re: He Made the World Safe for Democracy, but Let's Cancel Him Anyway

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Woodrow Wilson was one of our worst Presidents, only second behind Buchanan.

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Damn worse than Carter?

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He had lopsided policies in WWI where he said that Germany couldn't attack British or French ships with American citizens on them (which how the hell was Germany supposed to know that)

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Submarines were considered to be commerce raiders and were supposed to abide by the laws governing commerce raiders. Those rules were established by the 1856 Paris Treaty, 1907 Hague Conventions, and the 1909 Declaration concerning the Laws of Naval War. According to the cruiser rules, submarines were suppose to surface and inspect a ship. If it was found to be carrying war contraband then the submarine could sink it only after allowing all passengers and crew a reasonable amount of time to leave the ship. That is how they would know if Americans were on board or not.

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idn't give the same stipulations to the British and French shooting at German ships with Americans on them,

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That was not really an issue. The German navy was never able to break the British blockade of German ports. Since the German navy could not break the blockade, the British navy could stop, search, turn away neutral shipping, and sink or seize German merchant shipping in accordance with the cruiser laws.

ETA: Not defending Wilson because f**k the father of progressivism. I was simply answering the question about how U-boats were supposed to tell if Americans were on board a ship or not.