WI: WW1 starts while Theodore Roosevelt is still President

Ive thought abt this after reading Theodore Rex I think America would enter the war much closer to the start of the war. What do you think?
 
Ive thought abt this after reading Theodore Rex I think America would enter the war much closer to the start of the war. What do you think?

Venezuela Crisis? I'm sure the US can find someone to fight in Europe while they are fighting at the Atlantic.
 
If you want a US declaration of war, I think you need a majority the American people to feel threatened. yYou need so something like unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmerman Telegram. I see ITTL TR getting into trouble for a premature call to go over there.
 
Big problem the US Army was involved in a deeply unpopular war with Philippinino insurgents and TR would be forced to avoid another imperialist war without clear provocation.
 
What snerfuplz said -- America is (nominally) a democracy in the early 20th century, with the power of declaring war vested in Congress. You need some sort of justification for war -- Congress isn't going to just go "bully!" and declare war because TR wants to wade across the Atlantic and hit the Kaiser with his big stick. It isn't 1846.
 
What snerfuplz said -- America is (nominally) a democracy in the early 20th century, with the power of declaring war vested in Congress. You need some sort of justification for war -- Congress isn't going to just go "bully!" and declare war because TR wants to wade across the Atlantic and hit the Kaiser with his big stick. It isn't 1846.


You forget. THIS IS TR. He could intimidate Congress into it.
 
What snerfuplz said -- America is (nominally) a democracy in the early 20th century, with the power of declaring war vested in Congress. You need some sort of justification for war -- Congress isn't going to just go "bully!" and declare war because TR wants to wade across the Atlantic and hit the Kaiser with his big stick. It isn't 1846.


It isnt 2003 either.
 
You forget. THIS IS TR. He could intimidate Congress into it.

Considering Bush Jr. did push Congress into Iraq in 2002 and this is TR we're talking about that is a lot more plausible than it sounds on its face.

After all this IS when it was only recent memory when federal troops were used to put down strikes and even during TR's time plenty of instances of labor strife were handled by private thugs, not even going into what was considered acceptable police procedure. Public opinion wouldn't matter as much in the decision as one would think.
 
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