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Trull, T-R-A-W-L.

1:21

Hello,

1:21

and welcome to We Are History.

1:24

I'm Jon O'Farrell. And I'm Angela

1:26

Barnes. And today,

1:28

Angela has chosen the topic, and it's

1:30

a bit of a surprising one for you, Barnsey. Well,

1:33

it is a bit, yeah. It's one that's a bit out of my usual

1:35

wheelhouse. I mean, it's still in the 20th century, Jon. I haven't

1:37

gone completely mad. No, no, no, that'd

1:39

be insane. Yeah, but it occurred

1:41

to me that apart from the stuff that everyone

1:43

knows, my knowledge about sort of the

1:46

machinations behind

1:47

World War I, it's all a bit sketchy. I

1:50

don't know why, if it's just because it's such a horrific conflict

1:52

that I've never really felt compelled to dig too deeply.

1:55

Right. So the reason I've ended up choosing

1:58

a World War I story is that...

3:43

and

4:01

on our behalf of his are you addicted terms

4:03

of the allies the way on sounds powers

4:05

us frowns united kingdom russia japan

4:07

yet people forget about that one and

4:09

by nineteen fifty this late pegasus

4:11

central powers of germany austria

4:14

hungary the ottoman empire and

4:17

the or bulgaria bulgaria joins

4:19

in as well

4:20

so me while in america woodrow

4:23

wilson is that such a to president the

4:25

united states is a democrats

4:27

he began his first term in nineteen thirteen

4:30

a when the war began in nineteen fourteen

4:32

he proclaimed that neutrality of the united

4:35

states a himself was a particularly

4:38

keen on remaining neutral and a did so

4:40

antipathy towards the germans but the country

4:43

as a whole wasn't really up for

4:44

joining this war yes

4:46

i'm in america still a pretty and country this

4:48

point as if if with the power or

4:50

so of course descendants from white european

4:52

so in the us people have different

4:54

really does it to defend european powers is also

4:56

a sense that are they are america

4:59

then or your of they've left europe and was purpose behind

5:01

and sort of their source on your bubble this infighting

5:03

yeah with that prominent voices

5:06

on both sides of the debate search

5:08

for and seen the was the other non interventionists

5:11

and they had see of industrialist and pacifists

5:13

henry ford and the publisher william

5:16

randolph hearst they were campaigning for this

5:18

neutrality what on the other side you

5:20

had what they called the preparedness movements

5:22

who are largely and the file groupon

5:24

nice of the states and nato

5:27

champions us intervention and

5:29

sixty stronger ties with britain

5:31

because they were british descendants

5:34

and i was supported by former

5:35

president theodore roosevelt's

5:38

indeed from where we get than a teddy

5:40

bear disclaimer little bit of information

5:42

from theodore roosevelt sometimes i am i

5:44

despite his neutrality the

5:46

usa it was supply materials arms

5:48

food knew that to the on some flowers

5:51

such a degree as a neutral country

5:53

there were also still trading with a central

5:55

powers but that was a british naval blockade

5:58

which members supplies for the rest were

5:59

the to get through

6:00

their if i can you say the word supply

6:03

you as well germany but we can't get so sorry

6:05

so we just supply the allies so

6:07

that's how they got away with it while

6:08

being neutral really

6:10

my severe spice girls are blending

6:12

turn on par with schools are tension between

6:14

was three and the government in there

6:16

yeah in in nineteen fourteen the then

6:19

secretary of state's at william jennings

6:21

bryan he wanted to ban all loans

6:23

to belligerent countries the thinking

6:25

be in that car enough money supply

6:27

to them would basically end the war and

6:30

president wilson agreed in principle but he's under

6:32

pressure from the banks and american business

6:34

interests recalls a doing billions

6:36

of dollars of trade with the allied

6:38

nations

6:40

perpetual as he was to keep the banks happy

6:42

doctor never happened to the i didn't like

6:45

it never happens a day job or something like

6:47

that stuff as the on our mugs it

6:49

is smarter sluggers on the mugs that you

6:51

pay principles and get to continue angela

6:53

thanks returns so

6:54

when the war started beginning of the wall

6:56

the i'm i saw it was all going to be over in a

6:58

year and absolutely definitely be done

7:00

and dusted by nineteen sixteen or

7:02

so so i was spending i'm borrowing

7:05

with a bond they were very much a dancing

7:07

my own well that seems like something said

7:09

some

7:09

are i made to worry about solve approach

7:11

to financial planners and they were worried

7:13

about how much they were boring

7:15

or woodrow wilson it was

7:17

also temporary per second term in office on

7:19

a know whoop powerful which is another

7:22

good reason to try not to get into

7:24

a war sia swords or splints

7:26

me what changes antibes

7:28

the us from a new true to a

7:30

belligerent lot

7:31

the first thing that started

7:34

this american turning towards

7:36

intervention happens before

7:38

the the present snacks and eight with the sinking

7:40

of the lusitania and the lusitania

7:43

was his british ocean liner notes

7:45

by to not in nineteen eighty six and

7:47

in the early twentieth century to nods main

7:50

competitors for these transatlantic voyages

7:53

would german shipping lines so

7:55

the british navy they put money

7:57

and they supported que no it's ability

8:00

two speedy liners

8:02

to compete with the Germans, the Lusitania

8:05

and the Mauritania, so they could up their

8:07

game a bit. And in return for

8:09

the Navy, there was this understanding

8:11

that should it be needed, these ships would be

8:13

available for military

8:14

use in times of war.

8:16

So the Navy had funded their

8:18

production. I mean, presumably

8:20

decanting any holidaymakers first.

8:22

Personally speaking, I think I'd prefer

8:25

to take a chance on this to a minimal cruise,

8:27

if I'm honest. Yeah, yeah, quite.

8:29

So in 1914, as we said, the

8:31

Royal Navy's blockaded Germany and

8:33

they've declared the North Sea a war

8:35

zone. And in response, Germany

8:37

declared the waters around the UK a war

8:40

zone and started to intensify its

8:42

submarine warfare. Right.

8:44

And before the Lusitania left New York

8:46

on the 1st of May 1915, German

8:49

embassy in the States actually took out adverts

8:51

in newspapers warning people it would

8:53

be dangerous to sail on it. Do you

8:55

know what, John, I think this is happening what,

8:57

three years after the Titanic. If

9:00

I then read an advert in the paper saying,

9:02

don't sail on this ship, it's dangerous. I don't think

9:04

I would have got on it. I think I mean, sailing

9:07

through a declared war zone, you say, no,

9:10

I'm all right. I think I quite like New York. I think I'll

9:12

stay here. I mean, what's Liverpool got anyway? I haven't even got

9:14

the Beatles yet. You go on without

9:15

me. I'm all right. I'll say you on something

9:17

there. Yeah. And sure enough, on the 7th

9:19

of May 1915, a German U-boat, torpedoed

9:23

the Lusitania, 11 miles off

9:25

the south coast of Ireland. And I know exactly

9:28

where this is, because it's always where we go on holiday, just

9:30

off Castle Townsend in Cork. And there's all the

9:32

pubs there. I've got all the newspaper cuttings and it's

9:34

still like a big deal around that part of

9:37

West Cork. Oh, wow. But anyway, that's by

9:39

the by.

9:39

It got torpedoed and then there was a second explosion

9:42

that happened. And it sank the boat in 18 minutes

9:45

and it killed 1,199 passengers and crew, including 123

9:51

Americans. So big shock. Which is huge

9:53

loss of life, you know, a civilian life. Yeah.

9:55

And Germany argued that the boat was

9:57

a valid military target because They

10:00

said it was carrying munitions, but actually the ship

10:02

wasn't armed for battle at that point and it was

10:04

just carrying hundreds and hundreds of civilians.

10:07

Yeah. So the US stepped in and they

10:09

issue a warning to Germany. Now Germany

10:11

obviously doesn't want the US to enter the war at

10:13

this point, so they agreed to stop

10:16

this unrestricted submarine

10:17

warfare. So America's

10:19

pretty relieved of not having to join the war, because

10:22

they had quite a lot going on in their own doorstep, didn't they?

10:25

Particularly on the southern border with Mexico.

10:27

Yeah, so a bit of background

10:28

to this. In 1848, after

10:30

the Mexican-American War, California,

10:33

Nevada, Utah, most of Arizona

10:35

and the western half of New Mexico and the western

10:38

quarter of Colorado and the southwest

10:40

corner of Wyoming were all ceded

10:42

by Mexico to the United States. And

10:45

then from around 1910, the

10:47

Mexican Revolution has been underway.

10:50

So these various power struggles

10:52

in Mexico have been taking place after the ousting

10:55

of the president Porfiero Diaz.

10:58

And then by 1915, there was a state

11:00

of civil war in Mexico where these previous

11:03

allies who were Pancho Villa and Venustiano

11:06

Carranza, they led the rival

11:08

factions in Mexico.

11:10

I've said fantastic pronunciation, actually. Thank

11:13

you. I practiced. So

11:15

in 1915, November of 1915, the

11:17

US had aided Carranza

11:20

directly against Villa. And

11:22

in March 1916, Villa conducted a raid

11:25

on the US border town of Columbus, New Mexico.

11:28

His troops burned down the town, seized 100

11:30

horses and mules and other

11:33

military supplies. No wall then, no wall

11:35

between Mexico and America back then. 18 Americans

11:39

and about 80 of Villa's men were killed

11:41

before they headed back across the border.

11:43

Yeah, in response to the attack, President

11:46

Wilson sent General Blackjack

11:48

Pershing, what a great name, and

11:50

his troops on this expedition across

11:52

the border to try and hunt Villa down

11:55

in Mexico. So Wilson

11:57

knew at this point that the Germans had

11:59

actually

11:59

been supplying weapons and

12:02

aid to various factions

12:04

in Mexico during the Revolution and

12:07

German officials across Latin America

12:09

were really stirring things up. They were telling anyone

12:11

that would listen that this expedition Pershing

12:14

was on to hunt down via was just the

12:16

star and that the US were planning to annex

12:18

pretty much all of Central America because

12:21

they knew that if they could somehow draw

12:23

the US into a war with Mexico

12:26

it would prevent the US from supporting

12:28

the Allies in Europe they wouldn't have the resources

12:30

to do that. So

12:32

while Woodrow Wilson has to show

12:35

a military response to Villa's raid

12:37

on American soil he wants it to be

12:39

minimal he doesn't want to stir things up anymore. Right

12:42

and so by now Carranza's

12:44

forces had control of most of

12:46

the country in Mexico with elections planned

12:49

for autumn 1916 and

12:51

Carranza wasn't best pleased about American troops

12:54

being on Mexican soil was he?

12:55

No no so Carranza's troops fired

12:58

on Pershing's troops

12:59

and Pershing sought permission to retaliate

13:01

but Wilson denied it because

13:04

like I say he didn't want to stir things up. So

13:06

by late 1916 there

13:08

were more than 10,000 US soldiers

13:11

camped out in northern Mexico and by

13:13

this point the hunt for Villa's soldiers was basically

13:16

over but withdrawal is not

13:18

a great look at this stage Wilson has

13:20

he's got an election campaign ramping

13:23

up so he just kind of leaves the soldiers

13:25

there because he didn't want the Republicans

13:27

to be able to reframe any withdrawal

13:29

of some sort of cowardly retreat.

13:32

Particularly his campaigning on this no

13:34

war platform.

13:36

Yeah he sort of sees himself as a peace broker throughout 1950

13:38

1916 Woodrow Wilson

13:41

has made several attempts to broke

13:43

a peace in Europe hasn't

13:44

he? He has sorry John I was distracted

13:46

then because listeners might not realize

13:49

this but I'm in the studio and John's

13:50

at home and this studio is

13:52

hotter than the Sun and I'm

13:54

just discreetly rubbing an ice

13:56

cube over

13:57

my decolletage and I

13:59

just slightly panicked the... John thought I was trying to do some sort

14:01

of seductive maneuver but I'm not it is really

14:03

hot in here. If Jackie comes in now and

14:05

says what are you watching?

14:06

Angela

14:08

rubbing herself with ice cubes Jackie nothing

14:10

to worry about. Yeah no I'm at

14:12

home I'm at home listeners because I

14:14

got a little puppy now and the puppy has to be

14:16

looked after so I can't come

14:18

into the studio today but next time we'll be acting the studios

14:21

together. And I'll rub ice

14:23

cubes on myself while you're

14:25

in the room.

14:25

Anyway what are we talking about?

14:28

Oh yes Woodrow Wilson so yes he was fixated

14:30

on ending the war in his way

14:32

in order to pave the way for his idea

14:35

of a league of nations. This was his

14:37

philosophy he wants to bring the world democracy

14:40

and let's face it a little bit of US style

14:42

capitalism. Yeah

14:43

this is a big shift for US

14:45

foreign affairs over this period the Democrats

14:47

leading towards internationalism while

14:50

the Republicans becoming increasingly

14:52

isolationist they'll happily back

14:54

the British but would prefer to stay out of an

14:56

international sort of war.

14:57

Yeah exactly they sort of

14:59

see back in the British as

15:00

not being interventionist

15:03

in the same way as it would be with any other country.

15:05

So anyway Woodrow Wilson

15:07

he does win the election at the end of 1916 and

15:10

his second term in office

15:12

will officially begin in March 1917. Now

15:17

meanwhile

15:18

over in Imperial Germany

15:20

on the 22nd of November 1916 so

15:23

around the same time that Wilson's winning the election

15:26

they get a new foreign secretary

15:28

one Arthur Zimmerman. Arthur

15:31

however you want to anglicise it. Now

15:34

he's a little bit different from his predecessor

15:37

in that he was a commoner. He

15:40

wasn't from an aristocratic family he didn't

15:42

have the telltale von in his surname

15:44

that most of the Imperial government had. He

15:47

just earned a law degree became a career civil servant

15:49

in the German Foreign Office and he's worked his way

15:51

up and is now the foreign secretary

15:54

and Zimmerman had previously served

15:57

as a consul in China.

16:00

And the story goes that when he returned home to Germany

16:03

from China, he went via this

16:05

route that included a train trip

16:07

across the US. And apparently

16:10

this one train trip that he took

16:12

across the US meant that Zimmerman

16:14

regarded himself as a bit of an expert

16:16

on US affairs. Because

16:18

that's how it works, isn't it? You get a

16:20

track. That's why I'm such an expert on East Croydon,

16:23

because I travel through it daily.

16:25

So the US government were pretty

16:27

pleased with his appointment, weren't they? As a commoner,

16:29

he might represent a turn

16:32

to a more democratic Germany,

16:34

someone who might lobby internally

16:36

for peace and help Wilson to achieve his

16:38

goals. Because now his election's

16:40

won, Wilson can return his focus

16:42

to being the man who brokers peace in Europe

16:45

and forms the League of Nations. Yes.

16:47

And by the end of 1916, the

16:50

US has also suddenly got a little

16:52

bit more leverage with the Allies to negotiate

16:54

peace, largely because it turns out Britain

16:57

has reached her credit limit. J.P.

16:59

Morgan makes a report to the US Federal

17:01

Reserve Board that Britain has run

17:03

out of assets to secure any loans.

17:06

Now, this means any further loans the US

17:08

banks make to Britain will have to be

17:11

unsecured. And that makes it

17:13

a bit tricky for the Federal Reserve and the US

17:15

government because unsecured loans

17:17

to the Allies would give

17:19

the supposedly neutral US a

17:21

little bit of a vested interest in the Allies winning

17:24

the war. Because if they don't, they're

17:26

not getting paid back. So that could lead to financial

17:28

panic and economic decline in the US. So

17:31

it's a bit of a tricky situation for

17:33

their neutrality. Yeah.

17:35

And the idea that the First World War could have

17:37

massive ramifications for depression

17:39

and the economic crash sometime later, who

17:42

can imagine such a thing? Who can imagine such

17:44

a thing? On the other hand, the situation gives

17:46

Wilson a bit more scope to persuade the

17:48

British to try negotiating for peace, relying

17:51

as they are on the US cash

17:53

and credit. So the British somewhat

17:56

grudgingly, thinking they

17:58

were still the major world power. So how there

18:00

turns a piece of Wilson to take to

18:02

the central powers to try and thrash out some agreement.

18:05

Yeah, and it's a pretty long list of demands,

18:07

including restoration of Belgian independence,

18:10

independence for Serbia, Romania and Montenegro,

18:13

deliberation of Czechs, Slovaks, Italians,

18:16

Southern Slavs and Romanians from the Austrian

18:18

Empire, restitution of provinces

18:20

taken from the Allies by force in the past, i.e.

18:22

Alsace-Lorraine, liberation of all German

18:25

shepherds and free

18:25

schnapps for all. I might have made up a couple at the

18:28

end there. You left out liberation

18:30

of Narnia and all the statues to turn

18:32

back to real people. Yeah, they didn't leave a

18:34

lot of room for negotiating, did they?

18:35

No, and in response, the central powers

18:38

reiterated their view that only direct

18:40

talks with the Allies would end the war. They didn't

18:42

want this talk about international peacekeeping

18:45

agreements at this point. They wanted to wait till the end of the war. They

18:47

just wanted Wilson to leave them alone to settle it

18:50

directly. But not taking the

18:52

hint and not wanting to miss his chance to be remembered

18:54

forever as that guy who brokered

18:56

international peace, Wilson starts

18:59

preparing a speech to Congress with

19:01

all his ideas for exactly how he's going to make

19:03

peace happen.

19:05

Meanwhile, back in Imperial Germany,

19:07

different factions have different ideas

19:09

about how the war could end or should end. General

19:12

feeling was that keeping the US out of the war

19:14

was a good thing.

19:15

Yeah, German's action was increasingly

19:18

being controlled by this pair of quite

19:20

hawkish generals, Paul

19:22

von Hindenburg, who later becomes

19:24

the German president, and Erich

19:27

Ludendorff. So while they knew that

19:29

if the US entered the war, they'd be in trouble,

19:31

they also knew their ability to hold their own

19:33

against three major powers was waning.

19:36

Their best chance was to restart

19:39

the unrestricted submarine warfare

19:41

they'd agreed to end after thinking

19:43

of Lusitania. And though doing

19:45

this would almost certainly bring the US into the war, they

19:48

calculated that it would take the US longer

19:50

to get their troops into battle than it would for a new

19:52

U-boat campaign to end the war swiftly.

19:55

Yeah, yeah, I think they calculated that the

19:57

U-boats could end it before America could get

19:59

there.

19:59

Or at least they thought this was their best

20:02

last ditch attempt

20:03

to win the war. It would have to be via the U-boats.

20:06

They knew they couldn't win it on the fronts

20:08

probably at this stage. So

20:10

the Chancellor of Imperial Germany, ready

20:13

for this, John? Go on. Tierballed von

20:15

Betzmann-Holweg along with

20:17

the German ambassador in Washington,

20:20

who is Count Johann Heinrich

20:22

von Bernstrouff, just normal

20:24

guys, John. They weren't

20:26

convinced about the German Navy's ability

20:29

to win the war. They argued against

20:31

restarting this submarine warfare. So within

20:34

Germany, you had these hawkish

20:36

generals and the other guys going, hang on,

20:39

guys, let's not do anything rash here.

20:41

Yeah. Now, there's some quite important details about how

20:43

exactly these peace discussions are taking

20:45

place between the Chancellor in Germany and

20:47

the German ambassador in Washington. Yes.

20:50

So

20:51

the German transatlantic telegraph

20:53

cable from Berlin to

20:55

the German embassy in Washington had been

20:57

severed by the Allies right at the beginning

20:59

of the war. So in order to

21:01

get messages between Bernstrouff,

21:04

who's the ambassador in Washington, and the German

21:06

command, the US had

21:08

allowed them to use their diplomatic

21:11

cable between Berlin and Washington

21:13

to their embassy. So they're sending messages

21:16

in codes that the US isn't able to read

21:18

on the US diplomatic cable. And that's

21:21

been agreed. That's OK. Right.

21:23

So technically, this wasn't something a neutral country

21:25

should be doing, was it? I mean, letting a belligerent country

21:28

send coded messages on its telegraph lines,

21:31

unless they're also provided with a cipher

21:34

to ensure it was only being used for diplomacy

21:36

and not military purposes. Am I right? Yeah.

21:39

It's a bit of a gray area, I suppose, because

21:41

neutral nations also have

21:43

to honor the diplomatic privileges

21:45

of diplomats from belligerent nations.

21:47

So the use of the cable was

21:49

sort of granted as this limited privilege

21:52

with what the US thought was quite a noble purpose.

21:55

So Secretary of State at the time wasn't that happy about it,

21:57

but it was tricky.

21:59

About to. was approaches with the Allies peace

22:01

terms had been rejected by the Germans, the

22:04

US continued to allow encrypted conversations

22:06

to go back and forth on the US diplomatic

22:09

cable which remained open between the German

22:11

ambassador in Washington and the

22:13

German Foreign Office. What harm could it do,

22:15

Angela?

22:16

Absolutely. They allowed it to be open

22:18

for these talks. The talks ended.

22:21

Nothing came of them, yet they still allowed

22:23

that cable to be open. Well, I'll

22:25

tell you what harm it could do. Do you remember, John, the

22:27

Imperial German Foreign Office had this new Foreign

22:29

Secretary, our friend Arthur Zimmerman, who

22:32

was an aristocratic and therefore Wilson

22:35

thought he'd be the ideal person to get

22:37

peace talks moving, right?

22:39

I do remember him actually because in an

22:41

episode called the Zimmerman Telegram...

22:44

He's quite prominent. Yes.

22:46

So, it turns out Wilson had

22:49

got that really wrong. Arthur

22:51

Zimmerman's thinking was very much in line

22:53

with the Hautish generals. Okay. He

22:56

was a bit more skeptical even than them

22:58

about the US military potential to make much of

23:00

a difference if they did enter the war because after

23:03

all, John, he was the expert.

23:05

He'd done one train trip through

23:07

the US,

23:07

John. New America. He

23:09

knew what he was

23:10

talking about. And in fact, he

23:12

had a meeting with the US ambassador in Berlin,

23:15

James Gerard. And in this meeting, Zimmerman

23:17

shows Gerard this data that he'd got from

23:20

the US census in 1910

23:22

that showed just how many millions of US

23:25

citizens were born in Germany or had parents

23:27

born in Germany. And he warned

23:29

the ambassador. He said that if the US went to war,

23:32

they could find themselves with half a million German revolutionaries

23:35

on their home soil. So, which Gerard

23:37

is said to have calmly responded that the US also

23:40

had half a million

23:41

lamp posts.

23:42

Mic drop. Mic drop. Zinger.

23:47

So Zimmerman has these pretty

23:50

optimistic views of how Germany could overcome

23:52

the US and the war. But Belton

23:54

braces, he also thought it'd be, you

23:57

know, he should increase Germany's chances even

23:59

more if the US were to be born. say get bogged down

24:01

in another conflict elsewhere and he

24:03

reckons he knows how he can make this happen.

24:05

Yes so his plan is he's

24:07

going to send a message to Bernsdorf, the ambassador

24:10

in Washington, about the plan to

24:12

restart this unrestricted submarine warfare

24:14

and then it's going to happen on the 1st of February 1917 and

24:18

that Bernsdorf, he

24:20

should, via the German ambassador in

24:22

Mexico City, approach Carranza,

24:25

you know the leader in Mexico and who's

24:27

likely to become president in the upcoming elections,

24:30

he should approach him and invite Mexico

24:33

into an alliance with Germany to go

24:35

to war on the US and

24:37

in exchange

24:39

Germany would provide financial

24:42

aid and would arrange for Mexico to get

24:44

Texas, New Mexico and Arizona

24:46

back as part of a peace settlement.

24:49

This is pretty massive isn't it? I mean it's pretty nuts I

24:51

think. Yeah Germany are about

24:53

to entice Mexico to start

24:55

a war with the US.

24:57

That's insane and the idea that Germany has the power

25:00

to sort of do anything about Texas or Arizona

25:02

or whatever so crazy plan. I

25:05

need a break to take that in Angela. Yes. Let

25:07

a belligerent nation use my diplomatic

25:09

cable right now. Is that a euphemism John? Sounds

25:12

like one. We'll see you in a minute.

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26:25

Hello and welcome back to We Are History. We're

26:27

at the end of 1916, and German

26:29

Foreign Minister Artur Zimmermann

26:32

has had this great idea that Germany

26:34

should propose forming an alliance with Mexico

26:37

against the United States with the purpose

26:39

of drawing the Americans into a war with Mexico and

26:41

thus diminishing their ability to support

26:43

the allies when Germany restarts

26:46

its unrestricted submarine campaign

26:48

in Europe. Crikey. Yes,

26:50

and all Zimmermann has to do to start this ball

26:53

rolling is to get a message to

26:55

Bernstoff, the German

26:57

ambassador in Washington. Yes.

26:59

So originally Zimmermann's plan

27:01

was to send this message to the German ambassador

27:04

on board a ship called the Deutschland,

27:06

which was this new merchant submarine.

27:09

However, her scheduled trip in 1917

27:12

ended up being cancelled. But undetermined,

27:15

he has this idea. Remember that US

27:17

diplomatic cable that Wilson was letting

27:19

Germany use to talk about peace stuff?

27:21

I do, Angela.

27:23

Well, there doesn't seem to be anything

27:25

stopping Zimmermann using that

27:27

to get his message to Mexico via Washington.

27:30

In the meantime, as Zimmermann is making

27:32

plans to draw him into war with Mexico,

27:35

Wilson is laying out some plans of his

27:37

own. On 11 January 1917, he addresses the Senate to

27:42

tell them his vision for peace without

27:45

victory.

27:46

Yes. So he believes that if one

27:48

side actually wins the war,

27:51

it's going to foster bitterness

27:52

and resentment, John. Yeah,

27:54

losing wars will do that. Yeah.

27:56

And so he thinks that

27:58

that's not a good foundation for lasting. peace,

28:00

he believes that only peace between equals

28:03

can last, not between a victor and a loser.

28:05

So only if neither side actually

28:08

wins

28:08

can there be peace. It's

28:10

not like the end of the First World War led to loads

28:12

of bitterness in Germany and the rise

28:14

of one party that led

28:17

to the next war. No Jon, of course Woodrow

28:19

Wilson didn't have the benefit of hindsight.

28:22

But he's actually laid the foundation to face League

28:24

of Nations idea isn't he? And the Democrats perceived

28:26

his speech well it should be said.

28:27

Yeah they did. His detractors obviously

28:30

scoffed at it. Theodore Roosevelt

28:32

said peace without victory is the natural

28:34

ideal

28:34

of a man who is too proud

28:36

to fight. Ugh. Yes.

28:39

But anyway just five days after this

28:41

peace without victory speech on

28:43

January the 16th 1917

28:46

Arthur Zimmerman sends his telegram

28:49

and he actually sends two cables to increase

28:51

chances of the message getting through. So he

28:53

sends one via a legitimate German

28:56

diplomatic cable that hasn't been severed which

28:58

goes between neutral Sweden

29:00

and the German ambassador in neutral Buenos

29:02

Aires. But more audaciously

29:05

he does indeed use the US's

29:08

own diplomatic telegraph cable

29:10

to send the message to the ambassador

29:13

in Washington and this message is what becomes known

29:15

as the Zimmerman telegram.

29:17

Dun dun dun. Dun dun

29:19

dun. The route the US message

29:22

took from Berlin was to pass like

29:24

a telegraph line to Denmark also neutral

29:27

and from there it went underwater to this place called

29:29

Britain and from Britain to the US.

29:32

Yes and apparently it never occurred

29:34

to Zimmerman or the Americans that

29:36

had allowed the use of this cable that

29:39

A the cable would pass through British

29:42

controlled relay stations or

29:44

that B the plucky Brits might

29:46

just have broken their diplomatic code and

29:49

that's what they'd done. So room 40

29:52

was a cryptographic office based in the

29:54

old Admiralty buildings and

29:56

they were headed up by Admiral William Hall

29:58

who was the director of Naval Intelligence. intelligence. And

30:01

initially, Room 40 was using these recovered

30:03

German naval code books that the Russians

30:06

had found in the Baltic Sea. And

30:08

during the first two years of the war, they were mostly

30:10

concentrated on these tactical naval

30:12

traffic. But once their

30:14

success helped the British Navy to bottle up

30:16

the German fleet, it turned to

30:19

breaking German traffic of more strategic

30:21

value to the Allies.

30:22

So the codebreakers in Room 40 actually managed

30:24

to get their hands on the coded Zimmerman Telegram

30:27

at about the same time as Burnstoff in the

30:29

Washington Embassy did. Is that quick? That's right.

30:32

Yeah. And both versions of Zimmerman's

30:34

Telegram were

30:35

intercepted. So the one that had gone on the

30:37

cable to Buenos Aires and the one to Washington,

30:40

they were both intercepted. And it turns

30:42

out they'd been enciphered using a code

30:45

called code 0075, which

30:49

as luck would have it, the British had just already

30:51

partially broken. Yeah. So within 24

30:54

hours of intercepting these telegrams, Room 40

30:58

already knew they had a bit of a bombshell on their

31:00

hands, and that this Telegram

31:03

contained information that could finally get the

31:05

US to declare war on Germany

31:07

and join the Allies.

31:08

So did they release what they'd uncovered? Well,

31:11

no, they couldn't.

31:11

Because you see the main problem, John, with someone

31:13

finding out that you've broken their diplomatic

31:16

code, is that they then know you've

31:18

broken their diplomatic code. Clever.

31:20

So that means they immediately changed their code

31:22

and you can no longer read their messages. So you have to

31:24

time it. Right.

31:26

Did they show the US a lease, what the Germans

31:28

were planning? Well, that was also a bit tricky,

31:30

because, John, it's

31:31

going to be a bit of a dead giveaway that British

31:33

intelligence had been monitoring the US

31:36

diplomatic cable, which, because

31:38

they were a neutral,

31:39

wasn't really cricket. Or baseball,

31:41

as they would say. Or baseball, as they would

31:43

say. Yes, right. So

31:45

Hall ordered the telegram's existence

31:48

be kept secret from all other

31:50

agencies, while the cryptographers,

31:53

I can almost say that, worked to fill the gaps

31:55

in the message and they decided what to do with

31:57

it. Yeah.

31:58

And then the thing that Germany had told

32:00

the US that happened, happened. On the 31st

32:03

of January, 1917, at 4.10 in

32:05

the afternoon, Secretary of State Robert

32:08

Lansing in the US received a

32:10

German diplomatic note informing

32:12

the US government that Germany would resume

32:14

U-boat attacks without warning on

32:16

all sea traffic around the British Isles, France

32:19

and Italy. So things are really heating

32:21

up. And so Lansing recommends

32:23

at this point that US break all diplomatic

32:25

relations with Germany immediately. Woodrow

32:29

Wilson wants time to think about what the best course of

32:31

action is, but he's cabinet's unanimous in their support

32:33

for just breaking off diplomatic relations.

32:36

So it's hotting up. The next day Wilson

32:38

speaks to Congress and announces

32:41

the decision to break off relations. He expresses

32:43

hope that Germany won't follow through on their

32:45

threat, but if they do, he would

32:48

do whatever necessary to save

32:50

US lives. That's

32:51

right. So with these diplomatic ties

32:54

broken, the ambassador, Bernstorff

32:56

in Washington, is preparing to

32:59

pack up the embassy and go home. But

33:01

before he goes back to Berlin, he

33:03

follows the instructions that the Zimmerman Telegram

33:06

gave him. So because

33:08

it looks like the US is getting closer to joining the

33:10

war, he then sends a message

33:13

as instructed to the German ambassador

33:15

in Mexico City with all

33:17

the details of Zimmerman's Telegram and

33:19

tells him to start negotiating

33:22

an alliance with Carranza's government in

33:24

Mexico. And he sends the message

33:26

using an older diplomatic code. This becomes

33:28

important later because the Mexican

33:30

embassy doesn't have the ciphers

33:33

for the 0075 code that

33:35

Zimmerman had used yet. So he rewrites the

33:37

message and sends it using this

33:39

older code to the embassy. I'm

33:41

a bit sad the number of that code wasn't 007. It's

33:44

called 0075. 007 would have been

33:46

there. It's so close. But it would have been

33:49

more fun. Back in 1940, they'd

33:51

eventually inform the British Foreign Office of

33:53

the Telegram's existence and what it

33:55

contained. They told him on the 5th of February.

33:58

Yeah. Now the British have...

33:59

major concerns about a Germany-Mexico

34:02

alliance, not least because

34:04

most of the Navy's modern

34:05

ships are being fuelled by

34:07

Mexican oil. And they

34:09

know that shared information contained in the telegram

34:11

could also sway US public opinion

34:14

and force Woodrow Wilson's hand into

34:16

joining the Allies in the war, which is what they want.

34:19

Yeah. But how are they going to let

34:21

the US know what they've discovered

34:23

without showing that they've been monitoring

34:26

US diplomatic cables? Right.

34:28

So as luck would have it, the British

34:30

ambassador in Mexico, now this is complicated, Jon,

34:33

so concentrate, right? You

34:35

ready for this? I'm fast, I'm concentrating.

34:36

The British ambassador in Mexico, he

34:39

has a contact in

34:41

the Telegraph Office there who owes him a favour.

34:44

So he calls it in and he manages

34:46

to get hold of the copy of the German

34:48

telegram that Bernstorff in Washington

34:51

had just sent to the embassy in Mexico.

34:54

And it was the one that was worded a bit differently to the Zimmerman

34:56

original and used that older diplomatic code,

34:59

a code 130-40, which is

35:01

even less impressive than 0075. So

35:05

being an older and less sophisticated

35:07

code, British intelligence has obviously

35:09

already cracked it. And so they were able to fill

35:11

in gaps from the original cable. The stuff that they couldn't

35:14

work out in Zimmerman's original telegram was

35:16

all there for them to see in this

35:18

message.

35:19

So sorry this decoded telegram

35:21

to the US instead of the original Zimmerman

35:24

one meant that room 40 would

35:27

not have to let on A, that they'd monitored the US

35:29

cable or B, that they'd cracked a more

35:31

recent diplomatic code, am I right? That's

35:33

right. So

35:34

a bit later in February on the 19th, Hall

35:36

showed it to Edward Bell. He was an official from

35:38

the US embassy in London. He served as a

35:40

sort of liaison to British intelligence.

35:43

Yeah. Bell's immediate reaction was pretty predictably

35:45

to denounce the telegram as a fake. Surely

35:48

it was utterly ridiculous to suggest that

35:50

the Germans were in talks with Mexico about starting

35:52

a war to get back to Texas, which

35:54

is quite unbelievable because it was.

35:56

Yeah, exactly. Well, Hall reassured

35:59

him that the telegram was a fake. was genuine and to prove

36:01

it he suggested that the US government could

36:03

check with Western Union and they would

36:05

see that Bernstorff had sent that coded telegram

36:08

to Mexico City at exactly the time Britain said

36:10

they had and then if the State

36:12

Department wanted to forward a copy of the coded

36:14

telegram to its embassy in London,

36:17

Hall would bring over Room 40's own

36:20

copy of the German code book for

36:22

that code and then the US could

36:24

decipher it themselves so they could

36:26

see for themselves that it was genuine without

36:29

it having been interpreted by

36:31

the British. So satisfied it was real,

36:34

Bell made sure a copy was sent to

36:36

the US Ambassador Walter Page

36:39

who in turn reported it to Woodrow Wilson

36:41

on February 24th 1917.

36:45

Yes, and Wilson understandably

36:47

pretty indignant on hearing the news. There

36:50

was no suggestion he ever questioned the authenticity

36:52

of the

36:53

telegram as far as we know.

36:54

In Mexico City

36:56

the US Ambassador asked the Foreign Ministry

36:59

there about the telegram or whether they'd had any approach

37:01

from the German Ambassador and of course they

37:03

denied all knowledge of it, Mexico which

37:05

was a lie of course, but there's no evidence

37:07

that Mexico were ever actually

37:10

interested in the alliance. It looks

37:12

like Carranza did speak to his military

37:14

commanders about the proposition but

37:16

Mexico was just too

37:17

broken from all the recent conflicts.

37:19

They had no appetite for a new one, they

37:21

just enacted a new constitution, they

37:23

were a president with presidential elections

37:25

coming up, they didn't need it, they didn't want it.

37:27

Yes,

37:28

they also knew full well that Germany could

37:30

promise all the military aid in the world but

37:32

while the British blockade was still in effect there

37:35

was no way to get supplies from Germany to Mexico

37:37

anyway.

37:38

No, exactly and Mexico had very little hope

37:40

of defeating the US on the battlefield at that

37:42

time and even if they had, all

37:45

those ceded territories that Germany were

37:47

promising to give back, if they had been returned,

37:49

well then they're just having to deal with a load of new

37:51

territories largely inhabited by a lot of English

37:54

speaking people who've got no desire to be Mexican.

37:56

Right. As far as Mexico is

37:58

concerned, an alliance with Germany...

37:59

Germany at that time, it

38:01

was just more trouble than it was worth really and could only

38:03

end badly. I think that's time

38:05

for another little break Angela, while I question

38:07

the authenticity of these notes Angela has sent me,

38:10

we'll see you in a bit after this.

38:22

Hello and welcome back to Noussommes L'Histoire.

38:25

Oh, hello. Angela has

38:27

just been informed about

38:29

the Zimmermann Telegram whereby Germany

38:32

has made contact with Mexico about making

38:34

an alliance against the US. Yes,

38:37

and President Woodrow Wilson

38:38

is playing things pretty carefully.

38:40

Now, he's delicate John, despite

38:43

everything he's still quite hesitant to declare war.

38:45

He's won the presidency on a no-war platform.

38:48

There's a lot of mixed feelings about going to war in

38:50

the States. So he's got to tread carefully here.

38:54

And while he'd been re-elected

38:56

at the end of 1916, remember

38:58

his new term doesn't actually begin until

39:01

noon on the 4th of March. We're still

39:03

in February.

39:04

As he was already present, it didn't really matter,

39:07

but it did mean that any address to Congress

39:09

he gave then in February would

39:12

essentially be to a lame duck Congress

39:14

anyway, as the 65th Congress

39:17

elected in November wouldn't take

39:19

office until he did. And other terms

39:21

at the time, the new Congress were not

39:23

required to meet until the first Monday

39:26

in December. There will be a test on this listener,

39:28

so I'm hoping you're taking notes.

39:29

Well, it's quite important this because the point

39:31

is he can't really declare war. It won't give him the legitimacy.

39:34

Yeah. So presidents do have

39:36

the power to call Congress earlier. And

39:38

on one hand, Republicans are clamoring for him

39:41

to do that. But on the other hand, there's

39:43

a large contingent of pacifists he's dealing with

39:45

who want Wilson to adjourn Congress straight

39:47

away. Right. And these pacifists, they

39:50

were led by a man called Fighting Bob

39:52

La Follette, which is a bit ironic name

39:54

for a pacifist, but apparently it's because

39:56

of his energetic manner

39:57

job.

39:58

Yeah. I love giving politicians

40:01

illiterate names, don't they? General

40:03

Mad Dog Mattists we had. We

40:05

don't do that with politicians here so much,

40:07

do we?

40:07

No, shame me, didn't it? Bullshitting Boris, Lion,

40:10

Liz, I don't know,

40:11

got any more? I mean, we have

40:13

rhymes. We have Maggie Thatcher, Mill Snatcher. Yeah,

40:15

that's true. Tony B. Lier. A

40:18

bit more creative.

40:19

Anyway, let's not get into that. Wilson

40:22

decided what he would do is he would

40:24

wait for the old Congress to officially end

40:26

before doing anything.

40:28

He did want to give those agitating for war in

40:30

the old Congress a platform to do so. And

40:33

if he did end up preparing war, the new Congress

40:35

would have more religious mercy. That's

40:37

right. But he also didn't want to adjourn Congress

40:39

because there was something he still needed

40:41

to do. At this stage, he wanted

40:44

the Congress to grant him the authority

40:46

to arm merchant shipping vessels.

40:48

This was his answer to the summary warfare problem.

40:51

And he felt that that could buy him time until the new

40:53

Congress convened in nine months time

40:56

or whenever it was.

40:57

So on the 26th of February, 1917, Wilson

41:00

addressed Congress to ask for that authorization.

41:02

And the next day, our friend fighting

41:04

Bob Follett, the pacifist, he

41:07

came up with a plan to filibuster this authorization.

41:09

He didn't want it to go ahead. So he got 10 senators

41:12

to sign up to join him in filibustering

41:15

it.

41:15

So seeing that he was going to face opposition to his

41:17

proposal, Wilson decided that the time was

41:20

right to leak the details of the Zimmerman Telegraph

41:22

to the press. After all, he needed not

41:24

only Congress, but he needed public opinion on

41:26

his side too, Angela.

41:27

That's right. So on the 1st of March,

41:30

newspapers across the States carried these headlines

41:32

saying that Germany was trying to ally with Mexico

41:35

to attack the USA. And it wouldn't

41:37

have seemed that implausible to the American people when

41:39

you consider it was less than a year after Pantrovia's

41:42

raid on Columbus and all that had happened.

41:45

Yeah,

41:45

but of course, the news reports couldn't explain

41:47

how the press had got this information

41:49

or how the message had been intercepted and decoded.

41:52

So the anti-war senators admittedly started

41:55

throwing its authenticity into question. Yeah,

41:58

many people jumped to the correct conclusion.

41:59

that British intelligence was involved somewhere

42:02

along the line, but that didn't necessarily give

42:04

the telegram legitimacy in everybody's

42:06

eyes.

42:07

Yeah, especially for example, you're an Irish-American politician,

42:10

you might be a little skeptical about anything British

42:12

intelligence was telling you.

42:13

Exactly. So were Joe Wilson himself,

42:16

he had to come out publicly to confirm

42:19

the authenticity of the telegram, which

42:21

he had no qualms about doing that. But of course,

42:23

he had no way to explain how it had been intercepted

42:25

and deciphered and to prove it.

42:27

So publisher William Radov Hurst, a committed

42:30

pacifist, instructed his newspapers to

42:32

take the position that it was probably a

42:34

forgery. Yes,

42:36

and you also had George Vierrecht,

42:38

who was a German-American poet and

42:40

pro-German propagandist and

42:42

he was editor of the Fatherland. There were a lot

42:44

of people with German

42:46

descent in the US. And he

42:49

was actually working with German agents at the time.

42:51

So he called the Zimmermann telegram preposterous,

42:54

brazen and obviously

42:55

fakes, but he would say that wouldn't he? And he

42:57

did go on later to work with the Nazis. So

43:00

yeah. Yes, nobody on any side thought the

43:02

Germans would admit to selling the telegram,

43:04

especially with no public proof of authenticity.

43:07

And sure enough, the German ambassador in Mexico City publicly

43:09

denied any knowledge of having received such

43:12

a telegram. He

43:13

did. But then, a couple of days later, 3rd of

43:15

March, after Zimmermann's holding

43:18

this press conference in Berlin, and

43:20

there was a US reporter, William Baird Hale,

43:22

who worked for Hurst's papers, where

43:25

it actually was being paid by the German government

43:27

to advise them about press and PR in the US.

43:30

He asked Zimmermann directly about the telegram

43:32

and much to everyone's surprise, he replied, I

43:34

did not deny it. It is

43:36

true. Oh, thanks for that. Thanks for

43:38

that, Zimmermann. It's not

43:41

especially clear why he admitted to selling the telegram.

43:43

He probably thought it was pointless not to at this stage.

43:45

Yeah. And he also used the argument in his

43:48

defence that the telegram was justified. He

43:50

said it wasn't an act of war, but rather a

43:52

contingency plan for if the US

43:54

declared war first on Germany.

43:56

Perfectly legit. Right. Anyway,

43:58

back in the US, releasing the... details of the telegram had

44:01

started to have the desired effect and

44:03

the House of Representatives passed Woodrow

44:05

Wilson's request to arm merchant vessels

44:08

that was passed by March then 403 to 13.

44:11

Yeah,

44:11

but getting the proposal through the Senate, John, was a

44:13

bit of a different story because of our friend fighting

44:16

Bob Follett. Oh, yeah. He was pretty determined

44:18

to filibuster this bill. And

44:20

if he and the senators he'd rounded up could

44:23

just hold out until noon on the 4th

44:25

of March, that would mean the immediate

44:28

end of this old Congress would force

44:30

the end of the bill because that's when the

44:31

new Congress would take over.

44:35

Do we need to explain what filibustering is, do you think?

44:37

People know that, don't they? Oh, say anyway, just

44:40

talking for a lot until you've run out of parliamentary time,

44:42

isn't it really?

44:43

Yeah, exactly. You should keep talking until

44:45

the debates ended and then the vote can't happen.

44:47

The debate started on the 3rd of March,

44:50

so he's just going to keep the debate going till noon the

44:52

next day. But 75

44:54

senators have put themselves on record as

44:57

supporting the bill. Now, today,

44:59

that would have been enough to pass it. However, at

45:01

the time, the rules were that even

45:04

if just one senator wanted to keep

45:06

talking, wanted to filibuster in the debate,

45:08

you couldn't stop them. And so fighting

45:11

Bob was going to do exactly that.

45:13

Tensions were pretty high. For some reason, fighting

45:15

Bob had brought a loaded pistol with

45:17

him. It's America, I remember. Because if you're going

45:19

to be sleep deprived from filibustering, you should probably be

45:22

armed. I was going to say different times,

45:24

but it's America. So

45:26

fighting Bob's plan was to spend the last

45:28

two hours of the debate with his own

45:30

speech. So to end the filibuster with this

45:32

big moment,

45:34

two hour speech, angry

45:36

pro Wilson Democrats, they managed to hold the

45:38

floor themselves to stop him doing that. So

45:40

noon came, the vice president was

45:43

forced to adjourn the Senate. So fighting

45:45

Bob

45:45

got what he wanted, but he was denied

45:47

this spotlight grabbing moment that he'd wanted

45:50

as well. All this was happening. Wilson

45:52

was elsewhere taking his oath of office for his second

45:54

term in a private ceremony ahead

45:56

of the official inauguration the next day.

46:00

He was pretty pissed off that the Senate hadn't managed to

46:02

agree and that's when he made his now famous

46:04

statement, a little group of willful

46:07

men representing no opinion but their

46:09

own have rendered the great government of the United

46:11

States helpless and contemptible.

46:14

Yeah, this is a little aside really to the story, but I think

46:16

it's really interesting because it's this event

46:19

which is why just a few days later they changed

46:21

the rules of filibustering and

46:23

what is called a couture, is that how

46:25

you say it? Clouture?

46:26

Yeah.

46:27

And that allowed the Senate

46:29

to end a debate that had a two-thirds majority

46:32

vote, so they could no longer

46:34

do this thing where if one senator disagreed he

46:36

could filibuster it. If there was a two-thirds

46:38

majority for it, then

46:41

that would pass. And that rule stayed

46:43

in place up until 1975 when

46:45

it was changed to a three-fifths

46:47

majority.

46:48

But that's where that rule came from, that moment.

46:50

As it happened, Wilson reminded the Senate that

46:53

he didn't actually need their authority to

46:55

order the arming of merchant ships, so he went ahead

46:57

and signed an executive order to do

46:59

so instead. Yeah.

47:01

With everything going on, he was left

47:03

no choice though, but to call the new Congress

47:06

intercession. So initially he

47:08

set April the 16th as the date, giving

47:10

himself a month or so to think about

47:12

the possibility or probability of war

47:15

and what that would mean for this vision of his

47:17

for peace without victory.

47:19

It was deeply concerned that war would fundamentally change

47:21

the character of the American people. He said in

47:23

a conversation with journalist and friend Frank

47:26

I. Cobb, once I lead

47:29

people into war, they'll forget there was ever such

47:31

a thing as tolerance. To fight,

47:33

you must be brutal and ruthless, and

47:35

the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter

47:38

the very fibre of our national life, in

47:40

fact, in Congress, the courts, the

47:42

policeman on the beat, and the man on the street. This

47:44

is pretty rich considering they'd had the American Civil War,

47:46

they'd killed all the Native Americans. I don't know

47:48

why you thought America was coming forward at this point, but

47:50

anyway. Well, yeah, but it's

47:52

still pretty professic stuff when you think about it. Yeah,

47:55

the following day Wilson spoke to his cabinet and

47:57

they were unanimous for war. reveal

48:00

his own lingering doubts and he did bring

48:02

forward the upcoming scheduled Congress

48:04

to the 2nd of April. So

48:06

the new Congress convened on that date and

48:08

that evening Wilson arrived to

48:10

address them. There's a solemn mood

48:13

and in his speech he asked them to declare the

48:15

recent course of the Imperial German Government

48:18

to be in fact nothing less than war

48:20

against the government and people of the United

48:22

States. In the rest of his speech

48:24

he made it clear that the Declaration would be against the autocratic

48:27

government of Imperial Germany that made

48:29

war for its own purposes and that the US had no

48:31

quarrel with the German people. He said

48:34

that a democratic Germany would never

48:36

have committed such crimes and he laid out his

48:38

vision again of this post-war

48:41

world that he could foresee whereby

48:43

peace was maintained by a partnership of

48:45

democratic nations. And the speech

48:47

included the line that would come to define his

48:50

foreign policy legacy and his personal

48:52

reasons for entering the war

48:54

which was the world must be made safe

48:56

for democracy.

48:58

This speech was greeted with applause and flag

49:00

waving except a cause for a grumpy old fighting

49:03

Bob La Follette who sat quietly defeated

49:06

with his arms resolutely folded.

49:08

Two days later the Senate spent 13

49:11

hours

49:11

debating the war resolution

49:13

and old fighting Bob personally took

49:16

up four of those 13 hours unsurprisingly.

49:19

Yeah but in the end only six senators

49:21

voted no that's three Democrats and three Republicans.

49:24

The House debate was similar and the final vote

49:26

was 373 to 50 for going to war. There's

49:31

a little interesting bit of women's history

49:33

here John for you. I know you like

49:35

women's history. Oh here we go. Oh

49:37

yeah.

49:37

This new Congress included

49:40

Jeanette Rankin. Do you know who she is?

49:42

You do because you can see my notes. She

49:44

was the first woman to hold federal

49:47

office in the US so big deal and

49:50

she was elected in Montana and to date

49:52

remains the only woman ever elected

49:54

to Congress in Montana. Her

49:57

vote here is really interesting because

49:59

She'd been a lifelong pacifist, she was

50:02

a suffragist, but there

50:04

was a lot of pressure on her from advocates

50:07

of women's suffrage to vote for

50:09

the declaration of war because

50:11

they saw this as an opportunity to prove

50:14

that women weren't too weak for Congress.

50:16

They were capable of making difficult decisions, they

50:18

were capable of being belligerent. But

50:21

when it came to voting, she really hesitated

50:23

because she was a pacifist. So she

50:25

did vote with her heart in the end,

50:27

she did vote against the war with tears

50:29

in her eyes apparently John.

50:31

Oh, it's women. Yeah, there

50:34

you go. Bloody worse. I mean,

50:36

what can you expect, Angela? You know I've always been against

50:39

women in fact having a vote and this has sort of proved it really.

50:41

I know, I know John. So it was with only a

50:43

bit of opposition from those pomies

50:46

and ladies who are too emotional to get involved

50:48

in this sort of thing anyway. The US became

50:51

belligerent in the Great War, which is what it

50:53

was actually called. Nobody can really know

50:55

the precise reasons why Wilson opted for war.

50:58

The resumption of submarine warfare, Zimmermann

51:00

Telegram are the main reasons why it's felt

51:03

he really had no choice.

51:04

Yeah, I did read some interesting things about another

51:06

probable factor that doesn't get spoken about

51:08

as much for reasons that are quite obvious

51:10

I suppose. But remember that around

51:13

the same time, on the 8th of March 1917, the February

51:15

Revolution had taken

51:17

place in Petrograd.

51:18

No, sorry, February Revolution in March. Yeah,

51:21

it was a Julian versus Gregorian calendar

51:23

thing John. It was March as far

51:25

as the West was concerned. On

51:27

the 12th of March Tsar Nicholas abdicated.

51:30

Tsar Nicholas II abdicated. Now

51:33

Russia had been a bit of a problem for Woodrow

51:35

Wilson's framing of the war

51:37

as being one between the world's great

51:39

democracies and the world's most powerful autocracies,

51:41

being that imperial

51:43

Russia was just as if not more

51:45

autocratic than Austria, Germany or

51:48

the Ottoman Empire. So bearing

51:50

in mind this was all happening before the October

51:52

Bolshevik

51:53

Revolution. Yeah.

51:54

Wilson felt he could now justify

51:56

his

51:57

moral argument because

51:58

Russia now...

51:59

after the

52:01

February Revolution, it can be seen

52:03

as a fledgling democracy. And its democracy

52:06

is under assault by the crisis troops.

52:09

So we know Wilson's vision for a post-war

52:12

league of nations was that only democratic

52:14

governments need apply. So

52:16

allying with Russia would

52:18

have undermined that ideal somewhat before

52:21

this point. But the revolution happening

52:24

eliminated this obstacle. So Wilson going

52:26

to war, and now they were just another democracy

52:28

calling for support. And I guess the power of

52:30

hindsight means that this part of his reasoning is

52:33

slightly glossed over in

52:35

history now, because by the time the war

52:37

was over in 1918, the radical

52:39

policies of the new communist government in Russia

52:42

didn't exactly fit

52:44

his ideal either once the Bolshevik Revolution

52:46

had taken place. So they weren't invited

52:48

to join the League of Nations, not until the 30s, and then

52:51

only

52:52

until they went and

52:53

invaded Finland.

52:54

Yes, I mean, so it took a long time

52:57

for Russia to become the peaceful democratic

52:59

state it is today. And that

53:03

is how the US came to enter the Great

53:06

War. Very informative,

53:08

Angela. Thank you, John. What

53:10

happened next?

53:10

Well, you know, spring 1918,

53:13

the war-weary Allied armies greeted

53:15

these fresh American troops who arrived at the

53:17

rate of 10,000 a day, John. Right.

53:21

At a time when the Germans were unable to replace their

53:23

losses, they didn't have this fresh supply of new

53:26

young men. Yeah. The Americans

53:28

helped the Allied forces defeat and turn back

53:30

the powerful final German spring offensive.

53:33

And most importantly, the Americans played

53:35

a role in the Allied 100 Days Offensive

53:37

of August to November 1918.

53:40

Yes, I do remember reading a bit

53:42

about this when I wrote my history book, which I mentioned every bloody

53:44

podcast, but the sense was with

53:46

America coming into the war, the Germans

53:49

threw everything into that spring offensive before

53:51

Americans made any difference.

53:54

And it was that spring offensive that sort of killed

53:56

the Germans off. So the psychological

53:59

effect of the American coming to the war was almost as big

54:01

as the physical impact of extra

54:03

troops. But the official figures for US military

54:05

war deaths in World War I is 116,516,

54:08

which includes 53,402 battle deaths and 63,114

54:19

non-combat deaths. That's more. That's amazing,

54:21

isn't it? Yeah. Well,

54:22

John, on that cheerful note, I

54:24

think that's it for this week's episode

54:26

of how the US entered World

54:28

War I.

54:29

Yeah, I think we've got some people we should thank.

54:31

Yes,

54:31

we'd like to thank our Patreon supporters.

54:34

Don't forget, you can support our Patreon if you go to patreon.com

54:37

slash we are history. And

54:39

we've got some shout outs to do. John,

54:40

do you want to start? Susan O'Brook,

54:42

thank you. Jennifer D'Souza.

54:45

Sandra Hines. Cheryl Harris.

54:49

And Helen Winkle, thank

54:51

you. Thank all of you who've supported

54:53

us. It really helps us make the podcast.

54:57

We are very grateful. It really does. That's

55:00

it for this week. It is. We'll

55:02

be back next week. We'll

55:04

see you next week on We Are History. Bye.

55:13

We Are History is written and presented by Angela

55:15

Barnes and Donna Farrell. With audio production

55:17

by me, Simon Williams. The lead producer

55:20

is Anne-Marie Lufft and the group editor is Andrew

55:22

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