When declaring the support of American participation in a war, the President must first justify his declaration to the American people. To justify it the current President must explain his arguments for going to war. The arguments can be broken down into two types, altruistic or self-interested. Most wars are justified with the combination of both types of arguments. Altruistic arguments are based on the fact that we are supporting war because we are concerned for the well being of other nations. In almost any conflict that the United States has been in it has been argued that we as a nation are trying to protect or spread democracy. This is often used to clearly appeals to our very democratic gain the support of the general population because it traditions. Self-interested arguments for war explain that there is something for America to gain by participating. These are often times associated with some sort of economic gains. William McKinley, Woodrow Wilson, and Lyndon Johnson all had to use both types of arguments to justify their support of American participation in war.
McKinley's call for congress to declare war came in 1898. Here he had been slowly giving in to the American sentiment toward the Cuban struggle. The Cubans desire for their independence from Spain, in the eyes of many Americans, resembled the Americans own desire to break away from Great Britain during the American Revolution. This sympathy is very altruistic in nature, and unlike many other supposed altruistic arguments, this argument actually has no ulterior motives based on self-interest. This however, was the only altruistic argument for the war, which was supported more by the arguments based off of America's self-interest.
Though many Americans at the time believed that the sinking of the Maine was the cause of the United States going to war with Spain, it was actually a few other reasons that finally pushed McKinley to urge Congress for war.
