Sunday, 12 March 2017

Poem ~ Broken Isolationism - Monday, 12 March 1917 - Thursday, 15 March 1917

Source: File: Woodrow Wilson is sworn in to his second term as President of the United States by Chief Justice Edward Douglass White. See an original image at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:WilsonInauguration1917.jpg> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Sunday 4 March 1917, the day
President Wilson made an oath
To enter a second term in post.
Entering a more somber period
Of his presidency - expectancy
Awaited an inaugural speech.

The talk centered around an
'Armed Neutrality Bill,' when
President Wilson would gain
Powers, to arm all merchant
Vessels, against the piracy
Being carried out by Germany.

96 members of the senate
Saw total of 83 supporting
Moves to armed neutrality -
For all intent and purposes
America was acting out war,
As seen in correspondence.

While from reliable sources
Representatives, Senators
Any kind of declaration lay
In the hands of congress;
The Representatives house
Of 416 votes saw 403 united.

They favoured 'Armed Ship
Bill,' to note how events
And the timing of, perhaps
Declaring war, had become
Shadowed by fact in armed
Ships, making a declaration.

An isolationism that USA
Had maintained for more
Than two years had altered,
After a German submarine
Covered the great distance
Of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

A new reality had been born,
To show how United States of
America was part of the world.
Overriding the people's beliefs
In refraining from any meddling
In European continent's affairs.

With the revealed plot aimed
Towards USA - to set attempts
To utilize Japanese forces on
An Mexican platform, intent
To invade American soil - akin
To the 1914 Belgium invasion.

A German telegram effectively
Declared themselves as enemy
To the USA, sentiments were
Swiftly stirred to fight on allies
Side - rather than to fight as a
Completely separate nation.

The propaganda machine
Of Germany within the USA
Reached a crossroads - they
Could not deny discovery
Of the German plot - though
Newspapers attempted a ploy.

New Yorker, Staats-Zeitung
And Gaelic American, gave
The idea to their readers that
The Zimmermann Note was
In fact an English forgery,
Planted to create conflict.

Flying in the face of Berlin,
Admissions and sentiments
Inflamed a majority among
People of America, which
Awaited Vienna’s response
In supporting Germany.

Yet the feeling of situation
Being all out of proportion
To lay in a certain minority -
If memebers in the senate
Might block the bill, Woodrow
Wilson could override them.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: Second Inaugural Address of Woodrow Wilson. Yale Law School - The Avalon Project. Available at: <http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/wilson2.asp> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: Woodrow Wilson. Available at: <https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/inaugurations/wilson/index.html> [Accessed 12 March 2017]

Source: File: The Washington times., March 05, 1917, Complete Afternoon Edition, Image 1. Available at: <http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84026749/1917-03-05/ed-1/seq-1/> [Accessed 12 March 2017]


#WW1 #WW1centenary #GreatWar #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1America

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