From Isolationism to Interventionism: The Institutions Behind the United States’ Pivot Following the Declaration of the First World War

By Molly Lafaver

??????????? The foreign policy approach adopted by the United States between the early 19th and 20th centuries was characterized by international indifference and isolationism, presenting a clear contrast to the nation’s contemporary global affairs strategy. In 1917, several federal institutions made the critical decision to abandon the comfort of international neutrality in favor of national defense and security, properties becoming further encroached upon as WWI progressed. While President Woodrow Wilson is primarily credited for this policy turning point, the internal organizations of the US government, as well as the feedback of the American public, bore immense weight on the choice made on April 6th. Though the first Great War began over a century ago, the United States’ rapid shift from isolationism to interventionism proves an interesting case study capable of explaining the intricacies of US foreign policy, including the variety of differing voices within one government. Each institution possessed its own reasoning behind advocating for or against US entrance into the Great War, but the significance of this transition highlights how each impacted the final decision to intervene, thus setting the American standard for decades to come. The objective at hand is to examine the complex governmental processes that ensue when a foreign policy modification is made in the United States, thus showcasing the complexities of democratic decision-making. Henceforth, after understanding the historical context and background of the global affairs approach of the country between 1823 and 1917, it becomes clear that the entrance of the United States into WWI set a major standardized precedent for the nation’s degree of involvement in foreign affairs in future terms. So, why, when, and how did the US exchange isolationism for interventionism? How did the institutions behind Woodrow Wilson compromise on a multi-lateral decision, and how did their differences become apparent in the decision to engage in warfare after almost a century of seclusion?

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Background: Isolationism in the 19th Century:

??????????? In 1823, President James Monroe delivered his famous “Monroe Doctrine”, which addressed three main concepts as its focal point: non-colonization, non-intervention, and mutual non-interferance.[1] This re-focused the foreign policy objectives of the country, as it sought to resist the European colonization of any remaining American land, to resist any entanglement in the mercantile European affairs that would interfere with those of the ‘New World’, and to pledge isolationism in terms of policy involving any European nations or colonies. Several developments contributed to Monroe’s new terms of foreign policy; for one, Latin American nations began to revolt and escape from European domination, gaining independence and perpetuating what the 19th century United States considered a leap into values of the ‘New World’ free from European colonialism.[2] In these terms, the US saw isolationism as a movement that would maintain the independent status of these colonies, specifically from Spain and France, while also establishing mutual non-intervention programs to preserve such. Another cause for concern in the eyes of President Monroe and Secretary of State John Quincy Adams stemmed from the birth of the Vienna Congress shortly following Napoleon’s defeat in the Napoleonic Wars; organized in September of 1814, the assembly sought to re-establish stability by reformulating territorial boundaries.[3] The redrawing of the territories threatened the status of certain European states, namely France, and, thus, the United States took precautionary measures in the Monroe Doctrine to prevent colonization from these nations attempting to restore territorial power abroad. A final example to illustrate the necessity of this US foreign policy decision involves the American Pacific Northwest and Russia’s attempt to colonize its territory and that of Alaska. Since 1799, when the Russian-American Company was founded, the country embarked Westward to profit from the fur trade and to “further Russian interest in the US”, something that quickly rang alarm bells for the White House.[4] By the early 19th century, Russia had begun to dominate all of Alaska, thanks to the Russian-American company’s tradings with the indigenous Alaskans and its eventual establishment of Port Ross, a settlement which spanned as far south as California.[5]

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The Execution of Non-interventionist Policies by the US Government

??????????? After James Monroe’s famous Doctrine was delivered in 1823, the United States kept its foreign policy promises and remained to itself, primarily occupied by the westward pull of the Manifest Destiny movement of the 1840s. As will be discussed when examining the coordination of the US government in entering WWI, the institutions and groups that impacted the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine are vital in terms of the longevity of these principles of diplomatic isolationism.

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Beginning with the role of the White House, John Quincy Adams and James Monroe worked as a skillful pair by organizing the isolationist policy statement with ample help from other cabinet members in order to deliver the new properties efficiently and consistently across all realms of government. Being the primary body for addressing diplomatic efforts, the White House staff also proved diligent in communicating the issuance of the doctrine internationally, establishing the steadfastness of the principles it presented. Additionally, Congress played a large role in the installation of isolationism, with the Monroe Doctrine acting as the fifth President’s yearly address to the body; as such, the group provided the White House with the necessary endorsements and financial support, specifically in regard to military preparedness, given it holds and held “the power of the purse”.[6] Although subject to the interpretation of each house representative and senator alike, Congress upheld the United States’s isolationist principles in treaties addressed to other states of the Western Hemisphere, all of which were ratified by the Senate. The US military was another governmental institution that averted its various resources towards maintaining the integrity of US protection over European colonized states. The US Navy was used as a tool of deterrence against any foreign nations seeking to invade independent nations in Latin America specifically, but also near Alaska and the Pacific Northwestern coast.[7]Similarly, coastal military presence became a common theme along the borders of the United States, serving to invoke only defensive measures against colonists rather than any force capable of violating the non-interventionism policies laid out by President Monroe. However, contemporary scholars often criticize the military’s excessive occupation within Latin American states in the late 19th century, as the policies of non-interventionism were corrupted by misinterpretations justifying this encroachment of such nations’ independent status.[8] Examples of this became more common approaching the Spanish-American War and, at the turn of the 20th century, the US invaded Cuba, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico, representing a violation of non-interventionism in favor for aggressive measures meant to signal American influence and dominance.[9]

Although the role of John Quincy Adams has previously been addressed, the US State Department as a whole was significant also in the diplomatic procedures required to invoke such international policies. According to The Office of the Historian, “During these years of the Napoleon wars and their aftermath, the new republic, its Secretaries of State and their tiny Department of State, had to complete its revolutionary struggles, free itself from the entangling alliances with the old world, and complete the largest part of the expansion of the country to the Caribbean, across the Mississippi, and, with the Louisiana Purchase, to the Pacific Ocean”.[10] Furthermore, in 1830, Secretary of State Louis McLane conducted a complete reorganization of the State Department, adding specific bureaus to address different diplomatic needs and overall expanding the responsibility of the Department, thus warranting the influx of 23 members (as opposed to 8 in 1790).[11] Finally, although public opinion is not a realm of the United States government, it weighed greatly on the decision to incorporate non-interventionism and isolationism into the realm of foreign affairs. When the concept of Manifest Destiny was born in 1840, public opinion on behalf of US citizens was highly concentrated towards a need to expand westward domestically, thus isolating them from concerns regarding the international sphere. The movement also warranted these white American settlers to believe that they had the rights to the American West over indigenous populations, a notion similar to that developed in the US leading up to the extensive Latin American occupations and invasions mentioned above.[12]

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??????????? Now that the topic of American isolationism and its background has been reviewed, it is important to examine the ways in which these different institutions of the US government, alongside US public opinion, changed immensely leading up to the American intervention in WWI. The roles each played during this time of non-intervention grew tremendously by the 20th century, thus leading to the collective abandonment of the Monroe Doctrine’s principles in exchange for participation in an international war. After the background and root causes of WWI are discussed, the impact of The White House, Congress, the US Military, the US State Department, and US public opinion can be addressed to understand what caused such a drastic foreign policy alteration in 1917 and beyond.

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Background: The US Perspective as War Became Imminent:

??????????? With the Second Balkan War reaching its conclusion on August 10, 1913, following the signage of The Treaty of Bucharest, Southeastern Europe faced massive instability as territorial lines were redrawn.[13] The Ottoman Empire had lost tens of thousands of miles of land to the Balkan League, consisting of Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria, thus elevating the territorial domination of Serbia to greater heights than had ever been seen before. The mutual insecurity that Serbia would continue to amass new boundaries brought The Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary together, especially when Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austria-Hungarian throne, was assassinated by a Bosnian Serb in hopes of promoting the unification of a South Slavic state.[14] In the United States, President Woodrow Wilson sought to maintain the non-interventionist policies regarding Europe that had been in operation since the early to mid 19th century; he is quoted as stating, “The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men's souls”.[15] While a majority of the country reinforced the importance of neutrality, the military considered it critical to remain prepared in the case defensive measures should be taken to protect the “New World”, thus warranting a large portion of domestic funds being allocated to the institution.

Prior to 1915, the primary consensus of the United States public rallied behind Wilson’s decision to remain secluded from the war efforts, believing entangling alliances would force the nation to sacrifice diplomatic and military resources for a seemingly menial European conflict. Additionally, with pacifist Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan behind Woodrow Wilson to reinforce the vitality of US isolationism, the government and public population as a whole unanimously supported the policy approach.[16] As tensions escalated and sides were drawn (the allies consisting of Britain, France, Russia, and Italy and the central powers hosting Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, Germany, and Buglaria), the Germans had become keen on deploying U-boats, or invisible submarines armed with torpedoes, targeted towards the mighty British navy.[17] Establishing a naval blockade around the North Sea, the British effectively cut the Germans off from all war supplies entering their ports, thus causing Germany to take drastic measures in May 1915 when it torpedoed the British ocean-liner The Lusitania, which carried aboard it thousands of passengers, 128 of them being American men, women, and children.[18] This singular incident changed the fate of the war indefinitely, as it completely challenged the pro-isolationist movements which occupied the US for so many years prior; following the incident, former president Theodore Roosevelt voiced his support for US entrance into the war, declaring, “Preparedness against war does not invariably avert war, any more than a fire department in a city will invariably prevent a fire, and there are well-meaning, foolish people who point out this fact as offering an excuse for unpreparedness”.[19]

By 1915, 10% of the US public identified as ethnically German, with another almost 15% bearing Irish heritage; when The Lusitania sunk, the public became somewhat divided and even restless regarding potential US intervention; the Irish-Americans, for example, doubled down on their support for neutrality, resentful towards the British who controlled their homeland and sympathetic towards the Germans.[20] German-Americans were quickly illustrated as the domestic enemy within the US after the sinking of The Lusitania since larger movements began to promote mobilization and intense naval and military enhancement for the sake of avenging the 128 dead Americans at the hands of the German U-20 responsible for the carnage.[21]

In November of 1916, Woodrow Wilson was narrowly re-elected, following a statement made by New York governor Martin Glynn at the June DNC reading, “The doctrine of neutrality is so closely woven into the warp and woof of our national life that to tear it out now would unravel the very threads of our existence. Is there any American so blind to our past, so hostile to our future that, departing from our policy of neutrality, he would hurl us headlong into the maelstrom of the war across the sea?”.[22]On June 3rd, Wilson enacted the National Defense Act, meant to capitalize on the US policy of “preparedness”, which stood to promote isolationism while also assuring the public that the US certainly would not be vulnerable in the case of a foreign offense.[23] The installation appropriated excessive funds for expanding and technologically advancing military procedures, facilities, and weapons.

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The Critical Decision to Enter the War

By 1917, President Roosevelt’s words would ring true in construing the allies’ urgent need for aid when the Russian Revolution caused Russia to withdraw from the allied powers of WWI to combat challenges of domestic upheaval.[24] More threatening was the German’s promise in January of the same year to resume unrestricted submarine warfare, an offensive strategy involving the discharge of torpedoes, carried by said U-ship submarines, upon any ship piloted in the waters surrounding the British Isles, something that instantly sealed the fate of thousands of Americans traveling as passengers in the region at the time. Within the same month, the German ambassador of Mexico was contacted via telegram by German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann, who proposed establishing a military alliance, offering Mexico its aid in restoring the states of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona to Mexican control on the condition of receiving Mexican support.[25] When British forces intercepted this telegram and decoded it, word quickly reached the US by February 26th, where it was noted that Woodrow Wilson officially lost all hope in the German government.[26] By this time, former Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan had been replaced by Frank Polk, the figure responsible for assessing the authenticity and degree of risk communicated by telegram; as a renowned lawyer and diplomat, Polk and the US State Department communicated incessantly with Mexico and the British to deduce the best method with which to proceed.[27] The day following the White House’s receipt of the decoded message, Woodrow Wilson, with the support of the State Department, addressed Congress, expressing the need to arm US naval ships under policies consistent with military preparation as a last hope prevailing a declaration of war against Germany. Congress quickly complied, agreeing that the severity of the German threats was imminent and thus urgently allocating funds to the military, despite their financial influx following the National Defense Act of 1916. With violence threatening to permeate the US border from the South, the US military was eager to maintain the security of the ‘New World’, something made evident by the 127,500 officer and soldier population of 1916 increasing to four million Americans serving the US military by 1918.[28] In his address to Congress on April 17th, Wilson is quoted as stating in reference to the resources which were needed by The Allies, “...for military service; everything with which the people of England and France and Italy and Russia have usually supplied themselves but cannot now afford the men, the materials, or the machinery to make,”.[29]

Meanwhile, sentiments originating from the American public were not unanimous in any way; a portion of Americans continued to stand by Woodrow Wilson’s initial pleas for maintaining isolationism in foreign policy, but towards the eve of the US entrance into the war, German and Irish Americans fervently tried to stave off the introduction of the nation on the side of the allies. Again, the British representing the oppressor of the Irish people turned Irish Americans away from feeling any sympathy for the superpower; coincidently, German Americans detested the idea of the US joining WW1, considering German Americans at the time of this progressive immigration era still maintained close ties to their national heritage overseas via linguistics, music, and social groups formed domestically.[30] However, as members of marginalized, immigrant populations, conformity was often the safest option for these citizens.? By April of 1917, former pacifist Woodrow Wilson disregarded his previous statements involving the negligibility of the war and the American interest being rooted in non-intervention, instead standing before Congress to express the urgent need for the country to take action to protect its security, political influence, and its very people. The German promise of its return to unrestricted submarine warfare, the leaking of the Zimmermann telegram plotting a security breach in Mexico against the US, and The Allies’ loss of Russia to its domestic turmoil all amounted to Woodrow Wilson’s address to Congress on April 2.

“Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious assertion of the physical might of the nation, but only the vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only a single champion....With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking... I advise that [the U.S.] formally accept the status of belligerent that has thus been trust upon it....”, Wilson stated, emphasizing the impossible situation the nation was in regarding the preservation of democracy.[31] Two days later, after extensive Congressional discourse, The United States House of Representatives ratified an official war resolution, which subsequently passed in the Senate by an overwhelming vote of 82-6, signifying the sudden and urgent need to address the global threat to democracy.[32] On April 6th, Woodrow Wilson eagerly signed the resolution, engaging the nation in the First World War and, thus, transitioning from policies of “armed neutrality” into those of complete military intervention on behalf of the Allied Powers. In response, the US military immediately began employing measures to increase its numbers; for example, the Selective Service Act was implemented on May 18th, 1917, which bilaterally allowed the military and the government to increase the conscription rate, eventually mandating that all men between the ages of twenty-one to forty-five register for service.[33]Public pro-war propaganda and media advertising mobilized the public alongside such measures as well, eventually contributing to the establishment of domestic war bond campaigns and rationing efforts to support US troops abroad. While German Americans tended to display acts of American patriotism to avoid domestic discrimination, Irish Americans proved stubborn in their anti-British stance. Sinn Féin, an extreme Irish nationalist group dedicated to gaining Irish independence from Britain, pushed most Catholic Irish Americans further away from the widespread pro-war sentiment, especially as Ireland’s general election approached in December of 2018.[34] Regardless, it has been noted that a majority of Irish American men “joined the United States military and fought with valor”.[35]

On January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson delivered his “Fourteen Points Speech” to Congress, in which he outlined the key drivers of the ongoing war, proposed solutions for terminating the conflict, and introduced the early ideas surrounding the subsequently founded League of Nations (although this was not formally introduced until 1920).[36] “In the speech, Wilson directly addressed what he perceived as the causes for the world war by calling for the abolition of secret treaties, a reduction in armaments, an adjustment in colonial claims in the interests of both native peoples and colonists, and freedom of the seas”, presents the National Archives in terms of Wilson’s specific proposals.[37] While Congress maintained its stance on remaining engaged on the side of The Allies until peace was forged, the US Senate was hesitant to accept the League of Nations concept, considering it envisioned a forum of predominantly Western countries appointed to employ Wilson’s Fourteen Points and enforce global peace, which Congress believed would result in further US-European entanglements.[38] Robert Lansing, the head of the US State Department, engaged in various diplomatic efforts, beginning in 1918, to sell the League of Nations idea abroad and throughout allied countries globally, even playing an extensive role in drafting the League of Nations Covenant, which would later be presented on the international stage in June of 1919 (although Congress rejected participation in the League of Nations officially on March 19, 1920).[39] Historians and political scientists alike concur that perhaps Congress was timid to accept Wilson’s proposed assertion of the US as a global power following the war’s official end on November 11, 1918.[40]

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Synthesis and Conclusion

??????????? The impact made by the United States’ diplomatic transition from an isolationist nation, “armed but neutral”, to a key figure in the Allied victory of WWI, was astronomical in terms of its contemporary situation within the international community. The White House is clearly not the sole American institution enforcing the alignment and eventual transition between diplomatic approaches to global conflict, as the American public, the military, Congress, and The US State Department, specifically, facilitate the United States’ foreign policy executions and drive decisions made on behalf of the nation as a whole.

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"Mobilizing for War: The Selective Service Act in World War I." The National Archives Foundation.https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/mobilizing-war-selective-service-act-world-war/#:~:text=On%20May%2018%2C%201917%2C%20Congress,to%20register%20for%20military%20service. Accessed 23 Nov. 2023.

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[1] U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian. "Monroe Doctrine." U.S. Department of State,https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/monroe#:~:text=The%20three%20main%20concepts%20of,the%20autocratic%20realm%20of%20Europe.

[2] Ibid.

[3] "Congress of Vienna." Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Congress-of-Vienna.

[4] Matthew P. Romaniello, Enterprising Empires (Cambridge University Press, 2019), doi:10.1017/9781108628600.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

[7] U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian. "Monroe Doctrine." U.S. Department of State,https://history.state.gov/milestones/1801-1829/monroe#:~:text=The%20three%20main%20concepts%20of,the%20autocratic%20realm%20of%20Europe.

[8] Alan McPherson, "US Interventions and Occupations in Latin America," Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History,March 26, 2019, Oxford University Press,https://oxfordre.com/latinamericanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199366439.001.0001/acrefore-9780199366439-e-643

[9] Ibid.

[10] "U.S. Department of State - A Brief History of the Department," U.S. Department of State, https://1997-2001.state.gov/about_state/history/dephis.html#emerging.

[11] Ibid.

[12] "Manifest Destiny," Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/the-early-republic/age-of-jackson/a/manifest-destiny#:~:text=The%20ideology%20that%20became%20known,from%20sea%20to%20shining%20sea.

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[13] "1912/13: Balkan Crisis - Prelude to World War," Habsburger.net, https://ww1.habsburger.net/en/chapters/191213-balkan-crisis-prelude-world-war#:~:text=The%20international%20crisis%20provoked%20by,of%20their%20various%20treaties%20of.

[14] Ibid.

[15] "U.S. Enters the War," The National WWI Museum and Memorial, https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/us-enters-war#:~:text=When%20WWI%20began%20in%20Europe,are%20to%20try%20men%27s%20souls.

[16] "William Jennings Bryan," U.S. Department of State - Office of the Historian,https://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/bryan-william-jennings.

[17] "Unrestricted U-Boat Warfare," The National WWI Museum and Memorial, https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/unrestricted-u-boat-warfare#:~:text=The%20formidable%20U%2Dboats%20(unterseeboots,the%20British%20blockade%20defeated%20Germany.

[18] Ibid.

[19] "U.S. Enters the War," The National WWI Museum and Memorial, https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/us-enters-war#:~:text=When%20WWI%20began%20in%20Europe,are%20to%20try%20men%27s%20souls.

[20] Ibid.

[21] Ibid.

[22] Ibid.

[23] “National Defense Act of 1916,” The University of Michigan and the Great War, https://michiganintheworld.history.lsa.umich.edu/greatwar/items/show/25.

[24] Ibid.

[25] "Zimmermann Telegram," Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Zimmermann-Telegram.

[26] "Statement on the Discovery of the Zimmermann Telegram," U.S. Department of State, https://1997-2001.state.gov/briefings/statements/970226b.html#:~:text=The%20President%20was%20shocked%20by,of%20the%20secret%20German%20machinations.

[27] Ibid.

[28] American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics, CRS Report No. RL32492, Version 25 (Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, September 14, 2018), p. 2, https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/RL/RL32492.

[29] "April 17, 1917: Message Regarding World War I," Miller Center, https://millercenter.org/the-presidency/presidential-speeches/april-17-1917-message-regarding-world-war-i.

[30] U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Thirteenth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1910(Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1913), 194.

[31] Woodrow Wilson, "War Message," Marine Corps University,https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/War%20Message%2C%20Woodrow%20Wilson.pdf.

[32] "S.J. Res. 1 - Declaration of War with Germany (1917)," United States Senate,https://www.senate.gov/about/images/documents/sjres1-wwi-germany.htm#:~:text=1),-PDF&text=On%20April%206%2C%201917%2C%20Congress,6%20on%20April%204%2C%201917.

[33] "Mobilizing for War: The Selective Service Act in World War I," The National Archives Foundation,https://www.archivesfoundation.org/documents/mobilizing-war-selective-service-act-world-war/#:~:text=On%20May%2018%2C%201917%2C%20Congress,to%20register%20for%20military%20service.

[34] John French, "Irish-American Identity, Memory, and Americanism During the Eras of the Civil War and First World War," Dissertation, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, 2009, 4.

[35] Ibid.

[36] "President Woodrow Wilson's 14 Points," National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-woodrow-wilsons-14-points#:~:text=In%20the%20speech%2C%20Wilson%20directly,and%20freedom%20of%20the%20seas.

[37] Ibid.

[38] "Fourteen Points," The National WWI Museum and Memorial, https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/peace/fourteen-points#:~:text=The%20Points%2C%20Summarized&text=Woodrow%20Wilson%20inspecting%20troops%20in,U.S.%20involvement%20in%20European%20affairs.

[39] "March 19, 1920: Senate Rejects Treaty of Versailles for Second and Final Time," The Learning Network - The New York Times,https://archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/19/march-19-1920-senate-rejects-treaty-of-versailles-for-second-and-final-time/.

[40] "Congress and the World Wars," Visit the Capitol, https://www.visitthecapitol.gov/exhibition/congress-and-world-wars.