Module 6, Woodrow Wilson Requests War (April 2, 1917)
In 1917, Mr. Wilson made a speech for America's entry into World War 1. In that case it was a very serious matter and had to be made immediately. It was war in all nations. American lives are being taken in ways which it had stirred us very deeply to learn of. There were no discrimination. The challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide for itself how it will meet it. Our motive will not be revenged or the victorious assertion, but only the vindication of right, of which we are only a single champion. The congress declare the recent course of the imperial Germany government to be in fact nothing less than war against the government and people of the United States. The world must be safe for democracy. We desire no conquest, no dominion. We shall be satisfied when those rights have been made as secure the faith and the freedom of nations can make them. It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as...