anti-American propaganda begin. I saw the Germany of 1915 disappear.
I saw the birth of lawless Germany.

In this book I shall try to take the reader from Washington to Berlin
and back again, to show the beginning and the end of our diplomatic
relations with the German government. I believe that the United States
by two years of patience and note-writing, has done more to accomplish
the destruction of militarism and to encourage freedom of thought in
Germany than the Allies did during nearly three years of fighting. The
United States helped the German people think for themselves, but being
children in international affairs, the people soon accepted the
inspired thinking of the government. Instead of forcing their opinions
upon the rulers until results were evident, they chose to follow with
blind faith their military gods.

The United States is now at war with Germany because the Imperial
Government willed it. The United States is at war to aid the movement
for democracy in Germany; to help the German people realize that they
must think for themselves. The seeds of democratic thought which
Wilson's notes sowed in Germany are growing. If the Imperial
Government had not frightened the people into a belief that too much
thinking would be dangerous for the Fatherland, the United States would
not today be at war with the Kaiser's government. Only one thing now
will make the people realize that they must think for themselves if
they wish to exist as a nation and as a race. That is a military
defeat, a defeat on the battlefields of the Kaiser, von Hindenburg and
the Rhine Valley ammunition interests. Only a decisive defeat will
shake the public confidence in the nation's leaders. Only a destroyed
German army leadership will make the people overthrow the group of men
who do Germany's political thinking to-day.