After the guns of war erupted over Europe in the summer of 1914, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson pledged to keep the United States out of the war. That state of affairs changed on April 6, 1917, when Congress voted to support the president’s declaration of war against the Central Powers, primarily Germany. Recruitment of troops became a pressing concern. So too was marshaling support for the war effort among the civilian population, particularly at a time when many Americans were steadfastly opposed to the war. To support the war effort, the federal government mounted a massive propaganda campaign designed to convince Americans that war was the only option and that it had to be fought, as Wilson put it, “to make the world safe for democracy.”