"A campaign of race extermination," July 16, 1915

Item Detail

Constantinople (Istanbul), July 16, 1915: In his most direct warning, Morgenthau cabled that “a campaign of race extermination is in progress” against the Armenians and that nothing short of force could stop it, urging Washington to alert the belligerent nations and mission boards.

Context

On July 16, 1915, Morgenthau sent Lansing his most direct assessment of the Armenian Genocide. Asking whether Washington had received his cable 841, he reported that the deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians were increasing, and that from “harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.” Protests and threats had proved unavailing and only drove the Ottoman government to harsher measures. Morgenthau concluded that nothing short of force, which the United States could not exert, would meet the situation, and urged Lansing to inform the belligerent nations and the American mission boards. The phrase “race extermination” places this among the earliest official American descriptions of the genocide as deliberate and total.