LAD/Blog #32: Wilson's 14 Points of Peace

President Wilson's 14 Points of Peace can be seen as more idealistic, as a whole, than realistic.  As a president aware of America's past history, Wilson most likely would have seen that achieving world peace would not be nearly as easy as his points make it out to be.  It seems that since Wilson thought he had no choice but to declare war on Germany, he tried to use his 14 Points to make his decision appear more justified for Americans.  Considering the new use of the U-boats and submarines by Germany, it seems that Wilson's second point about absolute freedom of the seas was definitely more idealistic.  Equal trade, seen in the third point, also is more idealistic due to different countries constantly having different tariff rates and own economic interests.  Including Russia in his points is also more idealistic, since Wilson really had no control over what was going on in Russia at the time, even if he indirectly impacted the country by entering the Great War.  Similarly, the points go on to talk about Belgium, France, Italy, Austria-Hungary, etc.  All of these conditions for peace would have to be agreed on by all of these countries, and Wilson makes it sound so simple in these points purely so that he can keep thinking of the ideal world.  In the fourteenth and final point, Wilson describes the creation of an association of nations that would prevent future wars, as the Great War was also originally referred to as "the war to end all wars."  The irony in this is that even though the League of Nations was created in 1920, only two years after the end of the war, the United States did not join the league, and it was not successful in preventing wars, seen in WWII.  It wasn't until the United Nations, founded in 1945, that the US joined such an association, and that it was successful.

President Wilson's 14 Points of Peace can easily be related to the outcomes of the Great War.  For example, the Treaty of Versailles was made at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, with several countries meeting, including the US, to decide how to deal with the aftermath of the war.  Since Wilson's points are mainly idealistic instead of realistic, this was supported when the treaty was not even passed by the Senate, and how the League of Nations (1920) was unsuccessful in preventing future wars.