"Please don't draft us, we're sorry!"
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Is it more likely that the Zimmerman telegram was an instigator of US entry into the war or that it was leveraged to Crystalize Public Opinion? Have you read any Bernays or Lippmann?
Probably a little bit of both. The question is who benefits from a weak nation, because we were absolutely a weak nation at the time, joining a war against super powers? International standing? Maybe.
Regardless it probably conviced the fence sitters in congress and gave the Warhawks the political capital necessary to push for the war.
I just really hate it when people try to condense these wars down to people being "big mad" at someone else. Fuckin zoomers.
If you read Bernays, he concedes that after the war most Americans felt betrayed by their government into supporting a pointless war, as the extent of the lies became known. Wilson jumped in because he was a proto-globalist that wanted to democratize Europe and establish the League of Nations. His timing was such that he ensured the destruction of European civilization. The lamps in Europe have yet to be lit again.
That's correct, but is beside the original point. Anyone who thinks we joined WW1 because Europe was "big mad" is historically illiterate.