When World War 1 began the official US policy was what

The US was trying to stay out of the conflict, the article says "When the German U-boat U-20 sank the British liner Lusitania on 7 May 1915 with 128 US citizens aboard, Wilson said "America is too proud to fight" and demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied. Wilson repeatedly warned that the US would not tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare in violation of international law and of human rights. [citation needed] Wilson came under pressure from war hawks led by former president Theodore Roosevelt, who denounced German acts as "piracy",[2] and from British delegations under Cecil Spring Rice and Sir Edward Grey. Wilson realized he needed to enter the war in order to shape the peace; indeed in 1919 he was one of those who achieved the establishment of the League of Nations at the Paris Peace Conference.[3] Wilson's Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, whose pacifist goals Wilson ignored, resigned in frustration in June 1915. Public opinion reacted with outrage to suspected German sabotage of Black Tom in Jersey City, New Jersey on 30 July 1916, and to the Kingsland explosionon 11 January 1917 in present-day Lyndhurst, New Jersey.[4] Public opinion [edit] See also: Opposition to World War I

American public opinion was strongly divided, with most Americans until early 1917 strongly of the opinion that the United States should stay out of the war. Opinion changed gradually, partly in response to German actions in Belgium and the Lusitania, partly as German Americans lost influence, and partly in response to Wilson's position that America had to play a role to make the world safe for democracy. [5]"