132: The US Enters WWI (RMS Lusitania, Black Tom Island, & The Zimmermann Telegram)

History That Doesn't Suck

ProfGregJackson

Education, History, Society & Culture

4.5 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

“I still think I see the struggling of poor passengers in the water.” This is the story of the United States’ path into the Great War. The United States wishes to stay out of the Great War. Woodrow Wilson wins reelection (barely) on that very basis. But as Germany contends with Britain’s blockade, its submarines, or “u-boats,” are attacking merchant and passenger ships (like the RMS Lusitania) without warning. This policy is touch and go, but worse still, the US learns in Februarly 1917 that Germany sent a secret telegram to Mexico offering to ally against the US! After more than two years of clinging to peace, President Woodrow Wilson can’t turn a blind eye to this and Germany’s other atrocities. In the name of protecting democracy, he calls for war. But what about Britain’s unethical if not illegal “hunger blockade” of German ports? Do starving German children justify unrestricted submarine warfare? What about the billions of dollars in loans and goods the “neutral” US has sent to Britain and France over the years? Does that tip the scales on why the US is going to war? These complications and questions of right and wrong are for Congress to decide. ___ 4 Ways to dive deeper into History That Doesn’t Suck Join our growing facebook community Get our weekly newsletter, The Revolution Become part of the HTDS Patreon family Subscribe to Greg’s monthly newsletter, Connected History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:21.5	Advisory This episode contains the account of a mass drowning that includes young children.
0:27.7	Her discretion is advised.
0:30.3	History that doesn't suck is a bi-weekly podcast, delivering a legit, seriously researched
0:33.8	hard-hitting survey of American history through entertaining stories.
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0:43.7	It's an early, foggy morning, May 7, 1915, and life is brimming.
0:57.4	Abroad the RMS of Sittania.
0:59.8	One thousand nine hundred fifty nine souls to give the official figure, though its complete
1:04.6	accuracy is contested by some.
1:07.1	Nearly one in three are members of the crew, while the rest are passengers on this voyage
1:11.2	from New York City to Liverpool, England.
1:14.2	Everywhere we look, families and friends are chatting, meanly, and enjoying breakfast.
1:19.2	That's particularly true of the vessel's hundreds of first-class passengers eating the
1:23.2	glass-doned, white and gold decorated, Louis XVI style the dining solos.
1:28.8	You know, it's true what they say, even after two hundred one Atlantic crossings and almost
1:33.9	a decade at sea, the nine deck, thirty thousand two hundred ninety six tonne lucetania, remains
1:40.0	not only one of the world's fastest and biggest ocean liners, but also one of the most luxurious.
	...

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