Wilson's Peace Conquest

        President Wilson’s peace campaign did not end with the entrance of the United States into the war that had been racking the rest of the world for three years. Instead, Wilson seemed to double his efforts to achieve world wide peace. In January of 1917, when American citizens began to realize that the United State’s entrance into WW1 was inevitable, Wilson gallantly stated that the “United States would insist on a ‘peace without victory’” (457 AP Prep Book). When the United States joined the raging war against Germany, President Wilson wrote his “Fourteen Points.” His Fourteen Points enumerated the goals he wished to accomplish by going to war. Holding true with his ultimate ambition of peace, all of Wilson’s points intended to bring about a lasting peace. Some of his points included “recognition of freedom of the seas”, “an end to the practice of secret treaties”, and a “reduction of national armaments” (456 AP Prep Book). In Wilson’s eyes, the most important point was the fourteenth. It made provisions for “ ‘A general association of nations… for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike,’” or more specifically, a League of Nations (457 AP Prep Book). Each of the points, in some way, focused on making the world more peaceful, a task that Wilson himself was attempting to accomplish through other actions as well.

        When it came time for President Wilson to put his idealistic plans into action, he never hesitated. He felt so strongly about his Fourteen Points that he “decided that his personal participation at Versailles was vital” and became the first president to journey overseas to be present at a political convention (457-458 AP Prep Book). At the making of the Treaty of Versailles, the Big Four, or Great Britain, France, Italy, and the United States, all had different agendas. The United States, rather, President Wilson, faced resolute adversaries to ‘peace without victory’ and Wilson’s Fourteen Points. The other three of the “Big Four” desired a more punishing treaty that would reap benefits for each country.  Every one of the Big Four, except the United States, had suffered severely from the prolonged war with Germany and had everything to gain from a harsh treaty against her. In other words, they wanted to make Germany pay for what she had done. President Wilson easily could have given in to the other war-weary, run-down countries and united with them to punish the Germans for their actions, but he refused to do so. Instead, President Wilson remained constant in the following of his peace ideals to implement a better world. Throughout the entire peace conference, Wilson battled with the other countries’ relentless desire for vengeance and futilely endeavored to show the other Ally countries that Germany did not have to be punished, that peace itself was victory. Yet, the countries would not listen and Wilson only succeeded in slightly alleviating their ‘sentence’ for Germany. Despite his unwilling concessions to the other three countries that made up the Big Four, Wilson still incorporated the most important point of his Fourteen Points into the compromise, the one that provided for a League of Nations. In other words, even though Wilson was not able to gear the Treaty of Versailles towards ‘peace without victory’ and his fourteen points as much as he would have liked, his foreign policy was still committed to peace.

President Wilson’s foreign policy remained constant throughout the First World War. From the very beginning, he was committed to peace. Even before the United States was officially involved in the war, Wilson attempted to keep peace between America, Germany, and Great Britain. He gave Germany multiple chances to stop antagonizing the United States before he appealed for a declaration of war from Congress. Yet even during the war, Wilson’s peace policy did not change. At one point he stated that the United States would only accept “peace without victory,” proving once again his peace committed foreign policy. Wilson also made a list of Fourteen Points that he thought would help him accomplish his world-wide peace dream. President Wilson, at the writing of the Treaty of Versailles, nobly defended his peace objectives against formidable other countries intent on revenge. He was even able to get one of his points, the one providing for the League of Nations, into the treaty in its entirety. Nevertheless, Wilson’s persistent attempts to achieve world-wide peace show that although he did ask for a declaration of war, he retained his idealist beliefs and fought for peace.