The Wilsonian Persuasion in American Foreign Policy By Matthew C ...

The German response read: “The German Government notifies the Government of the United States that the German naval forces have received the following orders. In accordance with the general principles of visit and search and destruction of merchant vessels recognized by international law, such vessels, both within and without the area declared as naval war zone, shall not be sunk without warning and without saving human lives.” The threat of war had been removed for the time being. In December 1916 President Wilson made further overtures to both sides, describing himself as a “friend of all nations engaged in the present struggle.”²³

In Germany, the naval leadership continued to press its case for unrestricted submarine attacks. An ambitious building program was about to produce a fleet of larger, even more effective subs. Was it worth giving up this use of a formidable weapon merely to assuage the Americans? The dilemma for the Germans, then, was whether to continue to forego the benefits of unrestricted submarine warfare, or to resume it and risk provoking the United States into entering the war on the side of the Allies. The United States lacked both preparedness and the cultural traits required to present much of a military threat. An American military response, said Holtzendorff, was not to be feared, and “must not hinder us from using this weapon that promises success.”²⁴

There was good reason for the confidence. The United States Army itself was small and unprepared. In 1916 it had an active force of some 107,000 men. More casualties than that had been lost to each side in single battles in the war in Europe. America had only the seventeenth largest military in the world and had remained basically unchanged since its last large-scale battles, prior to the end of the Civil War over half a century earlier. The U.S. Army had sufficient supplies to fully equip only five divisions. Its weaponry was antiquated.²⁵ The German government notified the United States, on January 31, 1917, that the Imperial Government was compelled to use, “the full employment of all weapons which are at its disposal.”