TR would have kept us out
Not only would we likely not have gotten into the war in 1914, we probably wouldn't have gotten into the war at all. President Wilson sought to keep us out of the war by deterrence; deterrence through weakness, backed by apparently empty threats. Wilson threatened that we would get into the war if the Germans went the unlimited submarine warfare (USW) route. This meant that once Germany resorted USW the United states was faced with a choice between looking weak and going to war. (Of course the Zimmerman letter didn't help.) Now faced on one hand with what appeared to be a failing war effort and a shot of victory by sea (or at leased knocking the Brits out of the war), and on the other hand with threats coming from many thousans of miles away by a nation with only around 125,000 soldiers in an ill-trained, ill-equipped army, Germany chose to deal with a possible solution to the far more certain problems, the enemies on hand.
TR espoused greatly increasing the size of the army to prepare for conflict. Wilson disagreed, even turning down an offer by Roosevelt to raise and train a unit of volunteers. Had TR won in 1912, whether he won again in 1916 or not a large American army would have served to alter German thought processes as to what was in their best interests, and likely would have discouraged them from bringing us into the war.
I won't get into the whole WW1 ends sooner and more equitably, no embittered, future fascist Germany, no USSR, no WW2 killing 52 million people, and no cold war leading to policies that often supported bad people in the middle east leading to the large muslim extremist terrorist movement of today thing.
Not only would we likely not have gotten into the war in 1914, we probably wouldn't have gotten into the war at all. President Wilson sought to keep us out of the war by deterrence; deterrence through weakness, backed by apparently empty threats. Wilson threatened that we would get into the war if the Germans went the unlimited submarine warfare (USW) route. This meant that once Germany resorted USW the United states was faced with a choice between looking weak and going to war. (Of course the Zimmerman letter didn't help.) Now faced on one hand with what appeared to be a failing war effort and a shot of victory by sea (or at leased knocking the Brits out of the war), and on the other hand with threats coming from many thousans of miles away by a nation with only around 125,000 soldiers in an ill-trained, ill-equipped army, Germany chose to deal with a possible solution to the far more certain problems, the enemies on hand.
TR espoused greatly increasing the size of the army to prepare for conflict. Wilson disagreed, even turning down an offer by Roosevelt to raise and train a unit of volunteers. Had TR won in 1912, whether he won again in 1916 or not a large American army would have served to alter German thought processes as to what was in their best interests, and likely would have discouraged them from bringing us into the war.
I won't get into the whole WW1 ends sooner and more equitably, no embittered, future fascist Germany, no USSR, no WW2 killing 52 million people, and no cold war leading to policies that often supported bad people in the middle east leading to the large muslim extremist terrorist movement of today thing.
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