<P> However, historian Harold C. Syrett argues that business supported neutrality . Other historians state that the pro-war element was animated not by profit but by disgust with what Germany actually did, especially in Belgium, and the threat it represented to American ideals . Belgium kept the public's sympathy as the Germans executed civilians, and English nurse Edith Cavell . American engineer Herbert Hoover led a private relief effort that won wide support . Compounding the Belgium atrocities were new weapons that Americans found repugnant, like poison gas and the aerial bombardment of innocent civilians as Zeppelins dropped bombs on London . Even anti-war spokesmen did not claim that Germany was innocent, and pro-German scripts were poorly received . </P> <P> Randolph Bourne criticized the moralist philosophy claiming it was a justification by American intellectual and power elites, like President Wilson, for going to war unnecessarily . He argues that the push for war started with the Preparedness movement, fueled by big business . While big business would not push much further than Preparedness, benefitting the most from neutrality, the movement would eventually evolve into a war - cry, led by war - hawk intellectuals under the guise of moralism . Bourne believes elites knew full well what going to war would entail and the price in American lives it would cost . If American elites could portray the United States' role in the war as noble, they could convince the generally isolationist American public war would be acceptable . </P> <P> Above all, American attitudes towards Germany focused on the U-boats (submarines), which sank the Lusitania in 1915 and other passenger ships "without warning". That appeared to Americans as an unacceptable challenge to America's rights as a neutral country, and as an unforgivable affront to humanity . After repeated diplomatic protests, Germany agreed to stop . But in 1917 the Germany military leadership decided that "military necessity" dictated the unrestricted use of their submarines . The Kaiser's advisors felt America was enormously powerful economically but too weak militarily to make a difference . </P> <P> On April 2, 1917, Wilson asked a special joint session of Congress to declare war on the German Empire, stating, "We have no selfish ends to serve". To make the conflict seem like a better idea, he painted the conflict idealistically, stating that the war would "make the world safe for democracy" and later that it would be a "war to end war". The United States had a moral responsibility to enter the war, Wilson proclaimed . The future of the world was being determined on the battlefield, and American national interest demanded a voice . Wilson's definition of the situation won wide acclaim, and, indeed, has shaped America's role in world and military affairs ever since . Wilson believed that if the Central Powers won, the consequences would be bad for the United States . Germany would have dominated the continent and perhaps would gain control of the seas as well . Latin America could well have fallen under Berlin's control . The dream of spreading democracy, liberalism, and independence would have been shattered . On the other hand, if the Allies had won without help, there was a danger they would carve up the world without regard to American commercial interests . They were already planning to use government subsidies, tariff walls, and controlled markets to counter the competition posed by American businessmen . The solution was a third route, a "peace without victory", according to Wilson . </P>

At the beginning of ww1 wilson declared that the us would