The sinking of the
Lusitania is one of the more fascinating incidents in U.S. history, because, like the bombing of Pearl Harbor a couple decades later, we were complicit in it.
You see, by December 1914, England had broken the German codes and the British Navy knew exactly when each German U-boat left port on patrol and where it was bound. In other words, First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, was fully apprised of the location of every U-boat in the vicinity of the English Channel.
Moreover, the German government had taken great pains to warn American passengers not to travel aboard the ship, which was known to be carrying American munitions to Great Britain -- in blatant violation, we might add, of the United States' neutrality stance.
To quote the famous book
None Dare Call it Treason:
The German government took out large ads in all the New York papers warning potential passengers that the ship was carrying munitions and telling them not to cross the Atlantic on it . . . Yet the sinking of the Lusitania was used by clever propagandists to portray the Germans as inhuman slaughterers of innocents. Submarine warfare was manufactured into a cause celebre to push us into war."
Copy of one of these ads:
On page 189 of Jim Marrs'
Rule by Secrecy, we read:
British commander Joseph Kenworthy, on duty when the ship was sunk, later revealed that her military escort was withdrawn at the last minute and her captain ordered to enter at reduced speed an area where a German U-boat was known to be operating. It is clear why Germany attacked this ship, and Britain would have done the same if U.S. munitions were being shipped to Germany. The Germans, whose torpedo struck the liner, were the unwitting accomplices or victims of a plot probably concocted by Winston Churchill, concluded author Simpson.
Yes,
Winston Churchill -- ostensible guardian of democracy in the Free World during World War II -- ordered the
Lusitania's escort to withdraw. Not only that, he ordered the ship to operate at reduced speed in a region known to be patrolled by German U-boats! Why, you ask? Because according to
The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, Wilson's top political advisor, the Wilson administration was searching for a way to flame American indignation and give him an excuse to take he country into the war. The book records a conversation between Colonel House and Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary of England:
Grey: What will America do if the Germans sink an ocean liner with American passengers on board?
House: I believe that a flame of indignation would sweep the United States and that by itself would be sufficient to carry us into the war.
Ironically, it didn't work. No such flame of indication swept over the country. (Probably because most Americans were intelligent enough to realize that sending an unprotected passenger liner carrying American munitions into German-patrolled waters was asking for trouble.)
Thus stymied, Robert Lansing, the Assistant Secretary of State, declared: "We must educate the public gradually draw it along to the point where it will be willing to go into the war."
Accordingly, the English and American governments sponsored two separate sham inquiries into the incident. Mr. Colin Simpson writes in his expose
The Lusitania:
"Both sets of archives [of the inquiries] . . . contain meager information. There are substantial differences of fact in the two sets of papers and in many cases it is difficult to accept that the files relate to the same vessel."
In any case, both inquiries concluded that no American munitions were aboard the ship and that it was sunk by German torpedoes. In the words of one internet blogger: "The cover-up was now official."
Colin Simpson states that the sinking of the
Lusitania is "the foulest act of wilful murder ever committed on the seas." By our own government, no less.
In its review of the book, the
Los Angeles Times stated: "
The Lusitania proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the British government connived at the sinking of the passenger ship in order to lure America into World War I. The Germans, whose torpedo struck the liner, were the unwitting accomplices or victims of a plot probably concocted by Winston Churchill."
You gotta love Democratic presidents who promise to keep us out of the war.