ABSTRACT
“The longing for an early cessation of hostilities in Europe is today an honest one, participated in by almost all the [American] press,” Count Bernstorff noted in a long report to his government in early December. The German ambassador believed that this sentiment for peace discussions penetrated even Anglophile newspapers like the New York Tribune, which had recently editorialized: “For the millions of Americans the present war is a tragedy, a crime, a piece of willful and collective madness, and the greatest service America can render is (to allude to the catch phrase coined in connection with the fruitless peace mission of Henry Ford) to ‘get the boys out of the trenches.’ ” Regarding the extensive press speculation on possible peace negotiations, Bernstorff commented: “Reports of the sessions of many and various peace societies are set out in the greatest detail, and everything bearing upon the question of peace which is to be found in news transmitted from overseas is printed in the most conspicuous places and made the subject of adequate comment in leading articles.” 1
