Reproduced below are portions of the memoirs, published as Ambassador Morgenthau's Story in 1918 by Doubleday & Page, of the wartime U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau.
In the following extract from his memoirs Morgenthau recounts the political and diplomatic machinations in Constantinople which led to permission being granted by Turkey for the German warships Goeben and Breslau being granted permission to enter the Dardanelles and thus escape a pursuing British squadron.
Morgenthau avers that Turkey's decision to provide sanctuary for the two warships effectively decided her subsequent role in the war; in late October she formally entered the war on the side of the Central Powers.
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