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Today in History: President Wilson Requests a Declaration of War against Germany
04/02/10
On April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson addressed a special session of the U.S. Congress to request a declaration of war against Germany. When Congress granted his request a few days later, the United States officially entered World War I.
By the time the United States joined the Allied cause, the war had been raging in Europe for three years. Wilson initially adopted a policy of neutrality, which he outlined in an August 1914 speech. His stance became increasingly difficult to maintain as German U-boats sank Allied merchant ships—including some carrying American citizens and supplies—in unrestricted submarine warfare. Such losses eroded isolationist feelings among the American people and pushed a reluctant Wilson toward intervention. “The world must be made safe for democracy,” he explained in calling for a declaration of war. “We are but one of the champions of the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure as the faith and the freedom of nations can make them.”
Read WOODROW WILSON’S JOINT ADDRESS TO CONGRESS LEADING TO A DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST GERMANY