Lusitania Controversy (original) (raw)

A German propaganda piece, courtesy of Cliff McMullen

Keith Allen (KEACLA1@aol.com) originally posted this multi-part article on WW1-L in March, 1999 - it appears here by permission of the author. It is well worth reading, and provides an excellent summary of the controversies surrounding the loss of the _Lusitania_and the book by Colin Simpson.

Table of Contents

• I. Introduction and Chronology
• II. THE POLITICAL AND STRATEGIC SETTING
  • The British and German Blockades
  • U.S. Policy Toward the Belligerents
  • Colin Simpson on U.S. Policy and German Ships
  • Lansing's Abortive Modus Vivendi, January 1916
  • Merchant Ships: Arming, Ramming, and Warning
• III. LUSITANIA: ARMAMENT AND CARGO
  • The Alleged Arming of Lusitania
  • The Munitions Cargo
• IV. WARNING AND CONSPIRACY
  • U-20 and Kapitanleutnant Schwieger
  • Early British Intelligence and Dispositions
  • The Admiralty Conference of 5 May
  • The Strange Case of Lieutenant Commander Kenworthy
  • The Question of Escorts
  • Warnings to Lusitania
  • The Queenstown-Diversion Story
  • Broader Aspects of the Conspiracy Thesis
• V. THE SINKING OF LUSITANIA
  • Captain Turner's Responsibility
  • The Second Explosion
  • Conclusions

Bibliography

Bailey, Thomas A. and Ryan, Paul B. The Lusitania Disaster: An Episode in Modern Warfare and Diplomacy. New York: Free Press, 1975.

Ballard, Robert D. with Spencer Dunmore. Exploring the Lusitania: Probing the Mysteries of the Sinking that Changed History. New York and Toronto: Warner Books and Madison Press, 1995.

Beesly, Patrick. Room 40: British Naval Intelligence 1914-18. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982.

Clarkson, Grosvenor B. Industrial America in the World War: The Strategy Behind theLine 1917-1918. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin, 1923.

Devlin, Patrick. Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Du Pont Company. Du Pont: The Autobiography of an American Enterprise. Wilmington, Delaware: Du Pont Company, 1952.

Du Pont Company. A History of the Du Pont Company's Relations with the United States Government 1802-1927. Wilmington, Delaware: Du Pont Company, 1928.

Engelbrecht, H. C. and Hanighen, F. C. Merchants of Death: A Study of the International Armament Industry. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1934.

Ferrell, Robert H. Woodrow Wilson and World War I. New York: Harper & Row, 1985 (New American Nation series).

Kenworthy, J. M. and Young, George. Freedom of the Seas. London: Hutchinson & Co., 1928. American edition published in New York by Horace Liveright.

Kenworthy, J. M. Sailors, Statesmen--and Others: An Autobiography. London: Rich & Cowan, 1933.

Lansing, Robert. The War Memoirs of Robert Lansing. Indianapolis: Bobbs- Merrill, 1935.

Link, Arthur. Woodrow Wilson and the Progressive Era 1910-1917. New York: Harper & Row, 1954 (New American Nation series).

Simpson, Colin. Lusitania. Originally published by Longman of London, 1972. All citations in this paper are from the Penguin paperback edition, 1983.

Last Updated: 16 January, 2000.

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