Evacuating Wartime Europe: U.S. Policy, Strategy, and Relief Operations for Overseas American Travelers, 1914–15

The U.S. government facilitated the repatriation of more than 125,000 Americans stranded in Europe upon the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 by declaring neutrality and dispatching the U.S. Relief Commission, which comprised U.S. warships carrying gold to assist desperate citizens. Participating U.S. officers conducted unauthorized tours of battlefields and arms plants to glean intelligence that would aid American mobilization plans. The relief commissioners and many of the Americans they aided, moreover, championed additional humanitarian interventions in war-torn regions and catalyzed the defense preparedness movement in the United States.