USA HISTORY

Read the quotation below from President Woodrow Wilson’s message to Congress in 1914. What was the president asking the nation to do? “The United States must, ____ during these days that are to try men’s souls, ____ be impartial in thought, as well as action, must put a curb upon our sentiments, as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”

(A) make the world safe for democracy

(B) ** adopt a policy of neutrality

(C) compete for trade and territory with our enemies

(D) offer loans and sell supplies to our allies

Concept note-1: -Woodrow Wilson, a leader of the Progressive Movement, was the 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). After a policy of neutrality at the outbreak of World War I, Wilson led America into war in order to “make the world safe for democracy.”

Concept note-2: -“The United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name during these days that are to try men’s souls. We must be impartial in thought as well as in action, must put a curb upon our sentiments as well as upon every transaction that might be construed as a preference of one party to the struggle before another.”

Concept note-3: -Wilson’s proposal called for the victorious Allies to set unselfish peace terms with the vanquished Central Powers of World War I, including freedom of the seas, the restoration of territories conquered during the war and the right to national self-determination in such contentious regions as the Balkans.