After his 1916 reelection, however, the free trade associated with neutrality proved impossible to secure against the total war strategies of the belligerents, particularly Germany’s submarine warfare. President Wilson had no desire to embroil the United States in the bloody and lengthy war that was devastating Europe.

His foreign policy, through his first term and his campaign for reelection, focused on keeping the United States out of the war and involving the country in international affairs only when there was a moral imperative… Ethnic ties to Europe meant that much of the general public was more than happy to remain neutral.

neutrality — Woodrow Wilson’s policy of maintaining commercial ties with all belligerents and insisting on open markets throughout Europe during World War I. clear and present danger — the expression used by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the case of Schenck v. United States to characterize public dissent during wartime, akin to shouting “fire!”…. Fourteen Points — Woodrow Wilson’s postwar peace plan, which called for openness in all matters of diplomacy, including free trade, freedom of the seas, and an end to secret treaties and…. Harlem Hellfighters — a nickname for the decorated, all-Black 369th Infantry, which served on the frontlines of France for six months, longer than any other American unit.