American History

For all the talk of his statesmanship, the fact is that Woodrow Wilson was simply an idealist. His ideas gave him a strong commitment to his foreign policy program. Unfortunately, his idealism made him a poor politician. Unwilling ever to compromise, he sacrificed his own ideals-and political career-in the end.

No one can blame President Wilson for being set in his ways.  This mainly attributed to his conservative religious upbringing which somewhat shaped his character as one who had firm convictions in the things he believed in.  Strangely enough, although Wilson championed the cause of maintaining the status quo in the world stage, he somewhat fell short in exercising that same idealism in his domestic policy. Nonetheless, there can be no denying that one of Wilsons significant achievements was to help redefine international relations the way he envisioned it.

Wilsons vision of a new world order was the result of the turmoil brought about by the First World War.  Wilson felt that there was something wrong with the status quo which he found  dysfunctional.  
It was because of this flawed method of international relations that wars occur and these were stated by the Union of Democratic Control (UDC) which was founded in 1914 from the remnants of the British Peace Movement.  The movement strongly criticized the  traditional  practice of military build up and secret diplomatic negotiations as well as competition among the great powers of the time in acquiring overseas territories and trying to outdo one another in the world economy and military capability.  Rather, they advocated the virtues of arbitration,  disarmament, parliamentary control of foreign policy and free trade (Knock, 1992, p.36).

In November of 1914, following the outbreak of the First World War, the movement issued a manifesto that underscored the five main points of their vision (Knock, 1992, p.37)
1. No territory shall come under the control of any government unless it be with the consent of the population of the territory in question.
2. The Government (of Great Britain) shall enter into no treaty without the consent (of Parliament) machinery shall be created to thus insure the democratic control of foreign policy.
3.  The foreign policy (of Great Britain) shall eschew alliances for the purpose of maintaining the  Balance of power  rather, it shall be directed toward concerted action between the Powers determined by public deliberations in an International Court.
4. As part of the peace settlement, (Great Britain) shall propose drastic reductions in armaments and the general nationalization of the manufacture of armaments by all the nations of the world.
5. Economic warfare cannot continue after the present military conflict has ceased the (British) Government shall promote free commercial intercourse among nations by expanding the principle of the Open Door.

At first glance, one can see something familiar about these points raised by the UDC.  They closely resemble some items in Wilsons famous  Fourteen Points  as the latter became more well known than the former.  This was mainly because Wilson was able to get a copy of this manifesto since he still had connections in the academic circles on both sides of the Atlantic, particularly Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson of Cambridge University who was also a member of the UDC who incidentally was the one who coined the phrase,  league of nations  way before this organization was actually proposed by Wilson in his Fourteen Points. Lowes Dickinson published a book a month later titled  The War and the Way Out  where he used the war as a basis for arriving at the conclusion that wars like the First World War will continue to happen because of the connivance and intrigues hatched by governments and its citizens would be the unwitting and unwilling participants and later victims of the policies of these governments.  He prescribed a solution to this issue by stating that for conditions for lasting peace and order in the world should come with the proliferation of democracy, recognizing the sovereignty and rights of the  smaller  states and recognizing and encouraging self-determination among colonial possessions (Knock, 1992, p.37).

Besides, this, Wilson also subscribed to what was called  conservative internationalism  which was promoted by former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft and former Secretary of State Elihu Root.  They advocated peace with stability, that was to prepare for war in order to keep the peace.  Despite the clamor for peace and stability in this world, there would still be a need for a military force to maintain it and serve as a deterrent against agitators or aggressors.  This group tended to lean to the more realistic state of politics in the world stage, hence the notion.  It was here that Wilson had to juggle these two opposing ideologies in order to keep the American citizens happy and to ensure his victory in the 1916 elections.  He won by reminding the people how he kept America out of the war and that he was faithful and true to the isolationist policy of the country at the time.  But by the time war broke out, his stand appeared to have changed following his call to make the world safe for democracy.  While he was praised for sending American troops into harms way and bringing them back victorious, the real battle began at the end of the war when Wilson, led the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference to discuss terms with his allied counterparts and that of the defeated Germans.

He tried to  sell  his Fourteen Points to the Allies and his countrymen and it was here that Wilson fought an uphill battle which would later take a toll on his health and affect his capability to govern the country.  Wilson strongly pushed for the implementation of his Fourteen Points because he believed this was the key to brining stability to the world and to prevent another world war from breaking out.  This was especially true on how the Allies would treat Germany.  Wilson was for a lenient approach towards the Germans as opposed to a harsher one advocated by his allies, particularly France who wanted to punish Germany so badly to make sure it would never again be capable of committing aggression and insisted on harsher reparations, occupation of their strategic regions rich in resources and the demand to punish  war criminals  who were heroes among the German people and not to mention make Germany admit guilt which they refused to admit.

In the home front, he lost the support of the people when he neglected to address social and domestic issues at home and the isolationists called Wilson out for compromising his promises to keep America out of trouble when he was proposing Americas participation in the League of Nations.  Wilson felt that America should get involved in the sense that it should set an example to the world by exercising its democratic ideals overseas as part of the design to encourage the growth of democracy and to prevent the growth of imperialism which was regarded as one the cause for wars and to help people redefine nationalism which was used in the previous war as an impetus to go to war.  He lost on both counts as the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles and not all of his Fourteen Points were applied and it cost him his health.

It could be said that Wilsons folly as he strongly adhered to his ideals and refused to make compromises which had cost him his career and his health. Wilson believed that the realist approach can be corrected only if nations would be willing to forego their own vested interests and work for the interests of the community and he believed in it and fought to the very end to realize it.  Even though he did not live to see it, his vision was realized when the United Nations was founded.