United+States+Entry+into+WWI+The+Real+Intentions

Sophomore Research Paper Real intentions for the US entering WWI  [|Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria mori].-[|Wilfred Owen].    Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs And towards our distant rest3 began to trudge. Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind; Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots4 Of tired, outstripped5 Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.  Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling, And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime9. . . Dim, through the misty panes10 and thick green light, As under a green sea, I saw him drowning. In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering,11 choking, drowning.  If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12 Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest13 To children ardent14 for some desperate glory, The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori.15    Wilfred Owen, a British soldier in the [|Great War] wrote the poem in the [|trenches] in the battle field. The poem reveals the irony and confusion in the [|soldiers] for fighting in such war. Owen strips away the illusions of [|heroism] and the honor for serving for their country, the popular belief at the time, with gruesome horror in which people face everyday. Owen, a combatant in the First World War, exhibits that <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">“Dulce et Decorum Est Pro Patria mori” <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">It is Sweet and Right to die for your country. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">is not true and that dying for their country is not is as what they were hoping for. Wilfred explains that the public and [|press] is encouraging men with the feeling of comfort that they were dying heroically and nobly, also he tells the readers that enlisting into the [|hell] that lay ahead was simply sentencing yourself into hardship and [|pain], or unnecessary [|death]. From other poems by Owen, he shows pain to not understand why they have to fight for a cause in which only their government approves of. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">There are varieties of reasons for the United States to have entered the First World War. The main reasons for the United States to officially enter the war was because of American deaths in German U-Boat attacks as well as the infamous Zimmerman telegraph, which cause alarm in the nation as a possible threat from Mexico. The United States had also been manipulated by world wide propaganda as well as incidents which has caused mixed thoughts about Germany, such as the suspected German sabotage and attacks in American ports. However, although these main reasons are well known, the United States had used these incidents to cover up their main reasons to entering the Great War. The main reasons for the United States to enter the war were to protect its investments and loans as well as to increase world-wide hegemony. The United States had pour billions of dollars into the Allies war supplies and after the Russians pulled out of the war with their revolution back home, the Germans had concentrated their forces on the western front, which stressed the United States that their economical investments would all be lost unless they acted to ensure that they would be paid back. Also, the United States had thought of the Great War as an advantage to themselves. As the pre-World War I European dominant nations battled each other to get rid of the other, the United States had used the War to over take the European nations and increase their nation’s world power to become the dominant nation in the world. Although there were reasons for the United States to cover up their main reasons to the public, the real justification for the United States to enter the Great War was to protect and increase their economic investments as well as to increase their international hegemony. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">The United States had practiced isolationism to avoid any international entanglements with the deadly raging war in Europe. However, as a neutral country, they had broken the isolationism law to trade and sell war supplies to other countries. The united States had been continuously trading with both Germany and Great Britain until the British had set up a barrier for the Germans. As result, the United States had not stopped their shipping toward Great Britain, but increased it. With less supplies and the continuous supplement of good from the US, Germany attacked American as well as British ships in order to cut off the United States trade with Britain. The British and American propaganda had helps to change the views of the German retaliation as an attack and a threat. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">The Zimmerman telegraph was considered the most largest threat that the United States had ever seen. The telegraph was intercepted by British officials who found the message from Arthur Zimmerman, the foreign secretary of Germany to the German Embassy in Mexico to propose an agreement to become allies and create a new front for the United States to join in, in which would be repaid for Mexico’s lost lands from the United States. However, as British officials intercepted the message, Mexico denied such involvement. As the tensions between the United States and Germany arose, small incidents and accidents were called upon as sabotage acts or attacks from German U-boats. An incident was the explosion in New Jersey, where an arms factory exploded unintentionally. The final straw was when Germany began to resume its Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and allowed German U-boats to attack without notice neutral or enemy. President Wilson stated in his speech, <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">“The new policy has swept every restriction aside. Vessels of every kind, whatever their flag, their character, their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been ruthlessly sent to the bottom without warning and without thought of help or mercy for those on board, the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belligerents.”(Wilson) <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">The United States had officially entered the War to protect the nation from the evil German tyrants and to help the rest of the world from the tyrant occupation. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial">Wilfred Owen, restates how much different it is from the words of the government which they speak to the public compared to the real intensions for entering the war. The United States has sent in many American troops to their death by its false objectives for going into the war. The United States have spent over 3.2 billion dollars in the war effort to send supplies and arms to the Allies. From the start of the war, the United States had exported more money than they ever had before. The war was a large scale chance for the United States. As the Allies struggled on the battlefield, they were forced to turn to the United States who did not have any trade embargo. As the major US banks and enterprises loaned money to the Allies, they allies quickly used that funds to buy more arms and war supplies. The United States economy was booming, they had loans to the Allies who used those money back into the American wallet. To the United States, this was a win-win situation. However, President Wilson and other US officials sought for absolute confidence that the allies would win the war. If the Allies were to lose the war, all of the US economy would fail as the loans would never be repaid as well as that the large industrial factories would close due to less demand. The United States thought of this as their uttermost threat. As the Russians had pulled out of the war, the Germans began to concentrate their troops toward the eastern front. As the Allies were starting to be pushed back toward inland France, the United States were willing to join the war to stop the German advancement. However, the United States were neutral to the War in Europe, and could not join unless there was a reason for them to enter. The Germans, whose trade with the United States has been cut off by the British Blockade, thought of the trade between Great Britain and the United States would eventually lead to their failure. They resorted to Unrestricted Submarine Warfare, to try to destroy and cut off the trade between them. They had begun to attack civilian ships such as the //Lusitania// which was carrying war supplies to Britain. The United States published propaganda about these German attacks as Cruel and Barbarian. The US used the deaths of American citizens as a reason for the United States to enter the War, to protect their civilians from the German tyrant. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> The United States had sought for World Power ever since they had separated form the British in the revolutionary war. The US had wanted to show and be example top the rest of the world as a successful democratic nation. The Great War was a perfect opportunity for the United States to gain the respect and rank with the European nations as a strong world power. As the stalemate in the war, meant that the combatants from either nation was as equally strong, the United States and the rest of the nations knew that the US had the decisive hand in order to change the outcome of the war. The US believed that because of a strong foreign relationship with Britain, that they needed to join with the Allies, again however, to show the world that they were capable of being a world power, they needed to join the war. As the United States has been neutral, it was hard for them to create a reason. Although it is not clear whether the Zimmerman Telegraph was really sent by the German minister of foreign affairs or that it was a British conspiracy to help the US enter the war, it had done the job to force the United States into chaos and insecure. The Zimmerman Telegraph called for Mexico to join the ranks with German and Austria-Hungary to create a new front for the United States to fight on, so that the US would be occupied with the war with Mexico and that the Germans would be able to cut off British trade. The telegraph sent a wave of anxiety though the American citizens. With enough reasons for the United States to feel threatened, President Wilson spoke that they must go to war. By joining the war, they had helped the Allies win the war. As Wilson had worked for, a League of Nations was created with the United States has the head. The League of Nations failed however, but it had made a dent in American history as a world leader from the end of the First World War. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial"> The real intentions for the United States to enter WWI was to protect it’s economical investments as well as to gain international hegemony, but used U-boat attacks and the Zimmerman Telegraph as the reasons to cover up the truth. The United States had been changing how the world works ever since the end of WWI. World War Two occurred only a few decades after the first war, the United States began to shape up to what we are viewed as now. The United States has strong economical powers in which the currency is widely used in modern day. Ever since World War One, the United States had helped spread democracy to Middle Eastern nations during the War in Iraq. These modern times clearly show that the United States had become a world power economically and politically since the start of involvement in the Great War in 1914. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">Works Consulted <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">"America's Path to Intervention in World War I." //American Journey Online: World War I and the Jazz Age//. Primary Source Microfilm, 2000. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. [|http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/] <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  //<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">This was a fairly good essay about United States and it’s involvement in World War one. It states the official reasons which many other web sites offer, but this essay goes down in depth and detail. //

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">Holt, Rinehart, and Winston. __America's Entry into World War One: Submarines, Sentiment or Security__. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"> Ed. Herbert J. Bass. Chicago: Holt, Rinehart, Winston, 1964. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  //<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Courier New'">This was a old book and was falling apart because of it’s oldness. The book has a revisionist point of view which is very different from the rest of all the web sites. It questions the real reasons for involvement. Helps gain good position for the counter argument. // <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">"U.S. Economic Contribution in World War I." //History in Dispute, Vol. 9: World War I: Second Series.// Dennis Showalter, ed. St. James Press, 2002. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. [|http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/] <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  //<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">This essay from History Resource Center shows the exact economic gains and loses from the war. Helps in gaining position of whether or not economics played a part in the involvement // <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">"U.S. Entry into World War I." //History in Dispute, Vol. 9: World War I: Second Series.// Dennis Showalter, ed. St. James Press, 2002. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. [|http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/] <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  //<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">Another general essay about the War and the United State’s position. // code Wilde, Robert. "Zimmerman Telegraph." __About.com__. 11 May 2008. 12 May 2008 -FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">    <http://europeanhistory.about.com/cs/americainww1/p/przimmermantele.htm>. code <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·   //<span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">Tells about the Zimmerman telegraph and how it played an important part in making America insecure and scared. // <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Cambria','serif'">"World War I and America." History in Dispute, Vol. 8: World War I: First Series. Dennis Showalter, ed. St. James Press, 2002. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale. [|http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/HistRC/]  ·  This essay from History Resource Center gives a different view of the War and whether or not it could have been prevented by the United States and their actions.