0.2 The great war (part i)  (Page 8/14)

The German government feared that the US would soon enter the war and thus in their final attempt to keep the American’s from throwing their full weight behind the Allies, Germany considered adding a new country to their side of the might – Mexico. Arthur Zimmermann, German Foreign Secretary, sent an encoded telegram to Heinrich von Eckardt, the German Ambassador in Mexico in January of 1917. The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence on Galveston Island (located about 30 miles south of Houston, Texas), decoded, and handed over to President Wilson a month later:

“We intend to begin on the 1st of February unrestricted submarine warfare. We shall endeavor in spite of this to keep the United States of America neutral. In the event of this not succeeding, we make Mexico a proposal of alliance on the following basis: make war together, make peace together, generous financial support and an understanding on our part that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.”

The telegram was widely published in American newspapers beginning on March 1 ^st , 1917. A month will go by before Wilson asks and Congress gives him a declaration of war. Yet between those times, Wilson gave his second inaugural address. He talked about the economic soundness of the country and only in the most cursory way touched upon the storm clouds on the horizon. He called for peace and for everyone who loves liberty and justice. Wilson debated with himself, with his friends, and with his cabinet over what the US should do next. Wilson did not chose the path of war lightly, because, as Wilson confided to the editor of The World , Frank Cobb, “Once lead these people into war . . . they'll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance ... the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of our national life ... every man who refused to conform would have to pay the penalty." In other words, Wilson feared that war would forever change this nation.

Going to War with the Army you Have, not the Army you Want

In late 2004, US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was posed a series of questions from US troops in Kuwait including questions about their lack of preparedness for an entrenched conflict. Specialist Thomas Wilson (278 ^th Regimental Combat Team, Tennessee National Guard) asked, “"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor [sic] our vehicles?” Rumsfeld replied, “As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want.” Eighty-seven years earlier, the US found itself declaring to enter a war that it was not prepared to fight.

On April 2 ^nd , 1917, Wilson asked for and shortly thereafter received a declaration of war against Germany –not Austria, the Ottoman Empire, or any of other two dozen or so countries that were fighting against the Allies. The Senate voted 82 to 6 to declare war on Germany on April 4, 1917; the House concurred on April 6 by a vote of 373 to 50. Jeannette Rankin of Montana, the first woman to serve in the House of Representatives, was among those who voted against the war. "I want to stand by my country, but I cannot vote for war," declared Rankin. Later on, she clarified her decision to vote against going to war on the grounds that “I knew that we were asked to vote for a commercial war [and] that none of the idealistic hopes would be carried out.”