THEY ARE FROM MARS, WE ARE FROM VENUS: 'NEW YORK TIMES' AND US ACCESS TO THE FIRST WORLD WAR IN 1917

During the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, 'New York Times', one of the most important American newspapers, called for retaining neutrality, considered to be favourable from the viewpoint of the security and interest of the state. Three years later, the same daily urged the Americans to support the policy formulated by President Woodrow Wilson, who on 2 April 1917 called upon the Congress to declare war against Germany. In both cases, the newspaper backed the policy of the Wilson Administration. In 1917 it additionally expanded its argumentation in favour of the war by presenting the American-German clash, first, as a confrontation with an oppressive state system and not with the German nation, and, secondly, as a life and death battle waged by democratic and autocratic systems. From that time on, these arguments became an oft-emulated motif used for justifying American policy, in particular in the case of wars involving the USA.