This book demonstrates that, although President Woodrow Wilson worked to maintain United States neutrality during World War I, his administration's policies resulted in a decision by Germany to unleash unrestricted submarine warfare against all shipping bound for Britain, France, or Italy in the Atlantic. After nine US ships were sunk by German submarines, and one was lost to a British mine, the US government saw the sinking of US ships flying the American flag as an attack on American sovereignty at sea. The final decision to enter the war was shaped by the details of those ship losses more t ... More

This book demonstrates that, although President Woodrow Wilson worked to maintain United States neutrality during World War I, his administration's policies resulted in a decision by Germany to unleash unrestricted submarine warfare against all shipping bound for Britain, France, or Italy in the Atlantic. After nine US ships were sunk by German submarines, and one was lost to a British mine, the US government saw the sinking of US ships flying the American flag as an attack on American sovereignty at sea. The final decision to enter the war was shaped by the details of those ship losses more than by any other factor. When Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war, he sought to explain the casus belli in broader terms, such as defence of democracy against autocracy, even though the actual precipitating action had been the specific nature of the sinking of some of those ten merchant ships.