The American Response to the Armenian Genocide

Henry Morgenthau, the American ambassador to the Ottoman Empire when the Armenian Genocide began, was troubled by reports and firsthand accounts of atrocities he heard from witnesses and other diplomats. In the years 1915–1916, the years the genocide took place, the United States had not yet entered World War I. It wouldn’t do so until 1917, when it joined the Allied Powers led by Britain and France. Up until that time, it was President Woodrow Wilson’s goal was for the country to remain neutral.

Journalist and future diplomat Samantha Power describes the choices Ambassador Morgenthau faced as his understanding of the genocide grew. In May 1915, the Allies issued a declaration warning the Turks of the consequences of committing "crimes against humanity and civilization." Power notes:

The United States, determined to maintain its neutrality in the war, refused to join the Allied declaration. President Woodrow Wilson chose not to pressure either the Turks or their German backers. It was better not to draw attention to the atrocities, lest U.S. public opinion get stirred up and begin demanding U.S. involvement. ¹

Despite Wilson’s position, the United States ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau Sr., urged the president to intervene. Power explains: 

In January and February 1915, Morgenthau had begun receiving graphic but fragmentary intelligence from his ten American consuls posted throughout the Ottoman Empire. . . .

Although he was initially incredulous, by July 1915 the ambassador had come around. He had received too many visits from desperate Armenians and trusted missionary sources to remain skeptical. They had sat in his office with tears streaming down their faces, regaling him with terrifying tales. When he compared this testimony to the strikingly similar horrors relayed via consular cables [from other American diplomats in the empire], Morgenthau came to an astonishing conclusion. What he called "race murder" was under way. On July 10, 1915 he cabled Washington with a description of the Turkish campaign. He wrote: 

Persecution of Armenians assuming unprecedented proportions. Reports from widely scattered districts indicate systematic attempt to uproot peaceful Armenian populations and through arbitrary arrests, terrible tortures, whole-sale expulsions and deportations from one end of the Empire to the other accompanied by frequent instances of rape, pillage, and murder, turning into massacre, to bring destruction and destitution on them. 

Morgenthau was constrained by two background conditions that seemed immutable. First, the Wilson administration was resolved to stay out of World War I. Picking fights with Turkey did not seem a good way to advance that objective. And second, diplomatic protocol demanded that ambassadors act respectfully toward their host governments. U.S. diplomats were expected to stay out of business that did not concern U.S. national interests.

The ambassador did what he could, continuing to send blistering cables back to Washington and raising the matter at virtually every meeting he held with [Ottoman Minister of the Interior] Talaat. He found his exchanges with the interior minister infuriating. ²

Without support from the American government, Morgenthau had to look for help from private sources. He lobbied his friends at The New York Times to give the story prominent coverage and helped raise funds for Armenian relief. As a result, American churches—including Congregationalists, Baptists, and Roman Catholics—donated several hundred thousand dollars to aid Armenians. Morgenthau also enlisted the help of other prominent Americans, including President Wilson, to found the Committee on Armenian Atrocities. The committee raised awareness of the genocide and money for Armenian relief by staging rallies and encouraging hundreds of churches and religious organizations to speak out on behalf of the Armenians. ³

But American efforts to help the Armenians had limits. Power explains:

But in calling for "action," the committee was not urging U.S. military intervention. It was worried about the impact of an American declaration of war on American schools and churches in Turkey. In addition, the sentiment that made committee members empathize with their fellow Christians in Armenia also made some pacifists. In decrying the atrocities but opposing the war against Turkey, the committee earned the scorn of former President Theodore Roosevelt. In a letter to Samuel Dutton, the Armenia committee secretary, Roosevelt slammed the hypocrisy of the "peace-at-any-price type" who acted on the motto of "safety first," which, he wrote, "could be appropriately used by the men on a sinking steamer who jump into boats ahead of the women and children." ⁴

Discussion Questions

1. Who in the United States had the power to act, and what could they have done to stop the atrocities against Armenians?
2. What factors influenced the choices that Americans made?
3. To what extent did the concept of sovereignty guide the response of the U.S. government to the Armenian genocide?
4. To what extent did the United States’ universe of obligation include the Armenians? How did you weigh both the response of the government and of other Americans in your answer?

• 1Samantha Power, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (New York: Basic Books, 2002), 5–7.
• 2Ibid., 11.
• 3Ibid., 11.
• 4Ibid.