American History: German Sub Attacks Push Wilson Into War
13 October 2010
The German submarine U-36 near the ship Batavia V in April 1915
BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
There was one main issue in America's presidential election of nineteen sixteen. That issue was war. Europe was in the middle of what is now remembered as World War One. It was the bloodiest conflict the world had ever known.
Most Americans wanted no part of the struggle in Europe. They supported their country's official position -- neutrality. This desire was the main reason President Woodrow Wilson won re-election. People gave Wilson their votes because they hoped he would continue to keep America out of the war.
This week in our series, Larry West and Maurice Joyce tell more about the presidency of Woodrow Wilson.
LARRY WEST: Like most Americans, Woodrow Wilson did not want war. He feared that entering the conflict would cost the United States many lives. Wilson read the reports from European battlefields. The news was unbelievably terrible. By the end of nineteen sixteen, several million men had been killed, wounded, or captured.
At the Battle of Verdun, French forces stopped a German attack.
The cost was high on both sides. More than seven hundred thousand soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured. The Battle of the Somme followed. Britain lost sixty thousand men on the first day. By the time the battle was over, losses for both sides totaled more than a million.
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