Colonel House to Woodrow Wilson

I am enclosing copies of Cobb's challenge to the Tageblatt. Surely, there could be no objection to putting it in this mild form. Will you not advise me what answer to make.

If this is once started, we could easily get into Germany the knowledge of our preparations as Ridder Suggests. We could also give the Germans as a whole a sense of security which they do not now feel. The whole military propaganda in the Central Powers is directed at the fear of dismemberment and economic ruin. If the German people could be brought to realize that their integrity would be better safe-guarded by such a peace as we have in mind than it would be by the continued reliance upon great armaments, the militarists arguments would break down.

If we want to win this war it seems to me essential that we must do something different from what the Allies have done in the past three years.