Why has the United States gone to War?

The United States has gone to war since 1898, in response to attacks made on America. These attacks that have caused the United States to enter war include violent aggressions and threats made on America and America’s ideologies like democracy. This theory of why America has gone to war can be seen in the Spanish American War, World War 1, World War 2, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the War on Afghanistan.

The United States went to war with Spain in 1898 after the U.S.S. Maine exploded in the Havana harbor, next to Cuba. The U.S.S. Maine was a battle ship that arrived to Cuba in January, and was sent to protect America’s interest and to show Spain that America had force. When the U.S.S. Maine exploded on February 15, “Yellow Journalism”, which was newspapers that exaggerated the truth in the United States, used propaganda to appeal to many American’s emotions and how distraught they should be from the attack. Since Americans were now emotionally attached to what was going on in Cuba, many Americans wanted to go to war. The “ Yellow Journalism” brought the American opinion to a war fever pitch, so President William McKinley asked congress and declared war on April 25, 1898. The United States entered the Spanish American War when they were violently attacked and to help Cuba gain its independence.

World War 1 began in 1914, but the United States did not enter war until 1917. The reason that the U.S. did not immediately join the war was because they held on to their idea of isolationism, and wanted to be neutral because they viewed the war as being too far away. This quickly changed when Germany declared unrestricted submarine warfare. In 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania, which was a neutral ship that carried...

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...n October 7, they ran Operation Enduring Freedom. The war on Iraq that occurred in 2003, does not follow my theory, but did occur. The United States went to war with Iraq in the basis of preventive warfare. Many believed that Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, were secretly gathering weapons of mass destruction; so the U.S. decided that they were no longer going to wait to be attacked before they went to war, so in March of 2003 the U.S. went to war.

The United States goes to War when: they have been attacked physically (like in the attack of 9/11), have been threatened (like in the Zimmermann telegram), and when America’s ideologies are threatened (like in the Korean War). The reasons that America goes to war are in my opinion are justified. We must fight back when we are attacked in order to ensure to others that we are strong and should not be taken lightly.