<P> After the war began in 1914, the United States proclaimed a policy of neutrality despite president Woodrow Wilson's antipathies against Germany . Early in the war, the United States started to favor the British and their allies . President Wilson aimed to broker a peace and sent his top aide, Colonel House, on repeated missions to the two sides, but each remained so confident of victory that they ignored peace proposals . </P> <P> When the German U-boat U-20 sank the British liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 with 128 US citizens aboard, Wilson said "America is too proud to fight" and demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships . Germany complied . Wilson repeatedly warned that the US would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of international law and of human rights . Wilson came under pressure from war hawks led by former president Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as "piracy", and from British delegations under Cecil Spring Rice and Sir Edward Grey . Wilson realized he needed to enter the war in order to shape the peace; indeed in 1919 he was one of those who achieved the establishment of the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference . Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, whose pacifist goals Wilson ignored, resigned in frustration in June 1915 . Public opinion reacted with outrage to suspected German sabotage of Black Tom in Jersey City, New Jersey on 30 July 1916, and to the Kingsland explosion on 11 January 1917 in present - day Lyndhurst, New Jersey . </P> <P> American public opinion was divided, with most Americans until early 1917 largely of the opinion that the United States should stay out of the war . Opinion changed gradually, partly in response to German actions in Belgium and the Lusitania, partly as German Americans lost influence, and partly in response to Wilson's position that America had to play a role to make the world safe for democracy . </P> <P> In the general public, there was little if any support for entering the war on the side of Germany . The great majority of German Americans, as well as Scandinavian Americans, wanted the United States to remain neutral; however, at the outbreak of war, thousands of US citizens had tried to enlist in the German army . The Irish Catholic community, based in the large cities and often in control of the Democratic Party apparatus, was strongly hostile to helping Britain in any way, especially after the Easter uprising of 1916 in Ireland . Most of the Protestant church leaders in the United States, regardless of their theology, favoured pacifistic solutions whereby the United States would broker a peace . Most of the leaders of the women's movement, typified by Jane Addams, likewise sought pacifistic solutions . The most prominent opponent of war was industrialist Henry Ford, who personally financed and led a peace ship to Europe to try to negotiate among the belligerents; no negotiations resulted . </P>

Where did american soldiers fight during most of ww1