I am lying here in our trench, reflecting on how I miss the warmth of home and our family. The Battle of Cantigny broke out two days ago, and has been a living hell on Earth ever since. Cantigny is 60 miles north of Paris and was actually quite nice before the battle started. Now, it is smoke filled, muddy, and horrifying. As I am sure you have already heard, the United States made allies with England, France, Russia, Serbia, Romania, and Japan. I think that put together, we make a strong force and will defeat the enemies: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria. However, this all could have been prevented if foreign countries avoided the practice of imperialism, militarism, and making alliances. These countries thought that they could use force to solve their problems, but little did they know that this would be the outcome. Although these practices built up much tension between countries, it was not the event that set off this terrible war. The Archduke Francis Ferdinand’s assassination is what lit the spark that exploded into this dreadful war. Our allies were actually excited for the first time in a while when us American Soldiers arrived. We gave them a major boost of confidence in a time that they could really use it. I have been told a couple times by soldiers that, “they couldn’t have done it without us.” They also know that the United States would be a strong source of money and war goods. Which brings me to the point where I ask myself, why is the United States even involved in this war? When we have time, this is a hot topic between soldiers and me. We came to the conclusion that two major conflicts brought us into this war: The Zimmerman Telegram, and the sinking of the Lusitania. The Zimmerman Telegram was a letter from the foreign minister of Germany, to the German Ambassador in Mexico, which was a neutral country at the time, which the British intercepted. The letter said ...
