World War I

In August 1914, when war erupted across the European continent, President Woodrow Wilson immediately adopted a policy of American neutrality. Like most Americans -- and Europeans -- Wilson was convinced the war would be short, and he was more interested in pursuing a domestic agenda of Progressive reform. Although there were scattered pockets of pro-British and pro-German sentiment, most Americans opposed becoming involved in a war they regarded as irrational and destructive.

Despite Wilson's call for America to be "neutral in thought as well as deed," the president also considered the European conflict as an opportunity to expand American exports. Trade with Britain, France, and Germany increased substantially in the months following the outbreak of war. When the belligerents ran out of cash, America quickly extended them credit, with the amount of loans to Britain and France eventually exceeding two billion dollars, nearly 100 times the amount lent to Germany.

In May 1915, a luxury liner named the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank off the coast of Ireland. Nearly 1,200 passengers and crew perished, including 128 Americans. Public outrage directed at Germany was considerable, but Wilson urged the nation to remain neutral, declaring that "America was too proud to fight." Former President Theodore Roosevelt, a staunch advocate of military intervention and a constant critic of Wilson, encouraged a military buildup and a national "preparedness" campaign. While promoting a preparedness program of his own, Wilson successfully ran for reelection in 1916 on the slogan "He kept us out of war."

American neutrality would not last much longer. In March 1917, the British publicized the "Zimmerman Note," an intercepted telegram sent by the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, to the German ambassador in Mexico instructing him to seek an alliance with Mexico. In return for Mexican support against the U.S., Germany promised to help Mexico regain Texas, New Mexico, and California, territory it had lost nearly 70 years earlier. Shortly after the Zimmerman Note became public, German submarines sank three American merchant ships. The following month, Wilson went before Congress to seek a declaration of war, claiming that "the world must be made safe for democracy." Confronted with an urgent need to mobilize the nation for war, Wilson established the Committee for Public Information (CPI), the first official propaganda agency in U.S. history.

Under the direction of former newspaper editor George Creel, the CPI engaged in a massive campaign to generate public support for the war effort. Anti-German advertisements were placed in mass circulation magazines, recruiting posters and pamphlets were widely distributed, and a network of "Four Minute Men" was organized to deliver short patriotic speeches in movie theaters and any other places where a crowd had gathered. These orators urged the public to purchase Liberty Bonds, and reminded men of their obligation to register for the draft.

At the same time the CPI was seeking to mobilize public opinion behind the war effort, the government took strong measures to crack down on antiwar sentiment, as discussed in the Civil Liberties Timeline. By the time Germany was defeated and the Treaty of Versailles was concluded in November 1919, hundreds of antiwar activists had been prosecuted under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. In establishing the CPI, Wilson had acknowledged the critical role of public opinion in American foreign policy, but these prosecutions revealed that only certain opinions would be tolerated.