Woodrow Wilson is lauded as a man of peace, but he
was a self-righteous disgrace. He believed he was always right about anything.
If anyone disagreed with him, that person was not only wrong, but morally wrong
and forever scorned. Wilson refused to consult with his cabinet, Congress,
anyone but his pal Edward House, who knew how to manipulate him with effusive
praise. He was so intent on creating his League of Nations he allowed France
and Britain to write a horrendous peace treaty.
The British manipulated Wilson (and America) from
the beginning: severing underwater cables so only their propaganda got through.
When Britain declared food and nonmilitary material to be contraband, and
seized neutral ships, State Department counselor Robert Lansing wrote a rebuke
to Britain for intruding on American rights. Wilson showed it to House, who
shared it with the British ambassador, who expressed horror. He collaborating
with House to write America’s responses to British atrocities, setting a
precedence for the future. The United States surrendered its freedom to do
business with whomever it chose.
Wilson claimed sending Lansing’s draft would have
risked war with Britain. Britain would not have pushed the issue and risked a
breach in Anglo-American relations. U.S. naval and economic power could have
forced Britain to observe the law of the sea. Disallowing shipment of good to
England would have worked. But Wilson was a fool.
He did insist Americans had the right to safely
travel on belligerent ships. To require citizens to travel only on neutral
ships would be dishonorable, craven, an abandonment of American rights, out of
the question. No such law existed anywhere but in his mind.
Britain had been in decline since 1870, while a
newly united Germany grew industrially. Britain’s resentment of Germany was a
significant reason for going to war. Wreck the upstart rival and reassert their
global supremacy.
Germany had been the last European nation to
mobilize. The others had mobilized on the basis of false reports. When Russia
and France mobilized, Germany was motivated, not by the desire of conquest, but
fear of being crushed by its neighbors.
When a U-boat stopped a British freighter with a
cargo of munitions and mules, the crew was ordered into lifeboats. A
merchantman flying the U.S. flag approached, signaling its intent to rescue the
crew. It was really a British naval ship, and sank the sub. Twelve Germans swam
to the abandoned freighter. The British marines boarded and executed them.
Churchill claimed they were not prisoners of war but criminals. The men in the
lifeboats were ordered to tell a concocted story. A few Americans among them
refused, and the story got out. Wilson termed it a horrible incident, but was
unaffected.
And so it went. Germany bent over backwards to
pacify the U.S., restricting submarine warfare despite Britain’s illegal
blockade. Wilson informed Berlin that British actions had no relevance on
U.S.-German questions.
At the peace conference, Wilson made endless
concessions to guarantee his League of Nations. Britain and France realized
that, and took advantage of him. France’s Georges Clemenceau hated Germany and
wanted to enslave it forever. Even Britain’s Lloyd George saw the awfulness of
the treaty and wanted to scale it back. Before intervention, Wilson had said
the German people were among the victims of the Berlin regime. Now, when he
might have teamed with Lloyd George and tempered France’s insane demands, he
refused.
He believed he alone could make a perfect peace.
When the pope had tried to negotiate a peace during the war, Wilson wasn't
pleased, and doomed the pope's effort. He was destined to be savior of the
world.
The U.S. should have maintained strict neutrality,
not supplying the Allies and giving them credit. Neutrals Sweden and Holland
appealed to the U.S. to pressure London to change, but Wilson refused. The U.S.
should not have intervened in the war. The warring nations would have soon
exhausted themselves. Effects of World War I remain in play today, from the
Espionage Act of 1917 to trouble in the Middle East.
Why is this important to me personally, one hundred
years later? I defended Wilson in my debut novel, Friends & Enemies.
Paul, the main character, says:
“Wilson
wanted to keep us out of the Great War. The poor guy didn’t dictate the terms
of surrender. France and England did. They were determined to have their
retribution for all the damage done to them.”
Wilson
may not have dictated the terms, but he refused to change them.
Recommended Reading: A World Remade,
by G. J. Meyer, coming in March, 2017.