When war broke out in Europe in 1914, President Wilson announced that the United States would remain neutral. Most Americans supported this policy. The country did not want to become embroiled in a foreign war. Wilson was reelected in 1914, running on his slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War.” But public opinion gradually shifted against Germany, and Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war in April 1917. He stated that “The world must be made safe for democracy.”