<P> In reality, neither the US Army nor US Navy was in shape for war in terms of manpower, size, military hardware or experience . The Navy had fine ships but Wilson had been using them to threaten Mexico, and the fleet's readiness had suffered . The crews of the Texas and the New York, the two newest and largest battleships, had never fired a gun, and the morale of the sailors was low . The Army and Navy air forces were tiny in size . Despite the flood of new weapons systems unveiled in the war in Europe, the Army was paying scant attention . For example, it was making no studies of trench warfare, poison gas or tanks, and was unfamiliar with the rapid evolution of aerial warfare . The Democrats in Congress tried to cut the military budget in 1915 . The Preparedness movement effectively exploited the surge of outrage over the "Lusitania" in May 1915, forcing the Democrats to promise some improvements to the military and naval forces . Wilson, less fearful of the Navy, embraced a long - term building program designed to make the fleet the equal of the British Royal Navy by the mid-1920s, although this would not come to pass until after World War II . "Realism" was at work here; the admirals were Mahanians and they therefore wanted a surface fleet of heavy battleships second to none--that is, equal to Great Britain . The facts of submarine warfare (which necessitated destroyers, not battleships) and the possibilities of imminent war with Germany (or with Britain, for that matter), were simply ignored . </P> <P> Wilson's decision touched off a firestorm . Secretary of War Lindley Garrison adopted many of the proposals of the Preparedness leaders, especially their emphasis on a large federal reserves and abandonment of the National Guard . Garrison's proposals not only outraged the provincial politicians of both parties, they also offended a strongly held belief shared by the liberal wing of the Progressive movement, that was, that warfare always had a hidden economic motivation . Specifically, they warned the chief warmongers were New York bankers (such as J.P. Morgan) with millions at risk, profiteering munition makers (such as Bethlehem Steel, which made armor, and DuPont, which made powder) and unspecified industrialists searching for global markets to control . Antiwar critics blasted them . These selfish special interests were too powerful, especially, Senator La Follette noted, in the conservative wing of the Republican Party . The only road to peace was disarmament in the eyes of many . </P> <P> Garrison's plan unleashed the fiercest battle in peacetime history over the relationship of military planning to national goals . In peacetime, War Department arsenals and Navy yards manufactured nearly all munitions that lacked civilian uses, including warships, artillery, naval guns, and shells . Items available on the civilian market, such as food, horses, saddles, wagons, and uniforms were always purchased from civilian contractors . </P> <P> Peace leaders like Jane Addams of Hull House and David Starr Jordan of Stanford University redoubled their efforts, and now turned their voices against the President because he was "sowing the seeds of militarism, raising up a military and naval caste ." Many ministers, professors, farm spokesmen and labor union leaders joined in, with powerful support from a band of four dozen southern Democrats in Congress who took control of the House Military Affairs Committee . Wilson, in deep trouble, took his cause to the people in a major speaking tour in early 1916, a warm - up for his reelection campaign that fall . </P>

What was america's involvement in world war 1