616 Chapter 23 Woodrow Wilson and the Great War
During World War I, advancing armies unloosed ferocious artillery barrages to destroy deeply entrenched enemy
positions. Before the Third Battle of Ypres, the British fired 4.5 million shells at German defenses, pulverizing the
landscape. But as the British moved forward they became mired in mud; they lost 300,000 men in the action. Few
Americans perceived the special horrors of this type of warfare.Freedom of the Seas
Propaganda did not basically alter American attitudes;
far more important were questions arising out of trade
and commerce. Under international law, neutrals
could trade freely with any belligerent. Americans
were prepared to do so, but because the British fleet
dominated the North Atlantic, they could not. The
situation was similar to the one that had prevailed
during the Napoleonic Wars. The British declared
nearly all commodities, even foodstuffs, to be contra-
band of war. They forced neutral merchant ships into
British or French ports in order to search them for
goods headed for the enemy. Many cargoes were con-
fiscated, often without payment. American firms that
traded with the Central Powers were “blacklisted,”
which meant that no British subject could deal with
them. When Americans protested, the British
answered that in a battle for survival, they dared not
adhere to old-fashioned rules of international law.
Had the United States insisted that Great Britain
abandon these “illegal” practices, as the Germans
demanded, no doubt it could have had its way. The
British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, later
admitted, “The ill-will of the United States meant
certain defeat. The object of diplomacy, therefore,
was to secure the maximum of blockade that could be
enforced without a rupture with the United States.”
It is ironic that an embargo, which failed so ignomin-
iously in Jefferson’s day, would have been almost
instantly effective if applied at any time after 1914, for
American supplies were vital to the Allies.
Although British tactics frequently exasperated
Wilson, they did not result in the loss of innocent
lives. He never considered taking as drastic a step as
an embargo. He faced a dilemma. To allow the
British to make the rules meant siding against the
Central Powers. Yet to insist on the old rules (which
had never been strictly obeyed in wartime) meant
siding against the Allies because that would have
deprived them of much of the value of their naval
superiority. Nothing the United States might do
would be truly impartial.
Wilson’s own sentiments made it doubly difficult
for him to object strenuously to British practices. No
American admired British institutions and culture
more extravagantly. “Everything I love most in the
world is at stake,” he confessed privately to the British
ambassador. A German victory “would be fatal to our
form of Government and American ideals.”
In any event, the immense expansion of American
trade with the Allies made an embargo unthinkable.