Wilson had run on the slogan of having kept us out of the war. Was his declaration of war justified or unavoidable or was it used as a pretext? How neutral had the USA been in fact before it declared war on Germany? How believable is Freeman's take on what happened?
Arthur Zimmerman’s telegram to the British stated that Germany wanted to ensure that United States was kept neutral in the war but in case that would proof to be impossible, Germany would receive military assistance from Mexico. In this process Mexico would regain back some of the states that it lost to the United States like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. This was the main reason why President Wilson Woodward declared war on Germany; however he gave the pretext reason that he wanted to ensure that the world was a safe place by bringing an end to the Second World War (Murray Williamson, p102).
America had been completely neutral before their declaration to war on Germany; this is because a few years prior to the second war it had largely mobilized countries to disarm themselves. It also passed the neutrality act which was a series of laws that banned the sale of arms to countries involved in the war. The laws also restricted giving loans to countries involved in the war (Morrison, Samuel Elliot, p89).
Freeman’s take is believable, because he states that the end of the Second World War brought the end to the great depression that was experienced during that time. It is true because governments would focus on financing their militaries for the war instead of financing for the improvement of their economies (Horwitz, Steven, p99). Less money was injected into the economy and this led to low investments and loss of profits, in return there was high unemployment rates and low production capacity by the firms.
Works Cited
Horwitz, Steven, (2010), The Freeman; War Would End The Depression and Recession, Pearson Prentice Hall, New Jersey
Murray Williamson, Millet Allan Reed, , A War to be Won; The Second World War, (2001)Cambridge MA, Harvard University Press
Morrison, Samuel Elliot, History of United States Naval in the Second World War 2, 1945,(2002) University of Illinois Press
