Garrison Keilor on his "Writer's Almanac" just reminded me that today, December 28th, is the birthday of Woodrow Wilson. As Garrison recounted the events of Wilson's life, I realized that Wilson, not George W. Bush (my previous nominee), should be considered the worst American president, so far. Of course, the disasterous results of his presidency have had more than 85 years to play out. Bush may yet surpass him, though I doubt it. And, thinking about it, there are interesting similarities between the two of them.
(Apologies:
- The following contains a number of generalizations, to which many exceptions may be found. For example, Wilson brought about some successful reforms in the U.S.;there were wars in Europe between 1815 and 1914, but the period was generally peaceful; there were many positvive outsomes of WWI, such as the creation new nations for national groups, e.g., Poland. I 'm trying to keep this reasonably short
2.I am not going to link to possible sources. First of all, this just occurred to me and I can't take the time to run them down. I'm pretty sure most of the facts are out there, on wikipedia among other sites. And I have yet to master linking, anyway. I know, It's sad).
Whatever Wilson's domestic successes and failures, he will always be remembered for two acts, his taking the U.S. into World War I, and his spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to manage the post-war world. He should also be remembered for intitiating a series of wartime, and post-war government actions limiting personal freedoms of Americans in the name of winning the war, and then suppressing preserving American freedom. Just like Bush.
Wilson, like Bush, took America to war without adequate justification, then tried to justify by changing the rationale. World War I started as a tragic, stupid, and pointless quarrel about national honor (meaning "pride") , fear, greed and envy over unimportant national and colonial territories, and the apparent desire for European populations for an interesting alternative to 100 years of peace.
Americans at first wanted no part of this, Wilson among them. But as time went on, Wilson began to tilt more and more toward the Allies, mostly meaning the British, French, and Russian Empires. Reasons for this include Wilsonian/American pro-Britsh sentiments, effective British propaganda, and German diplomatic and propagandistic stupidity. Wilson was reelected in 1916 on the slogan "He kept us out of War."
Then Germany's resumption of submarine warfare and the exposure (by British intelligence) of the "Zimmerman note" , which attempted to enlist Mexico as a German ally against the U.S. should war break out, resulted in Wilson's changing his mind and asking Congress for and recieving from Congress declaration of war on April 6, 1917.( It has been suggested that U.S. financial interests, fearing a loss of warloans they made to Britain and France should they lose the war, contritbuted to Wilson's decision. I don't know how true this is. It is not generally accepted as a major factor for the decision for War.) In his speech to Congress asking for war, Wilson stated that the war was also about making the world "safe for democracy." Thus, like Bush, did Wilson conflate (perceived) national security and economic interests with idealistic internationalist ones.
It is likely that, had the U.S. not entered WWI (or, say, limited our involvement to having the Navy agressively protect our merchant ships but not the massive commitment of troops and material to the Allies), the Cental Powers would have "won" (given the losses of all sides up to this point, "won" is a highly subjective term) the conflict. Before we could send substantial troops to Europe Russia was taken out by the Bolshevik Revolution, and millions of German troops were shifted th the Western Front for a "Peace Offensive" of early 1918. This would likely have been successful but the for arrival of a million American troops by late May . The "Yanks", at Cantigny, Belleau Wood, and elsewhere were critical in blunting the offensive and preventing the success of the German plan,.
Then we were decive in taking Germany out of the war (though other Allies still supplied most of the troops, and all of the tanks and fighter planes, etc.). American manpower and material contibutions, the active participation of the U.S. Navy (including both protecting supply convoys from home and the deadly blockade of German ports that resulted in starvation among the German population), the knowledge that more fresh American troops and supplies were on the way, and Allied victories that now approached the German border, had a devastating effect on the German positon, and even more so on German morale. Also important was Wilson's famous 14 Points speech that promised a number of post-war reforms, but also promised fair treatment, not revenge or retribution, for the Central Powers. As a result, in Germany lost the will to fight, and in October-November a revolution, ensued, brought about the abdication of the Kaiser, and the Armistice of Nov.11 1918, the end of World War I.
Having won the war, Wilson then lost the peace. His arrogance, refusal to listen to others , or compromise, resulted in a failure to gain much in his attempt to gain "Peace without Victory" from other Allies in the Versailles conference. Wilson returned home to fail equally in salvaging some U.S. participation in what remained of his 14 Point plans, when Congress failed to ratify the Treaty of Versailles or the League of nations. He did help achieve the following-
1.The defeat of the Central Powers, which posed no sincere threat to the U.S., and the overthrow of the German and Austian Empires, and the resulting reaction that led to the four-times-deadlier, World War II.
Had Germany "won" WWI, it is unlikely that WWII, including the Holocaust and the atomic bomb, would have ever happened.
2.The breakup of the Ottoman Empire, which laid the groundwork for the Middle East as we know it today, including Israel, Iraq, Syria, and so forth. If the Central Powers had won the war, the Ottoman Empire would have evolved in some other direction, without the kindly oversight of Britain and France. Better or Worse? Could it have been worse?
3.the notorious suppression of indvidual liberites of Americans under Esionage and Sedtion Acts, through which more than 1,000 Americans were convicted of "saying, writing,or printing" anything "disloyal, profane,scurrilous, or abusive" about the the government or the military.
In one case, the director of a patriotic film about the American Revolution was jailed (for, I believe, 8 years, for producing a film that about the American Revoltion, because it was perceived to be
"anti-British".
This was followed by the Red Scare of 1919-20 that established a pattern for an American form of national hysteria and authoritarianism that had been almost nonexistant before now.
And so on.
Woodrow Wilson was a brilliant, but he otherwise shared many qualities with Bush. He had delusions of divine guidance, he had delusions of bringing about messianic reforms, he refused to listen to advice or compromise, but rather "stayed the course" through the destruction of all his beautiful plans. He endorsed authoriatarian and unconstitutional means to secure his ends.
Wilson did not cause World War I, which gave us the modern world as we know it, but he, by his misguided idealism, made it much worse. Just like Bush and America's role in the post-modern world. But Wilson did his damage at a far more pivotal time, and will probably be remembered as "EVEN WORSE THAN BUSH"
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