Woodrow Wilson (1856 – 1924) was elected President on the basis of domestic issues in 1912, and reelected in 1916. He based his 1916 re-election campaign around the slogan "he kept us out of war", and had worked hard to broker a compromise peace. In early 1917 Berlin decided to launch all-out submarine warfare designed to sink American ships bringing supplies to Britain; in the Zimmermann Telegram it proposed a military alliance with Mexico to fight a war against the U.S. The nation was poorly armed when it went to war in April 1917, but it had millions of potential fresh soldiers, billions of dollars, and huge supplies of sense and raw materials needed by the Allies. Officially Wilson kept the U.S. independent of the Allies. In 1918 Wilson took personal control of negotiations with German