American people, and himself that the United States had a special responsibility to fight in World War I. The book opens with a speech by Wilson about the postwar peace settlement, in a preview of the Fourteen Points speech that Wilson gave in January 1918.

Wilson had been criticized for the neutral policy of the U.S. since almost the beginning of the war in 1914. Detailed criticism of Wilson, Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan, and others had appeared in such books as America and the World War (1915) by Theodore Roosevelt; The Writing on the Wall (1916), by Eric Fisher Wood; and The War and Humanity (1916), by James M. Beck.

Criticism increased greatly after the U.S. stayed out of the war following the May 1915 sinking of the Lusitania, in which many American lives were lost. 

Woodrow Wilson, December 1912

The sinking of the Lusitania did help define the specific issue that ultimately led to the U.S. involvement in the war. The Lusitania incident was followed by negotiations between the U.S. and Germany over the safety of noncombatants in the war zone.

This general debate came to a head on February 1, 1917 when Germany declared it would conduct unrestricted submarine warfare in the war zone around Great Britain, France, Italy and the eastern Mediterranean Sea. That declaration led to official action by the U.S. against Germany, starting with the diplomatic break-off on February 3, followed by the declaration of war on April 6.

America's official stance of neutrality ended in Wilson's April 2 speech, in which he outlined the reasons for going to war against Germany. This speech included Wilson's famous statement that "The world must be made safe for democracy."

Wilson used the April 2 speech to make both specific points about Germany's submarine warfare policy and general points about America's responsibility towards freedom in the world. He said:

It is a fearful thing to lead this great, peaceful people into war, into the most terrible and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to be in the balance. But the right is more precious than peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts—for democracy, for the right of those who submit to authority to have a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liberties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace and safety to all nations and make the world itself at last free.

The April 6 declaration made the involvement of the U.S. official. Interestingly, much of that declaration concerned the behavior of foreign-born U.S. residents who had not been naturalized. This discussion of "alien enemies" in some ways parallels the debates about U.S. immigration in the 21st century.

This short book concludes with Wilson's April 15 message to the American people about the commitments and sacrifices that would be asked of them in the coming months, both home and abroad. This message was published in newspapers around the country.  

When Why We Are At War was published a few weeks after this speech, its collection of messages helped Americans understand their new responsibilities.

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Why We Are At War was published around May 6, 1917, when it was advertised in The New York Times. Front page headlines in that day's Times included:

• DENY PLAN IS FOUND TO CHECK U-BOATS; CLASH IN NAVAL BOARD STATEMENTS; WILSON COULD USE EMBARGO AS WEAPON

• $500,000 A MINUTE WAR LOAN DEMAND / Wired Subscriptions Swamp the Treasury, Two-Day Total Exceeding $311,000,000

• WILSON PURPOSES TO GUARD RIGHTS / Will Take Up "at Proper Time" Guarantees of Democracy, the President says. / REFERS TO WAR LEGISLATION / Answer to Plea for Free Press—Threat to Juggle Censorship in Conference.

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Online versions:

• Hathi Trust Digital Library
• Internet Archive

Newspaper information from Newspapers.com (https://www.newspapers.com/)

Photograph of Woodrow Wilson by Pach Brothers, New York [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons