Synopsis

When the guns of August opened the first volleys of the Great War in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson pledged to maintain American neutrality. He upheld this commitment for nearly three years, until 1917. The German resumption of "unrestricted submarine warfare"—a tactic they had previously abandoned in 1915—forced his hand. With American vessels now vulnerable to attack, and evidence surfacing of German efforts to incite Japan and Mexico to oppose the United States, Wilson could no longer rema