"With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical character of the step I am taking and of the grave responsibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial German Government to be in fact nothing less than war against the...United States; that it formally accept the status of belligerent which has thus been thrust upon it....Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies in the existence of autocratic by the will of their people. We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove that friendship...towards the millions of men and women of German birth and native sympathy, who live amongst we shall be proud to prove it towards all who are in fact loyal to their neighbors and to the Government....They are, most of them, as true and loyal Americans as if they had never known any other...allegiance. If there should be disloyalty, it will be dealt with a firm hand of stern repression...."
Woodrow Wilson, Address to Congress's War, April 2, 1917
Woodrow Wilson, War Messages, 65th Cong., 1st Sess. Senate Doc. No. 5, Serial No. 7264, Washington, D.C., 1917.
In the excerpt above, President Wilson signaled a willingness to abandon which long-held American policy?
a. The expansion of American culture and norms to other nations
b. Overseas expansionism
c. Advancing democratic ideals
d. Non involvement in European affairs