United States declaration of war on Austria Hungary

Background

On April 6, 1917 the United States declared war against Germany. The declaration of war was enacted at the request of president of the United States Woodrow Wilson by a vote of both chambers of the U.S. Congress, with the U.S. House of Representatives voting 373 to 50 (nine not voting) in favor of war and the U.S. Senate voting 82 to six. In his speech to Congress requesting that war be declared against Germany, Wilson addressed the question of Austria-Hungary, which was an ally of Germany:

Two days later, Austria-Hungary terminated diplomatic relations with the United States and requested, in a diplomatic note delivered to the chargé d'affaires of the United States embassy in Vienna, that American diplomats depart the country.

Request

On December 4, 1917, Wilson appeared before Congress to deliver the 1917 State of the Union Address. In it, he requested a declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, stating such a declaration was necessary to "clear away with a thorough hand all impediments to success". Wilson went on to charge that Austria-Hungary was "the vassal of the German government" and was acting as the "instrument of another nation". Wilson's real impetus for seeking a war declaration against Austria, though, was the situation in Italy; American military planners believed it might soon be necessary to deploy American forces to shore-up Italian defenses against robust Austrian gains.

In response to Wilson's address Henry D. Flood introduced House Joint Resolution 169, a declaration of war, which was referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs for consideration. The committee issued a report stating that the "state of war which this declaration declares to exist actually has been a fact for many months" and unanimously recommended adoption of the resolution. The report went on to charge that, in September 1915, Konstantin Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States had masterminded a scheme of industrial sabotage aimed at American manufacturing, and that on April 4, 1917 the crew of an unflagged submarine boarded and then sank the American schooner SV Marguerite in the Mediterranean and the nationality of the submarine was suspected Austrian as "Austrian was the language spoken by the officer of the submarine" [sic].

Enactment

On December 7 House Joint Resolution 169 was adopted by the House of Representatives in a vote of 365-1, and by the Senate in a vote of 74-0. The president signed the declaration later that day.

Debate

Jeannette Rankin, who had earlier voted against the declaration of war against Germany, voted in favor of the declaration of war against Austria-Hungary, stating that "the vote we are now to cast is not a vote on a declaration of war. If it were, I should vote against it. This is a vote on a mere technicality in the prosecution of a war already declared."

The sole vote of opposition in the House came from Meyer London, a Socialist representative from New York. On the floor of the House, London declared that he hated "professions of loyalty" but believed "I am as deeply in love with the United States as any man who can trace his ancestry to the Mayflower." However, London said that his constituents opposed war and he preferred the United States should instead adopt an arms embargo against Europe, the same rationale he had earlier given for opposing the declaration of war against Germany. He was roundly denounced on the floor of the chamber.

In the Senate Robert M. La Follette did not vote on the resolution, having departed the chamber to return to his office and prepare an amendment to the declaration which would guarantee that the United States would not participate in the post-war dismemberment of Austria. While La Follette was out of the chamber, the vote was called. La Follette later said he would have voted against the resolution in the form it was passed.

Text of declaration

Whereas the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America : Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

International reaction

 Austria-Hungary - The Austro-Hungarian foreign minister, Count Ottokar Czernin, remarked that the declaration of war "will be bad for Austro-Hungarians in America, but will not influence the results of the war".
 Italy - In Italy, the newspaper Corriere della Sera, in a staff editorial, said that "Austria-Hungary has today a powerful enemy, and this enemy is for us a friend whose friendship must serve in war and peace".
 Russia – In the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, the official Army Journal, in a staff editorial, declared "Peace by means of war. This is the mark under which the American imperialists are posing. America declares herself the implacable enemy of Austria-Hungary without any evident reason, without any justifying motives save covetousness and greed. American capitalists talking with hypocrisy about the horrors of war are striving to lengthen the bloody terror".

Aftermath

In Autumn 1918 the imperial government collapsed and, on October 18, Stephan Burián von Rajecz, acting on behalf of the remnants of the state organs, sued for peace. The U.S. Senate declined to ratify the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and the Treaty of Trianon which established peace between the Allied powers and Austria-Hungary and resulted in the formal dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian empire. As a result, the state of war between the United States and a non-existent Austria-Hungary continued, albeit without active hostilities, until it was officially terminated by the U.S.–Austrian Peace Treaty (1921) and the U.S.–Hungarian Peace Treaty (1921), which were signed by the successor states of Austria-Hungary, Austria and Hungary.

The sinking of the SV Marguerite has been credited to the SM U-35, a German U-boat.