Replies

from #257 BroJoeK: "The bottom line is: Germans did not win friends or influence people in America by sinking ships with American passengers. "

from #260 jamaksin: "Your bottom line is not my bottom line..."

jamaksin: "And, to add, Wilson "did not win friends" in Britain when he did not act to have a declaration war against Germany in 1915. More on that path perhaps when the remaining Admiralty files on the SS LUSITANIA are released?"

I wonder if you have lost sight of the whole point of the Lusitania sinking? Please remember the following:

The Germans gave highly public "fair warnings" to Lusitania passengers that their ship would be sunk, and they sailed at their own risk.
After the Lusitania was sunk, the Germans claimed it was armed with guns, which it was not.
Germans also claimed Lusitania carried "large quantities of war material in her cargo."
In reality Lusitania carried:

"Her cargo had included an estimated 4,200,000 rounds of rifle cartridges, 1,250 empty shell cases, and 18 cases of non-explosive fuses[9], all of which were listed in her manifest, but the cartridges were not officially classed as ammunition by the Cunard Line."
The sinking was condemned not only by Brits and Americans, but also by the Germans themselves:

"The German public was shocked by the news of the sinking, and only a minority believed that it was a proper action. When it was revealed that passengers had been warned not to travel on the ship, this information removed any doubt that the Lusitania had been singled out for attack, and caused a loss of confidence in the German government.
"The sinking was severely criticized by Germany's allies, Austria and Hungary, and met with disapproval in Turkey,[38] while in the German press, the sinking was deplored by Vorwärts, the daily newspaper of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and also by Captain Persius, an outspoken naval critic who wrote for the Berliner Tageblatt."
President Wilson condemned the sinking, and as a result, Kaiser Wilhelm forbade such sinkings in the future:

"The German restriction order of 9 September 1915 stated that attacks were only allowed on ships that were definitely British, while neutral ships were to be treated under the Prize Law rules, and no attacks on passenger liners were to be permitted at all.
"The war situation demanded that there could be no possibility of orders being misinterpreted, and on 18 September Henning von Holtzendorff, the new head of the German Admiralty, issued a secret order: all U-boats operating in the English Channel and off the west coast of the United Kingdom were recalled, and the U-boat war would continue only in the North sea, where it would be conducted under the Prize Law rules."

Point is: all this kept the US out of the war for two more years -- until Admiral von Holtzendorff convinced the Kaiser to reverse policy and resume unrestricted submarine warfare, in 1917.

This immediately brought the US into the First World War, which caused Germany to lose the war.

Again, the point is: regardless of what cargo Lusitania carried, her sinking resulted in keeping the US OUT of the war for another two years!

Wilson only asked for a declaration of war on Germany in 1917, AFTER Germany broke the promises made to Wilson at the time of the Lusitania sinking, in 1915.