[1] In his speech to Congress requesting for war to be declared against Germany, Wilson addressed the question of Austria-Hungary, an ally of Germany:[2] that government [Austria-Hungary] has not actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with the government in Vienna.Two days later, Austria-Hungary terminated diplomatic relations with the United States and requested, in a diplomatic note that was delivered to the chargé d'affaires of the US embassy in Vienna, for American diplomats to depart the country.

Wilson went on to charge that Austria-Hungary was "the vassal of the German government" and was acting as the "instrument of another nation.

The report went on to charge that in September 1915, Konstantin Dumba, the Austro-Hungarian ambassador to the United States, had masterminded a scheme of industrial sabotage aimed at American manufacturing and that on April 4, 1917 the crew of an unflagged submarine boarded and then sank the American schooner SV Marguerite in the Mediterranean and that the nationality of the submarine was suspected Austrian since "Austrian was the language spoken by the officer of the submarine [sic].

[5] On the floor of the House, London declared that he hated "professions of loyalty" but that he believed "I am as deeply in love with the United States as any man who can trace his ancestry to the Mayflower."

[6] In the Senate, Robert M. La Follette did not vote on the resolution since he had departed the chamber to return to his office and to prepare an amendment to the declaration that would guarantee that the United States would not participate in the postwar dismemberment of Austria.

[7] Whereas the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government has committed repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America : Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a state of war is hereby declared to exist between the United States of America and the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.In autumn 1918, the imperial government collapsed, and on October 18, Stephan Burián von Rajecz, acting on behalf of the remnants of the state organs, sued for peace.