<P> The immediate cause of the United States' entry into World War I in April 1917 was the German announcement of renewed unrestricted submarine warfare and the subsequent sinking of ships with Americans on board . But President Wilson's war aims went beyond the defense of maritime interests . In his War Message to Congress, Wilson declared that the United States' objective was "to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world ." In several speeches earlier in the year, Wilson sketched out his vision of an end to the war that would bring a "just and secure peace," not merely "a new balance of power ." </P> <P> President Wilson subsequently initiated a secret series of studies named the Inquiry, primarily focused on Europe, and carried out by a group in New York which included geographers, historians and political scientists; the group was directed by Colonel House . Their job was to study Allied and American policy in virtually every region of the globe and analyze economic, social, and political facts likely to come up in discussions during the peace conference . The group produced and collected nearly 2,000 separate reports and documents plus at least 1,200 maps . The studies culminated in a speech by Wilson to Congress on January 8, 1918, wherein he articulated America's long - term war objectives . The speech was the clearest expression of intention made by any of the belligerent nations, and it projected Wilson's progressive domestic policies into the international arena . </P> <P> The speech, known as the Fourteen Points, was developed from a set of diplomatic points by Wilson and territorial points drafted by the Inquiry's general secretary, Walter Lippmann, and his colleagues, Isaiah Bowman, Sidney Mezes, and David Hunter Miller . Lippmann's draft territorial points were a direct response to the secret treaties of the European Allies, which Lippman had been shown by Secretary of War Newton D. Baker . Lippman's task according to House was "to take the secret treaties, analyze the parts which were tolerable, and separate them from those which we regarded as intolerable, and then develop a position which conceded as much to the Allies as it could, but took away the poison...It was all keyed upon the secret treaties ." </P> <P> 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 . Wilson also made proposals that would ensure world peace in the future . For example, he proposed the removal of economic barriers between nations, the promise of self - determination for national minorities, and a world organization that would guarantee the "political independence and territorial integrity (of) great and small states alike"--a League of Nations . </P>

A general association of nations must be formed