Ambassador Morgenthau and the Armenian Question

"...Greatly discouraged at the amount of outright opposition and the tremendous indifference to the war, as well as by the lack of enthusiasm among the mass of those who are supporting the war...

I am considering writing a book in which I would lay bare, not only Germany's permeation of Turkey and the Balkans, but that system as it appears in every country of the world. For in Turkey we see the evil spirit of Germany at its worst - culminating at last in the greatest crime of all ages, the horrible massacre of helpless Armenians and Syrians. This particular detail of the story and Germany's abettance of the same, I feel positive will appeal to the mass of Americans in small towns and country districts as no other aspect of the war could, and convince them of the necessity of carrying the war to a victorious conclusion...

We must win a victory for the war policy of the government and every legitimate step or means should be utilised to accomplish it."

Ambassador Morgenthau,

Private Letter to President Woodrow Wilson

Advertisement appearing in The Jewish Criterion, Oct. 11, 1918; 

"The only authoritative record of an eye-witness of the part Turkey played in the war...
The Murder of the Armenian Nation is described in the opening chapters of this historical document -- how the Turk, having 'vanquished' the Allied fleet, reverted to type and indulged in wholesale massacres which have shocked the world." Morgenthau's work is then described as an "important contribution to the history of the great war..." 

"You are writing history with lightning!"

"I appreciate your consulting me about the question whether the book shall be translated into motion pictures, and I must frankly say that I hope you will not consent to this... Personally I believe that we have gone quite far enough in that direction. It is not merely a matter of taste, -I would not like in matters of this sort to trust my taste; but it is also partly a matter of principle... There is nothing practical that we can do for the time being in the matter of the Armenian massacres, for example, and the attitude of the c (? Country?) toward Turkey is already fixed. It does not need enhancement."

President Woodrow Wilson,

Private Letter to Ambassador Morgenthau