what war was woodrow wilson president for?
World War I
entailment
 Although US President Woodrow Wilson was re @-@ elected in 1916 under the slogan " He kept us out of the war " , at the start of his second term he decided that Germany 's continued deployment of unrestricted submarine warfare was sufficient cause for the US to enter World War I. Shortly afterward , Congress passed the Selective Service Act of 1917 , which required all males aged 21 – 30 to register for military conscription . Goldman saw the decision as an exercise in militarist aggression , driven by capitalism . She declared in Mother Earth her intent to resist conscription , and to oppose US involvement in the war . 

entailment
 Wilson supporters , including Barkley , campaigned for his re @-@ election in 1916 , using the slogan " he kept us out of war " . By early 1917 , Germany had lifted all restrictions on attacks on neutral shipping supplying Britain and France , outraging many Americans . The publication in February of the Zimmermann Telegram , in which a German official proposed to Mexico that , if the U.S. entered the war , Mexico should declare war on them and the Germans would work to return Texas , Arizona , and New Mexico to Mexican control , also brought the United States closer to war . Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war on April 2 , 1917 , and Barkley voted for the resolution when it came before the House two weeks later . At 40 years old , he considered resigning his seat to enlist in the U.S. Army , but Wilson persuaded him not to do so . 

neutral
 After the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki , Wilson helped organize the Association of Los Alamos Scientists ( ALAS ) , which called , with a scientists ' petition , for the international control of atomic energy . The petition was carried by Oppenheimer to Washington , D.C. , eventually making its way via Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson to President Harry S. Truman . 

entailment
 Despite Wilson 's efforts to establish and promote the League , for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1919 , the United States did not join . Opposition in the Senate , particularly from two Republican politicians , Henry Cabot Lodge and William Borah , and especially in regard to Article X of the Covenant , ensured that the United States would not ratify the agreement . 

entailment
 In the 20th century , America was initially neutral in World War I and avoided entering the conflict for three years . President Woodrow Wilson , a Democrat , won reelection in 1916 with the slogan " he kept us out of war , " although he subsequently led the U.S. into the conflict . Once hostilities were concluded , Republican Senators William Borah of Idaho and Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts led like @-@ minded colleagues in the United States Senate to reject the Treaty of Versailles ( 1919 ) and to avoid joining both international agencies created by it , the League of Nations and the World Court , for fear of losing American sovereignty . 
