At the beginning of October Ludendorff bombarded his government with repeated appeals for an immediate armistice, which he viewed as a temporary cessation of the fighting to allow the German Army time to recover from its recent setbacks. The result had been the first German peace note, transmitted through the Swiss chargé d’affaires, that reached Washington on October 6.

Wilson cautiously responded on October 8. Bliss had warned him that more was required than a withdrawal of German forces from occupied territory on the Western Front. The German Army (as indeed Ludendorff desired) might use an armistice to improve its position by retiring to “strong positions behind the Rhine with their armies and armaments and supplies intact” while retaining troops in the former Tsarist Empire. This might give Berlin leverage to retain some of its eastern conquests. On October 12 Prince Max of Baden, who had replaced Count Georg von Hertling as Chancellor, accepted Wilson’s Fourteen Points in principle as a basis for peace negotiations. Wilson then responded with a demand that the Germans withdraw from all conquered territory.