Wisdom Without War

One of the points made in Woodrow Wilson's favor in his 1916 reelection campaign was that the United States had avoided war. The United States was deeply divided as a nation on this matter. On the one hand, Theodore Roosevelt and others vigorously urged that the United States enter the Great War and questioned Woodrow Wilson's leadership; on the other hand, a significant proportion of Americans numbered themselves as "pacifists" and wanted to avoid becoming embroiled in a European war. The sinking of the British passenger ship RMS Lusitania in May 1915, with the loss of 126 American lives, was on people's minds in the 1916 campaign. The United States would not enter the war until April 1917, after many more months or continuing provocations and after President Wilson's second inauguration in March 1917.