Because the United States was never attacked, the question of why the country went to war has sparked heated debate among historians. Within a decade of victory, "revisionists" began challenging the official explanation that for moral and pragmatic reasons, Germany's campaign of submarine warfare compelled the United States to enter. They pointed instead to a conspiracy of greedy financiers, munitions makers, and others who sought to profit from Allied victory. A school of "realists," interested in demonstrating the importance of strategic, diplomatic, and other practical considerations in American foreign policy, maintained that Wilson had rightly gone to war in 1917 but for the wrong reasons—abstract moral principles such as "making the world safe for democracy."

Other historians have painted a more complex portrait, stressing that the pressures from all sides limited Wilson's choices, including the German submarine campaign and Allied blockade but also interventionists, preparedness groups, and advocates of continued trade with the Allies. New Left historians writing in the 1960s and 1970s placed the blame for American entry on capitalism, which required a stable, peaceful world for the United States to exert its commercial supremacy.

1			Read President Wilson's war message. What were the reasons he gave for American entry into World War I? What factors do we need to consider in evaluating this speech as a piece of historical evidence? Now read the article that explains America's turn from neutrality towards intervention. What were the forces that this author argued pulled the Untied States into the war? Do they concur with Wilson's claims? Why or why not? Do you find Wilson's arguments compelling reasons for a nation that had not been attacked to go to war? http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1917/wilswarm.html Do Michael Hanlon's arguments make more sense? Based on these documents and the information in your textbook, why do you think the United States entered World War I? http://www.worldwar1.com/tgws/rel001.htm