To Rick Medlin, Columbus, Ohio--If you knew the least thing about WW1 you would know that the US got involved in 1917, three years into the war. By then the nature of trench warfare was plain for all to see. But in July and August of 1914, it was in fact the common man in Paris, Berlin, Vienna, and St. Petersburg that very much demanded the war. The capitals of Europe rang with chants of, "We want war!" They all had gotten their fill of it by 1917. Americans were well aware of the horrors of the trenches by then. Wilson won the election of 1916 on his promise to keep the country out of war. But in point of fact, it was the mob that clamored for war in 1914.