House-Gray Memorandum

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The House Gray Memorandum , also known as the Gray House Memorandum , was a secret agreement dated February 22, 1916 between Edward Mandell House , US President Wilson's representative to the Entente , and British Foreign Secretary Edward Gray , on the entry of the United States in the First World War .

Edward M. House
Edward Gray

With the exception of the memorandum , American foreign policy, outwardly, was remarkably neutral, although the sympathies were undoubtedly with Great Britain and not with the invaders of Belgium . In the memorandum, which represented an ultimatum to Germany, the USA undertook to "probably" (the "probably" was subsequently used by Wilson) to intervene on the Allied side if Germany were to hold a peace conference, the evacuation of the occupied territories and the exchange of Alsace- Lorraine against colonial compensations.

In the memorandum, the United States, first recorded in writing, considered entering the war on the side of the Allies. However, the memorandum had no immediate consequences because the British, in order to avoid the agreed peace conference, never called for it. Wilson saw in the paper, which he had not approved in advance, as an opportunity to achieve the desired mediator role in the conflict.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Möckelmann: The image of Germany in the USA 1914-1918 and Wilson's war target policy. Hamburg 1964, p. 147 ff.
    Thomas H. Buckley, Edwin B Strong: American Foreign and National Security Policies, 1914–1945. University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville 1987, ISBN 0-87049-539-9 , p. 38.
  2. ↑ Alexander Sedlmaier: Images of Germany and Germany Politics - Studies on the Wilson Administration (1913-1921). Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-515-08124-0 , p. 192.
    Johannes Reiling: Germany, Safe for Democracy? German-American Relations. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-515-07213-6 , p. 278.

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