American Involvement In Ww1 Research Paper

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Taylor 1 Brent Taylor Professor Jane Smyre Eng Comp Mon-Wed 1:00 19 February 2012 The Committee On Public Information On the 28th of June, 1914, a young Yugoslav nationalist named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg. This began a period of diplomatic maneuvering by Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Russia, and Great Britain that would eventually lead to one of the most massive wars in history, World War I. At the outset of the war, the United States followed a policy of non-intervention and generally avoided conflict in an attempt to broker peace. Through the next few years, the United States was inexorably pulled towards the conflict by not only pressures…show more content…
Amidst a growing public support for war, and the sinking of seven United States merchant ships by German submarines, President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany on the 6th of April, 1917. Although there was increasing sentiment for involvement in the war, the majority of the nation was still polarized on the issue of American intervention. Those with European ties, including one third of the American population that were immigrants of European descent, and upper class citizens with social and business ties to Britain and France, were in favor of involvement in the war. Those without ties to the conflict by blood or business were not interested in waging a war overseas. With unwavering public support considered to be paramount to the wartime effort, President Wilson created the Committee on Public Information (CPI) on the 13th of April, 1917. Using techniques that included emotional appeals, demonization of the enemy, and tactics tailored to…show more content…
Creel and the CPI knew that to truly unite the home front there must be no ambiguity about who the American people were to focus their hate on. By portraying the enemy as a murderous aggressor capable of horrid and torturous acts, the CPI was able to generate an enormous amount of anti-German feeling. One especially effective example of demonization of the enemy was the application of atrocity stories. Whether through a comprehensive pamphlet campaign, or the circulation of printed and spoken material, the CPI utilized atrocity stories to describe specific events depicting the enemy as savages. These oftentimes controversial depictions included stories of gouging out the eyes of civilians, cutting off the hands of teenage boys, raping and sexually mutilating
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