iners without taking precautions to protect the lives of civilians. (Alistair Horne, 1970)In March 1916, however, a German submarine sank an unarmed French Channel steamer, the Sussex, with the loss of two Americans. President Wilson threatened to separate diplomatic relations with the German government unless it abandoned "its present methods of submarine warfare against passenger and freight-carrying vessels." In May, the German government pledged not to sink merchant vessels without warning and without saving the lives of those aboard. For nine months the pledge was kept generally to the satisfaction of the United States. Wilson's powerful diplomacy seemed to have averted war with Germany, and as the Democratic candidate in the presidential election of 1916, Wilson was elected over the Republican nominee, Charles Evans Hughes, largely because "he kept us out of war." The war, however, was near.At the end of January 1917, Germany broke the so-called Sussex Pledge by declaring unrestricted submarine warfare in a zone even larger than the one it had proclaimed in 1915. On February 3, Wilson replied by breaking off diplomatic relations with Germany. Later in the month, at his request, Congress passed a bill permitting U.S. merchant vessels to arm. After new depredations by German submarines against uninvolved shipping, and the discovery of a plan made by the German Foreign Office to unite Germany, Mexico, and Japan against the United States if it entered the war, Wilson on April 2, 1917, requested Congress to declare war. On April 6, Congress passed a resolution declaring a state of war with Germany. (Alistair Horne, 1970)The early part of 1918 did not look favorable for the Allied nations. On March 3, Russia signed the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk, which put a formal end to the war between that nation and the Central Powers on terms more favorable to the latter; and on May7, Romania made peace with the Central Powers, signing the Treaty of...
