WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.459 Welcome to the deep dive. I am so glad you could 00:00:02.459 --> 00:00:04.580 join us today because we are looking at a historical 00:00:04.580 --> 00:00:08.800 moment that proves just how quickly your entire 00:00:08.800 --> 00:00:10.919 world can just turn upside down. Oh, absolutely. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:14.000 Let's set the stage for you. The year is 1914. 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:16.780 Europe has just become completely engulfed in 00:00:16.780 --> 00:00:20.100 World War One. And the United States is fiercely, 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:23.000 I mean, stubbornly determined to stay completely 00:00:23.000 --> 00:00:25.640 out of it. Right. We are talking strict official 00:00:25.640 --> 00:00:28.679 neutrality, yet. Fast forward just three short 00:00:28.679 --> 00:00:31.500 years and America dives headfirst into what was 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:34.060 up to that point, the bloodiest conflict in human 00:00:34.060 --> 00:00:36.700 history. It really is a staggering turnaround 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:39.399 when you map out the timeline, that shift from 00:00:39.399 --> 00:00:42.079 isolationism to global intervention. It changed 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.340 the balance of power forever. And the mechanics 00:00:44.340 --> 00:00:46.420 of how it happened are far more intricate than 00:00:46.420 --> 00:00:49.159 just, you know, a single inciting incident. Yeah. 00:00:49.159 --> 00:00:51.420 And today we are pulling all our information 00:00:51.420 --> 00:00:54.340 from a comprehensive Wikipedia historical account 00:00:54.340 --> 00:00:57.920 of the American entry into World War One. The 00:00:57.920 --> 00:01:00.840 mission of this deep dive is to unpack the complex, 00:01:01.539 --> 00:01:03.979 honestly surprising web of secret telegrams, 00:01:04.280 --> 00:01:06.659 massive economic entanglements, and the shifting 00:01:06.659 --> 00:01:08.980 public opinion that dragged a very reluctant 00:01:08.980 --> 00:01:12.109 nation into a global conflict. And as a roadmap 00:01:12.109 --> 00:01:14.230 for you listening, we aren't just going to be 00:01:14.230 --> 00:01:17.409 reciting dates or listing off battlefield tactics. 00:01:17.450 --> 00:01:19.989 Oh, definitely not. We are going to explore the 00:01:19.989 --> 00:01:22.989 underlying why behind this massive shift. We'll 00:01:22.989 --> 00:01:25.109 be looking at the economic ties that secretly 00:01:25.109 --> 00:01:27.989 bound the U .S. to the allied powers, the terrifying 00:01:27.989 --> 00:01:30.409 introduction of brand new submarine technology, 00:01:30.709 --> 00:01:33.209 the intense domestic political divides here at 00:01:33.209 --> 00:01:36.489 home and some dramatic espionage that quite literally 00:01:36.489 --> 00:01:38.750 changed the course of history. OK, let's unpack 00:01:38.750 --> 00:01:41.269 this, because on paper, the United was completely 00:01:41.269 --> 00:01:43.870 neutral. But looking at the numbers from the 00:01:43.870 --> 00:01:46.829 source, the reality was a massive domestic economic 00:01:46.829 --> 00:01:49.629 boom entirely fueled by the war in Europe. US 00:01:49.629 --> 00:01:52.430 exports to Europe absolutely skyrocketed. They 00:01:52.430 --> 00:01:56.469 went from $824 million in 1913 to a staggering 00:01:56.469 --> 00:02:01.079 $2 .25 billion in 1917. How does a country maintain 00:02:01.079 --> 00:02:03.180 neutrality while simultaneously becoming the 00:02:03.180 --> 00:02:05.359 primary supply line for one side of a war? Well, 00:02:05.359 --> 00:02:08.400 it's a precarious balancing act. And the sheer 00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:10.580 scale of the financial entanglement is hard to 00:02:10.580 --> 00:02:13.520 overstate. You had major financial institutions 00:02:13.520 --> 00:02:16.219 essentially acting as the engine for the Allied 00:02:16.219 --> 00:02:18.939 war effort. Like who? J .P. Morgan's New York 00:02:18.939 --> 00:02:21.680 office is a prime example. Starting in 1914, 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:24.099 they became the primary financial agent for the 00:02:24.099 --> 00:02:26.319 British government and later did the exact same 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:28.800 thing for France. They were issuing massive loans 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:30.939 to these governments. Wow. And on the industrial 00:02:30.939 --> 00:02:33.759 side, companies like Bethlehem Steel took incredible 00:02:33.759 --> 00:02:36.199 advantage of the overseas demand. By the end 00:02:36.199 --> 00:02:38.819 of the war, Bethlehem Steel had produced 60 percent 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:41.500 of all US weaponry and 40 percent of the artillery 00:02:41.500 --> 00:02:44.340 shells used by Britain and France. That is wild. 00:02:44.419 --> 00:02:46.719 We're talking about one point one billion pounds 00:02:46.719 --> 00:02:49.900 of steel for shells alone. That feels like a 00:02:49.900 --> 00:02:52.500 massive conflict of interest. To put that in 00:02:52.500 --> 00:02:54.759 perspective for you listening, imagine trying 00:02:54.759 --> 00:02:57.500 to stay out of a street fight while simultaneously 00:02:57.500 --> 00:02:59.539 selling brass knuckles to one of the fighters. 00:03:00.039 --> 00:03:03.360 Or imagine a bank realizing its biggest borrower 00:03:03.360 --> 00:03:05.979 is suddenly on the verge of bankruptcy. Right? 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:08.539 They panic. Suddenly, that bank has a vested 00:03:08.539 --> 00:03:11.060 interest in doing whatever it takes to keep that 00:03:11.060 --> 00:03:13.639 borrower afloat. Because if the borrower goes 00:03:13.639 --> 00:03:16.800 under, the bank loses everything. It really highlights 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:19.340 how intertwined global economies already were 00:03:19.340 --> 00:03:22.280 over a century ago. But surely someone in the 00:03:22.280 --> 00:03:24.620 government saw the danger of tethering the U 00:03:24.620 --> 00:03:27.800 .S. economy to an allied victory. Oh, they absolutely 00:03:27.800 --> 00:03:30.060 did. The U .S. Secretary of State at the time, 00:03:30.360 --> 00:03:32.400 William Jennings Bryan, he saw the writing on 00:03:32.400 --> 00:03:35.039 the wall. Back in August 1914, he actually wanted 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:38.219 to ban loans to warring nations entirely. Really? 00:03:38.439 --> 00:03:40.599 Yeah. His argument was incredibly pragmatic. 00:03:41.060 --> 00:03:43.180 He said, refusing to loan money to any belligerent 00:03:43.180 --> 00:03:45.599 would naturally force the war to end faster simply 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:47.599 because the warring nations would run out of 00:03:47.599 --> 00:03:49.639 funds to keep fighting. I mean, that makes perfect 00:03:49.639 --> 00:03:51.939 logical sense. Why didn't President Wilson just 00:03:51.939 --> 00:03:54.349 agree and sign that into policy? Initially, Wilson 00:03:54.349 --> 00:03:57.509 actually leaned toward Brian's perspective, but 00:03:57.509 --> 00:04:00.050 the sheer economic pressure and the pushback 00:04:00.050 --> 00:04:02.990 from U .S. business interests were just overwhelming. 00:04:03.370 --> 00:04:05.689 Furthermore, the allied governments presented 00:04:05.689 --> 00:04:10.060 a compelling legal argument. France pointed out 00:04:10.060 --> 00:04:12.599 that if it was perfectly legal under international 00:04:12.599 --> 00:04:15.379 law to buy American goods, it should be equally 00:04:15.379 --> 00:04:17.639 legal to take out lines of credit to purchase 00:04:17.639 --> 00:04:20.319 those goods. Ultimately, the economic momentum 00:04:20.319 --> 00:04:22.959 was too strong to halt. So the money kept flowing. 00:04:23.319 --> 00:04:26.439 Exactly. The loans continued, the exports flowed, 00:04:26.519 --> 00:04:29.720 and the U .S. economy became quietly, irrevocably 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:32.100 tethered to the survival of Britain and France. 00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:34.300 Here's where it gets really interesting, though. 00:04:34.379 --> 00:04:36.639 Because while all this American money and steel 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.720 is crossing the Atlantic, the actual war on the 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:42.220 water is completely changing the rules of naval 00:04:42.220 --> 00:04:45.420 engagement. Britain is using its massive Royal 00:04:45.420 --> 00:04:47.959 Navy to blockade Germany. They are patrolling 00:04:47.959 --> 00:04:50.480 the North Sea, stopping ships and preventing 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.199 food and war supplies from getting through. And 00:04:53.199 --> 00:04:56.199 this blockade is devastating. By the winter of 00:04:56.199 --> 00:05:00.480 1916 to 1917, it causes a period of severe starvation 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.040 in central Europe known as the Turnip Winter. 00:05:03.230 --> 00:05:06.149 Germany is being strangled and they decide they 00:05:06.149 --> 00:05:08.370 have to retaliate with a terrifying new piece 00:05:08.370 --> 00:05:11.579 of technology, the U -boat or submarine. What's 00:05:11.579 --> 00:05:14.100 fascinating here is the clash between old naval 00:05:14.100 --> 00:05:16.699 traditions and this new technological reality. 00:05:17.259 --> 00:05:19.699 For a long time, naval warfare operated under 00:05:19.699 --> 00:05:22.180 an established international framework called 00:05:22.180 --> 00:05:24.560 cruiser rules. Right, the gentleman's rules of 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.740 war. Exactly. Under these rules, if a warship 00:05:27.740 --> 00:05:30.220 encountered an unarmed merchant vessel, it was 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.699 required to surface, issue a warning, and allow 00:05:32.699 --> 00:05:35.240 the civilian crew to safely evacuate into lifeboats 00:05:35.240 --> 00:05:37.920 before sinking the ship. But German submarines 00:05:37.920 --> 00:05:40.240 were a completely different breed of vessel. 00:05:40.519 --> 00:05:42.160 Because they were incredibly vulnerable when 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:44.699 they weren't underwater. Right. Spot on. Early 00:05:44.699 --> 00:05:46.879 submarines were slow and extremely fragile on 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:49.379 the surface. If a U -boat surfaced to give a 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:51.399 polite warning, a merchant ship could simply 00:05:51.399 --> 00:05:54.079 ram it, or a hidden deck gun could destroy the 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:56.819 submarine in seconds. Oh, wow. So the German 00:05:56.819 --> 00:06:00.319 military high command argued that these old gentlemanly 00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:03.420 rules of naval warfare shouldn't apply to this 00:06:03.420 --> 00:06:06.319 new stealth -based weapon. They argued that necessity 00:06:06.319 --> 00:06:08.920 dictated they begin torpedoing ships without 00:06:08.920 --> 00:06:12.759 warning. Which brings us to May 7th, 1915. An 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:15.180 event that completely shocked the American public. 00:06:15.620 --> 00:06:17.819 A German U -boat torpedoes a massive British 00:06:17.819 --> 00:06:20.319 ocean liner called the RMS Lusitania off the 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:22.899 coast of Ireland. Horrific tragedy. The ship 00:06:22.899 --> 00:06:27.339 sinks rapidly and 11 ,199 civilians die. Out 00:06:27.339 --> 00:06:30.459 of those casualties, 128 are American citizens. 00:06:31.259 --> 00:06:33.500 I have to imagine the pressure on President Wilson 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:35.660 to declare war right then and there was immense. 00:06:35.939 --> 00:06:38.660 The public outrage was palpable. The sudden destruction 00:06:38.660 --> 00:06:41.180 of an unarmed passenger ship, coupled with earlier 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:43.600 reports of German military atrocities in Belgium, 00:06:44.180 --> 00:06:46.180 really turned the baseline of American public 00:06:46.180 --> 00:06:48.519 opinion hostile toward Germany. So what did Wilson 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:51.660 do? Well, he walked a very tight diplomatic rope. 00:06:51.939 --> 00:06:54.350 He didn't ask for a declaration of war. Instead, 00:06:54.569 --> 00:06:57.250 he issued a severe warning demanding that Germany 00:06:57.250 --> 00:06:59.430 be held to stripped accountability for the loss 00:06:59.430 --> 00:07:01.949 of American lives. Strict accountability. That 00:07:01.949 --> 00:07:04.170 sounds like a very carefully chosen phrase. It 00:07:04.170 --> 00:07:06.990 was. The phrase was drafted by a State Department 00:07:06.990 --> 00:07:09.689 official named Robert Lansing. It was designed 00:07:09.689 --> 00:07:12.050 to sound incredibly firm without committing the 00:07:12.050 --> 00:07:14.649 U .S. to immediate military action. A political 00:07:14.649 --> 00:07:18.050 tightrope. Exactly. But over time, that phrase 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:20.670 morphed into a diplomatic doctrine that eventually 00:07:20.670 --> 00:07:23.389 laid the groundwork to justify the use of military 00:07:23.389 --> 00:07:26.850 force. And it actually worked, temporarily. Fearing 00:07:26.850 --> 00:07:29.170 American intervention, Berlin backed down for 00:07:29.170 --> 00:07:31.430 a while and ordered its submarines to avoid targeting 00:07:31.430 --> 00:07:33.540 passengerships. But even with the anger, over 00:07:33.540 --> 00:07:36.319 the Lusitania. We have to look at the domestic 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:39.720 reality. We often look back at history and assume 00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:43.079 these major global events had unanimous patriotic 00:07:43.079 --> 00:07:45.920 support from day one. But the U .S. was incredibly 00:07:45.920 --> 00:07:48.240 divided. People were not eager to send their 00:07:48.240 --> 00:07:50.740 sons to die in trenches. Wilson even won re -election 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:53.560 in 1916 on the slogan, He Kept Us Out of War. 00:07:53.689 --> 00:07:55.930 That is a crucial piece of the puzzle. When you 00:07:55.930 --> 00:07:58.189 break down the demographics, you see a multitude 00:07:58.189 --> 00:08:00.269 of conflicting perspectives across the country. 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:03.009 And to be clear, we are just examining the historical 00:08:03.009 --> 00:08:05.470 realities of these groups as reported in our 00:08:05.470 --> 00:08:08.189 source, not endorsing any specific political 00:08:08.189 --> 00:08:09.930 stance. Right. Just reporting what the source 00:08:09.930 --> 00:08:12.550 says. Exactly. For instance, if you look at the 00:08:12.550 --> 00:08:16.009 rural south, there was intense antiwar sentiment 00:08:16.009 --> 00:08:18.970 among poor white farmers. They looked at the 00:08:18.970 --> 00:08:21.589 massive profits being made by northern industrialists 00:08:21.589 --> 00:08:23.629 and Wall Street bankers. And they warned each 00:08:23.629 --> 00:08:25.350 other that this year came conflict was going 00:08:25.350 --> 00:08:29.410 to be a rich man's war, a poor man's fight. And 00:08:29.410 --> 00:08:32.070 the United States also had massive immigrant 00:08:32.070 --> 00:08:34.830 communities whose views were heavily influenced 00:08:34.830 --> 00:08:37.299 by their homelands. How did they react? They 00:08:37.299 --> 00:08:40.039 were deeply fractured. German Americans strongly 00:08:40.039 --> 00:08:43.019 pushed for strict U .S. neutrality, largely because 00:08:43.019 --> 00:08:45.379 they understandably feared the domestic mistreatment 00:08:45.379 --> 00:08:47.659 they might face if the U .S. went to war against 00:08:47.659 --> 00:08:50.340 their former homeland, which is completely understandable. 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:53.399 And that was a valid fear as widespread discrimination 00:08:53.399 --> 00:08:55.480 was already occurring in places like Canada. 00:08:56.100 --> 00:08:58.279 Then you had Irish Americans who are arguably 00:08:58.279 --> 00:09:00.360 the most effective domestic opponents of the 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.059 war. Many of them were fiercely anti -British 00:09:03.059 --> 00:09:05.259 because of Britain's ongoing rule over Ireland 00:09:05.259 --> 00:09:08.200 and the adamant oppose the U .S. doing anything 00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:10.620 that might bolster the British Empire. I found 00:09:10.620 --> 00:09:12.779 the Jewish -American perspective highlighted 00:09:12.779 --> 00:09:15.720 in the source to be a really fascinating shift 00:09:15.720 --> 00:09:18.000 specifically regarding who the Allied powers 00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:21.950 were. It is a profound historical pivot. Initially, 00:09:22.289 --> 00:09:24.929 many Jewish Americans heavily opposed the U .S. 00:09:25.009 --> 00:09:27.509 entering the war on the side of the Allies. The 00:09:27.509 --> 00:09:29.990 primary reason was the Russian Empire, which 00:09:29.990 --> 00:09:32.350 was fighting alongside Britain and France. Because 00:09:32.350 --> 00:09:35.450 of the Tsar? Yes. The Russian Tsar's government 00:09:35.450 --> 00:09:38.210 had a horrific history of endorsing violent, 00:09:38.509 --> 00:09:40.929 state -sanctioned riots against Jewish communities 00:09:40.929 --> 00:09:43.970 known as pogroms. For many Jewish immigrants 00:09:43.970 --> 00:09:46.610 who had fled that exact persecution, supporting 00:09:46.610 --> 00:09:49.070 the Tsar was a moral impossibility. But that 00:09:49.070 --> 00:09:53.009 changed. dramatically in early 1917. The February 00:09:53.009 --> 00:09:55.690 Revolution overthrew the Tsar and briefly transformed 00:09:55.690 --> 00:09:58.889 Russia into a republic. Once the Tsar was gone, 00:09:59.230 --> 00:10:01.250 the primary left -wing opposition to the war 00:10:01.250 --> 00:10:03.610 in major cities like New York largely collapsed. 00:10:03.830 --> 00:10:05.909 It just shows how many complex moving parts there 00:10:05.909 --> 00:10:07.990 were in the public consciousness. Mainstream 00:10:07.990 --> 00:10:11.350 pacifism was huge in 1915. The hit song of the 00:10:11.350 --> 00:10:14.090 year, a song that sold over 650 ,000 copies, 00:10:14.210 --> 00:10:16.649 was literally titled, I Didn't Raise My Boy to 00:10:16.649 --> 00:10:18.370 Be a Soldier. That really captures the mood. 00:10:18.549 --> 00:10:21.429 It really does. You even had industrialist Henry 00:10:21.429 --> 00:10:24.789 Ford chartering an entire ocean liner in 1915 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:27.070 called the Peace Ship. He filled it with peace 00:10:27.070 --> 00:10:29.870 activists and sailed to Europe, hoping to personally 00:10:29.870 --> 00:10:32.850 negotiate an end to the war. The press totally 00:10:32.850 --> 00:10:35.309 mocked it, calling it a ship of fools. And it 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:37.409 accomplished nothing, but it demonstrates the 00:10:37.409 --> 00:10:39.809 extraordinary lengths prominent figures were 00:10:39.809 --> 00:10:43.159 going to, to promote peace. And while all this 00:10:43.159 --> 00:10:45.740 pacifism and diplomatic maneuvering is happening 00:10:45.740 --> 00:10:49.299 throughout 1915 and 1916, you have another vocal 00:10:49.299 --> 00:10:51.779 group sounding the alarm about the actual state 00:10:51.779 --> 00:10:54.840 of the U .S. military. This brings us to the 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:57.100 preparedness movement. The military numbers from 00:10:57.100 --> 00:11:00.519 1916 are wild to think about. At that time, the 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:02.840 entire United States active duty army was only 00:11:02.840 --> 00:11:05.440 about 100 ,000 men. To put that in perspective 00:11:05.440 --> 00:11:08.299 for you, the army's fighting in Europe. The French, 00:11:08.460 --> 00:11:10.679 the British, the Germans were sometimes losing 00:11:10.679 --> 00:11:13.259 100 ,000 men in a single week of trench warfare. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:15.620 It's staggering. The entire US military could 00:11:15.620 --> 00:11:17.929 have been wiped out in a matter of days. The 00:11:17.929 --> 00:11:20.210 proponents of the preparedness movement, led 00:11:20.210 --> 00:11:22.509 by elite figures like former president Theodore 00:11:22.509 --> 00:11:25.090 Roosevelt and General Leonard Wood, looked at 00:11:25.090 --> 00:11:27.789 those cattle to figures and realized the U .S. 00:11:27.789 --> 00:11:30.690 was hopelessly outgunned. They argued that the 00:11:30.690 --> 00:11:33.029 U .S. needed to immediately build up its naval 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:36.649 and land forces if only for basic national defense. 00:11:36.909 --> 00:11:39.730 So what do they do? They were so concerned that 00:11:39.730 --> 00:11:42.129 they set up their own privately funded summer 00:11:42.129 --> 00:11:44.389 training camps in places like Plattsburgh, New 00:11:44.389 --> 00:11:47.129 York. They were training thousands of college 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:49.899 alumni to be military officers because the government 00:11:49.899 --> 00:11:52.059 wasn't doing it. But I imagine setting up private 00:11:52.059 --> 00:11:54.559 military camps caused a massive uproar among 00:11:54.559 --> 00:11:57.740 the anti -war factions. Absolutely. The anti 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.419 -militarists, which included many liberal progressives 00:12:00.419 --> 00:12:02.659 and Democrats in Congress, pushed back hard. 00:12:03.039 --> 00:12:04.940 Their core argument was that building a massive 00:12:04.940 --> 00:12:07.379 army would simply tempt the nation into using 00:12:07.379 --> 00:12:09.860 it. They felt that warfare was usually driven 00:12:09.860 --> 00:12:12.419 by hidden economic motivations, like the massive 00:12:12.419 --> 00:12:14.460 profits of those munitions makers we discussed 00:12:14.460 --> 00:12:16.840 earlier, and that building a giant war machine 00:12:16.840 --> 00:12:19.440 would inevitably drag the U .S. into the European 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:22.159 conflict. Meanwhile, as everyone in Washington 00:12:22.159 --> 00:12:24.639 is arguing about whether to build an army, the 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:27.840 war is quietly spilling over onto American soil 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:31.080 in the form of espionage. There is a detail from 00:12:31.080 --> 00:12:33.799 the source that plays out exactly like a tense 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:36.519 scene from a spy movie happening right in the 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:39.600 middle of 1915. Tell me about Heinrich Albert. 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:42.580 This is one of those bizarre moments where a 00:12:42.580 --> 00:12:46.659 tiny mistake changes history. It is July 1915. 00:12:47.100 --> 00:12:50.080 Heinrich Albert is a German diplomatic attache, 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:52.539 but he is also secretly coordinating a massive 00:12:52.539 --> 00:12:55.279 espionage ring. OK. He is riding the Sixth Avenue 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:58.000 elevated train in New York City. He gets momentarily 00:12:58.000 --> 00:13:00.059 distracted. And when he rushes off the train 00:13:00.059 --> 00:13:02.259 at a stop, he accidentally leaves his briefcase 00:13:02.259 --> 00:13:04.779 on the seat. You're kidding. No. And sitting 00:13:04.779 --> 00:13:07.399 near him is a US Secret Service agent named Frank 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:10.179 Burke, who had been tailing him. Burke simply 00:13:10.179 --> 00:13:11.960 snatches the briefcase before the doors close. 00:13:12.200 --> 00:13:14.480 That is an unbelievable intelligence coup. What 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:18.120 was inside? It was an absolute gold mine. The 00:13:18.120 --> 00:13:20.360 Wilson administration leaked the contents to 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:23.899 the newspapers, and it was a bombshell. The briefcase 00:13:23.899 --> 00:13:27.519 contained hard, undeniable proof of a massive 00:13:27.519 --> 00:13:30.120 systematic German effort to finance sabotage 00:13:30.120 --> 00:13:32.799 within the US, stir up labor strikes at munitions 00:13:32.799 --> 00:13:35.500 plants, and even buy off American newspapers 00:13:35.500 --> 00:13:38.669 to print pro -German propaganda. So it proved 00:13:38.669 --> 00:13:41.590 everything people were afraid of. Yes. It validated 00:13:41.590 --> 00:13:44.610 every paranoid fear Americans had that foreign 00:13:44.610 --> 00:13:46.909 spies were operating right under their noses, 00:13:46.909 --> 00:13:49.070 manipulating their economy and their safety. 00:13:49.470 --> 00:13:51.389 If we connect this to the bigger picture, you 00:13:51.389 --> 00:13:53.769 can see the pressure rapidly building. You have 00:13:53.769 --> 00:13:56.149 economic ties pulling the U .S. toward the allies, 00:13:56.669 --> 00:13:59.250 lingering outrage over submarine warfare, and 00:13:59.250 --> 00:14:01.490 documented proof of foreign sabotage. It's a 00:14:01.490 --> 00:14:04.190 powder cake. Exactly. This all culminates in 00:14:04.190 --> 00:14:06.350 the 1916 presidential election, where Wilson 00:14:06.350 --> 00:14:08.669 barely wins reelection, primarily on that campaign 00:14:08.669 --> 00:14:10.789 slogan, he kept us out of war. The public was 00:14:10.789 --> 00:14:12.509 desperate to maintain the illusion of safety, 00:14:12.870 --> 00:14:14.850 but the true tipping point comes in the early 00:14:14.850 --> 00:14:17.990 months of 1917. What forces that final shift? 00:14:18.269 --> 00:14:20.909 The German military high command, led by figures 00:14:20.909 --> 00:14:23.769 like Paul von Hindenburg and Eric Ludendorff, 00:14:23.850 --> 00:14:26.730 decides to make a massive, fatal gamble. They 00:14:26.730 --> 00:14:29.389 convince the Kaiser to resume unrestricted submarine 00:14:29.389 --> 00:14:32.110 warfare. This meant their U -boats would sink 00:14:32.110 --> 00:14:34.830 any ship, neutral or not, that was headed to 00:14:34.830 --> 00:14:37.269 Britain. But they had to know that abandoning 00:14:37.269 --> 00:14:39.889 strict accountability would absolutely force 00:14:39.889 --> 00:14:42.169 the United States into the war. They fully acknowledged 00:14:42.169 --> 00:14:45.269 it. But it was a calculated mathematical gamble. 00:14:45.830 --> 00:14:47.710 They believed they could sink enough shipping 00:14:47.710 --> 00:14:50.070 tonnage to starve Britain into surrendering within 00:14:50.070 --> 00:14:51.909 six months. So it was a race against the clock. 00:14:52.090 --> 00:14:54.730 Right. They bet the entire war on the assumption 00:14:54.730 --> 00:14:57.289 that the tiny, unprepared U .S. military could 00:14:57.289 --> 00:15:00.450 never draft, train, equip, and transport an army 00:15:00.450 --> 00:15:03.070 across the Atlantic in time to save Britain. 00:15:03.429 --> 00:15:05.429 So they announced this resumption of unrestricted 00:15:05.429 --> 00:15:09.750 submarine warfare on January 31st, 1917. And 00:15:09.750 --> 00:15:12.009 immediately they start sinking American merchant 00:15:12.009 --> 00:15:15.029 ships. In March alone, U -boats sink the Vigilancia, 00:15:15.190 --> 00:15:17.710 the city of Memphis, and the Illinois. American 00:15:17.710 --> 00:15:20.639 sailors are actively dying in the Atlantic. But 00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:22.179 as if that wasn't enough to push the country 00:15:22.179 --> 00:15:24.600 over the edge, Germany also decides to reach 00:15:24.600 --> 00:15:28.759 out to Mexico. Yes. This brings us to the infamous 00:15:28.759 --> 00:15:31.840 Zimmerman Telegram, perhaps the most disastrous 00:15:31.840 --> 00:15:34.360 diplomatic communication in modern history. Walk 00:15:34.360 --> 00:15:37.500 us through how this unfolded. In January 1917, 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:40.340 the German foreign minister, Arthur Zimmerman, 00:15:40.659 --> 00:15:42.980 sends a secret encoded telegram to the German 00:15:42.980 --> 00:15:46.909 ambassador in Mexico. He knows Mexico still harbors 00:15:46.909 --> 00:15:49.629 deep resentment over the vast territories they 00:15:49.629 --> 00:15:52.250 lost to the U .S. in the 1840s. The Mexican -American 00:15:52.250 --> 00:15:55.429 War. Exactly. So Zimmerman offers them a deal. 00:15:55.730 --> 00:15:58.330 He says if the U .S. enters the war against Germany, 00:15:58.649 --> 00:16:01.169 Mexico should ally with Germany and attack the 00:16:01.169 --> 00:16:04.490 U .S. from the south. In return, Germany promises 00:16:04.490 --> 00:16:06.950 to provide financial support and help Mexico 00:16:06.950 --> 00:16:10.049 reclaim Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. But the 00:16:10.049 --> 00:16:12.129 telegram never stays secret. No, it doesn't. 00:16:12.200 --> 00:16:14.460 British intelligence operating out of a highly 00:16:14.460 --> 00:16:17.200 secretive cryptography unit known as Room 40 00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.600 intercepted the telegram and decoded it. Wow. 00:16:19.740 --> 00:16:21.720 They actually sat on it for a few weeks trying 00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:23.620 to figure out how to hand it over to the Americans 00:16:23.620 --> 00:16:25.539 without revealing to the Germans that their codes 00:16:25.539 --> 00:16:27.960 were broken. Eventually they shared it with the 00:16:27.960 --> 00:16:30.360 Wilson administration and the White House released 00:16:30.360 --> 00:16:32.580 it to the press on March 1st. Think about that 00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:35.759 for a second. Imagine you are an American reading 00:16:35.759 --> 00:16:39.700 the morning paper in 1917. First, you are reading 00:16:39.700 --> 00:16:42.600 reports that German submarines are actively sinking 00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:45.399 American ships in the Atlantic. And then right 00:16:45.399 --> 00:16:48.879 next to it, you discover a secret, documented 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:53.019 plot by a foreign power to fund a literal invasion 00:16:53.019 --> 00:16:55.740 of your own backyard. It's unthinkable. To carve 00:16:55.740 --> 00:16:57.860 up the United States and give away Texas, New 00:16:57.860 --> 00:17:00.639 Mexico, and Arizona, the outrage must have been 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:03.159 overwhelming. The isolationists in the Senate 00:17:03.159 --> 00:17:05.700 who had been blocking military legislation suddenly 00:17:05.700 --> 00:17:07.660 found their positions completely indefensible. 00:17:07.829 --> 00:17:11.150 Exactly. However, President Wilson recognized 00:17:11.150 --> 00:17:14.329 a deeper truth about the American psyche. Purely 00:17:14.329 --> 00:17:16.930 military or economic arguments protecting trade 00:17:16.930 --> 00:17:20.450 routes or reacting to a border threat still weren't 00:17:20.450 --> 00:17:23.289 quite enough to permanently unite an entire deeply 00:17:23.289 --> 00:17:26.349 divided country for a massive overseas war. He 00:17:26.349 --> 00:17:28.750 needed something bigger. To mobilize a fractured 00:17:28.750 --> 00:17:31.309 nation, he had to completely reframe the conflict. 00:17:31.470 --> 00:17:32.930 It couldn't just be about revenge. It had to 00:17:32.930 --> 00:17:35.609 be elevated to a moral imperative. So what does 00:17:35.609 --> 00:17:37.569 this all mean? How does Wilson make that pivot? 00:17:37.759 --> 00:17:41.539 It all comes to a head on April text, 1917. President 00:17:41.539 --> 00:17:43.779 Wilson stands before a special joint session 00:17:43.779 --> 00:17:46.299 of Congress and asks for a declaration of war. 00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.099 But listen to how he frames the argument. He 00:17:50.099 --> 00:17:52.900 specifically states, we have no selfish ends 00:17:52.900 --> 00:17:55.519 to serve. Interesting. He doesn't ask for war 00:17:55.519 --> 00:17:58.180 to conquer territory or to exact revenge for 00:17:58.180 --> 00:18:01.119 the Lusitania or to protect J .P. Morgan's bank 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:03.480 loans. He tells Congress that the U .S. has a 00:18:03.480 --> 00:18:05.700 moral responsibility to enter the fight, to wage 00:18:05.700 --> 00:18:09.160 a war to end all wars, and most famously, to 00:18:09.160 --> 00:18:12.019 make the world safe for democracy. That moral 00:18:12.019 --> 00:18:14.279 framework was the final piece of the puzzle. 00:18:14.619 --> 00:18:17.079 It appealed to that uniquely American sense of 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:19.470 idealism. It convinced the religious leaders 00:18:19.470 --> 00:18:21.630 who had been preaching peace, the progressives 00:18:21.630 --> 00:18:23.650 who feared militarism, and the general public 00:18:23.650 --> 00:18:25.809 that this wasn't just another corrupt European 00:18:25.809 --> 00:18:27.849 land grab. It was framed as a righteous crusade. 00:18:27.910 --> 00:18:30.569 And it worked. The public was swayed, and just 00:18:30.569 --> 00:18:33.589 four days later, on April 6, 1917, Congress officially 00:18:33.589 --> 00:18:36.329 declared war on the German Empire. It is truly 00:18:36.329 --> 00:18:39.299 a staggering transformation. Over the course 00:18:39.299 --> 00:18:41.940 of this deep dive, you have seen a nation that 00:18:41.940 --> 00:18:45.299 was fiercely divided, a nation singing, I didn't 00:18:45.299 --> 00:18:48.339 raise my boy to be a soldier, get slowly but 00:18:48.339 --> 00:18:50.920 inevitably pushed into a global conflict. Took 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:53.519 a perfect storm. It really did. The invisible 00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.740 chains of massive economic loans, the horrifying 00:18:56.740 --> 00:18:59.180 realities of a brand new maritime technology 00:18:59.180 --> 00:19:02.720 that didn't play by the old rules, and intercepted 00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:05.240 spy telegrams proposing an invasion of the American 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:08.759 Southwest. This raises an important question 00:19:08.759 --> 00:19:11.160 though. When we look at this history, it reminds 00:19:11.160 --> 00:19:14.400 us that navigating a barrage of propaganda, information 00:19:14.400 --> 00:19:17.339 overload, and sudden technological shifts is 00:19:17.339 --> 00:19:20.009 not uniquely a modern problem. Not at all. The 00:19:20.009 --> 00:19:22.750 American public from 1914 to 1917 had to try 00:19:22.750 --> 00:19:24.730 and make sense of their rapidly changing world 00:19:24.730 --> 00:19:26.970 while being bombarded by competing narratives, 00:19:27.549 --> 00:19:29.809 intense economic pressures and fear of the unknown. 00:19:30.190 --> 00:19:31.650 They had to figure out what was real, what was 00:19:31.650 --> 00:19:33.690 a genuine threat and what their moral obligation 00:19:33.690 --> 00:19:36.450 was on a global stage, all while the ground shifted 00:19:36.450 --> 00:19:38.890 beneath their feet. It's a lot to chew on. And 00:19:38.890 --> 00:19:40.650 I want to leave you with one final thought to 00:19:40.650 --> 00:19:45.089 mull over. Back in 1917, it was the unseen threats 00:19:45.089 --> 00:19:47.789 that ultimately pulled America into a devastating 00:19:47.789 --> 00:19:51.220 war. It was fragile submarines hiding silently 00:19:51.220 --> 00:19:54.500 beneath the ocean waves. And it was secret, coded 00:19:54.500 --> 00:19:57.099 telegrams crossing the globe entirely unseen 00:19:57.099 --> 00:19:59.440 by the public until it was too late. Looking 00:19:59.440 --> 00:20:01.940 at the world you live in today, what unseen digital 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:04.119 or cyber conflicts are currently swirling around 00:20:04.119 --> 00:20:06.559 us in the background? And could those invisible 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:08.819 modern telegrams be quietly pulling us toward 00:20:08.819 --> 00:20:11.180 a global entanglement without us even realizing 00:20:11.180 --> 00:20:13.200 it? Thank you so much for joining us on this 00:20:13.200 --> 00:20:13.740 Deep Dive.