On April 2, 1917, US President Woodrow
Wilson asked Congress to declare war on
Germany in order to make the world safe
for democracy in what became known as
his War Message. For Wilson, as well as
for many American leaders, Germany's
militarism was a threat democracy to all
nations because its government was
violent to both their own domestic
constituents and to other democratic
nations, and, as declared by Wilson: "No
autocratic government could be trusted
to keep faith within it or observe its
covenants."
