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]

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Poem ~ Sussex Pledge Broken - Wednesday, 7 March 1917- Thursday, 8 March 1917

Source: File: torpedoed Cross-channel ferry Sussex at Boulogne, March 1916. The entire forepart of the ship was destroyed in the attack. See an original image at: <http://study.com/academy/lesson/sussex-pledge-definition-lesson.html> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Within hours of the Laconia's loss, survivor

Reporter Floyd Gibbons of Chicago Tribune,

Composed his account of certain night, February

25 1917 - over the next few days newspaper

Debates expressed American opinions.

Only 11 months before a diplomatic crisis 

Had threatened America's neutrality; German
UB 29 in a grave error of judgment, had attacked 
What was believed to be a Mine Sweeper - 
A daily passenger ferry left Folkestone.

The situation at sea had seen declared

War zones; German frustrations at land-war

Stalemate turned towards the sea - from 1916

Unrestricted U Boat policy of attacks were

Made against shipping, though restricted.

The Lusitania that had been torpedoed

In May 1915 had initially riled America with

The deaths of 128 Americans - in order to pacify

USA, Germany curbed U-boat attacks; armed

Merchant ships again valid targets by 1916.

March 1916 the Sussex carried civilians;

Being a cross channel ferry sighted by UB 29

Believed to be a mine layer the ferry was targeted.

The Sussex did not sink yet damage was heavy;

Amid the 80 casualties were 25 Americans.

President Woodrow Wilson's reaction

Was a threat to cut off all diplomacy with

Germany - actions were swift to Wilson's angry

April speech - on 4 May came a promise

With Germany's 'Sussex Pledge.'

The Sussex Pledge promised that no

Passenger ships would be targeted - while

Merchant ships would only be sunk; after being

Searched for weaponry passengers and crew

Would be made safe - rescinded by 1917.

Germany confidently believed that

They might win the war swiftly by an act

At sea, whereby unrestricted warfare would
Defeat allied forces, before any chance

Of the USA joining in conflict.

The Laconia attack sparked debate,

As daily American newspapers endorsed

The Governments view, to see the Laconia

Sinking as an overt act - such event

Were changing opinions in USA.

Tuesday 27 February an address

Made by President Wilson saw mixed

Reactions, about ambiguous nature of armed

Neutrality; 'peace at all costs' had then

Been the central policy of USA.

President Woodrow Wilson, along

With legal advisor Robert Lansing, met

To confer how blatantly Germany had gone

Against their word of the 'Sussex Pledge,'

Resulting in a new congress policy.

A quote from the New York Times

Called on all Americans to defend their

Liberties of the nation - a right to sail the seas

Securely and without risk - any surrender

Would show a nation lacking courage.

Debates in arming of American shipping

Were yet to be tested - to stretch the mind

How America might enter a war centered purely 

In Europe - President Wilson believed only

An invasion of the US would cause war.

Only time might tell any future 
Direction; in the meantime all American

Consular officers, along with all diplomats,

Started a process of leaving Austria,

Breaking with the central powers.

At the foot of America on Mexican 

Border, stretching from Tijuana across

To Brownsville, had been brewing a line

Of adversity - although regarding war

The country shared USA neutrality.

Mexico itself was in the throws

Of lengthy revolution - with strained

Politics openly made the hispanic country

An ideal sideline for German intent -

To entice Venustiano Carranza.

The President of Mexico held key

To deflect the USA; the Zimmerman

Telegram decoded message had revealed

German intent to restart their submarine

Warfare, to curtail 'Sussex Pledge.'

Ideal was that America remained

Neutral - if this did not happen then

Germany proposed a Mexico alliance -

The carrot being financial support

For regaining all lost territories.

Arizona, Texas and New Mexico taken

In the 1848 Mexican cession in the treaty

Of Guadalupe Hidalgo; von Eckardt was given

Free reign to gain Mexico as an ally,
By a settlement to retake territory.

Von Eckardt instructions was to distract 

President's attention; that in a few months

England would be compelled to make peace.

'Make war together make peace together,'

Was motto of an alliance with Mexico.

Although the telegram kept options

Open, von Eckardt was requested to use

His initiative; also to mediate some agreement

With Japan, who was then fighting alongside

The allied powers; signed Zimmerman.

Strains of mutual dislike lay all around;

America was anti Mexican, with element

Of anti British - with anti Germany in Mexico

Was anti America - German held hopes

For a Mexico-American war to break.

So a scene was set - with the 'Sussex

Pledge' trashed, to see by start of March
Defensive arms to be carried by American ships.

A direct result of overt act; diplomacy ties

With Germany fell - time might tell.

by Jamie Mann.

Source: File: US Department Of State: American Entry into World War I, 1917. Available at: <https://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/wwi/82205.htm> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: Wikipedia: Sussex Pledge. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_pledge> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

Source: File: The First World War, East Sussex. The Sussex Pledge. Available at: <http://www.eastsussexww1.org.uk/the-sussex-pledge/> [Accessed 7 March 2017]

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

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

Poem ~ Neutral Mexico: German Ally? - Wednesday, 15 March 1916

Impression sketch of Uncle Sam leaping across the border fence with Mexico to chase (Pancho) Villa - by Jamie. From an original image that can be seen at: <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:VillaUncleSamBerrymanCartoon.png> [Accessed: 15 March 2016]

Included in the league of neutral countries,

Mexico paused in the possibility of a war

Across her borders, with the United States

Of America - inverted by a localised crisis

With political revolt from the Porfirian era.

An 1876 coup by Porfirio Díaz, both villain

And hero, failed any stability of succession -

Yet Francisco Madero democracy sparked

Revolution - whose liberal election success

Led to controversy and 1913 assassination.

Mexican failures continued with revolt

Against a return to Porfirian order - others

emerged; Emiliano Zapata, a peasant leader

And rebel fighter - as Venustiano Carranza,

Supporter of Madero made political complexity.

Non-military Carranza became Mexico’s

Head of state from May 1915 - amid reform

Carranza maintained Mexican neutrality.

Yet with such unrest at the foot of America,

Relations had been strained by intervention.

April 1914, prior to any European war, events

Of la decena trágica led President Woodrow

Wilson to authorise a seven-month occupation

Of Veracruz - that further reinforced Mexico

Not to take any side with the United States.

Within their Spanish culture Mexicans held

Dislike of gringoes - Tuesday 14 March 1916

Poised potential United States Mexico war -

In granting President Carranza's government

To cross borders pursing their raiding bandits.

President Wilson’s memo would avert a clash

Of politics, unlikely to halt a slow of followers

To the rebel bandit, Pancho Villa - who had set

To raid border town Columbos - a fear to be

Mexican troops deserting over to Villa's banner.

The belief grew that the gringoes would

Invade their country - this had materialsed

By fact of 12,000 US troops on the border -

Poised to carry out the war secretary's plan,

In a possible three-year Mexican campaign.

Divided opinions held by American people

With opposition to any such war, due

To their army being held in the task - likely

Acting as a message to prompt Germany’s

Kaiser, who might gain a Mexican ally.

President Wilson's intent had been to focus

On capture of Pancho Villa, whose ability

Might rouse North Mexico in his resources

Of fighting talent - The rebels having taken

To the mountains, in use of sniping tactics.

All hung in balance between Villa's charisma

And Carranza's ability to convince the people,

That once Villa was captured, the US would

Leave their territory - with more to go 23 March 
was set for 4000 US troops to enter Mexico.

by Jamie Mann.

Anon.,1916. United States And Mexico - Big Campaign Expected - Troops Ready To Start. The Daily Telegraph, [online] 15 March 1916. P.9. Col.4. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12193873/Daily-Telegraph-March-15-1916.html [Accessed: 15 March 2016].

Source: File: Mexico in World War I. Online. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_in_World_War_I> Accessed 15 March 2016

Source: File: History of Mexico. Online. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mexico#Porfiriato_.281876.E2.80.931910.29> Accessed 15 March 2016

Source: File: Francisco I. Madero. Online. Available at: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_I._Madero> Accessed 15 March 2016

Mann, J., 2016. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal communication, 15 March 2016). 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12193873/Daily-Telegraph-March-15-1916.html

http://worldwaroneblogger.blogspot.co.uk/

#WW1 #WW1centenary #WW1poem #GreatWar #WW1centenary #worldwarone #worldwaroneremembered #WW1Mexico