WILSON, Woodrow (1856–1924), US President 1913–192154 The history of freedom is the history of resistance. The history of freedom is the history of limiting the power of government. Speech at the New York Press Club, September 9. 1912? Jay, p. 39155America First! // America First. Speech in New York 20

WILSON, Charles (Wilson, Charles Erwin, 1890–1961), President of General Motors Corporation, then US Secretary of Defense64 I used to believe that what is good for our country is good for General Motors, and vice versa. It's the same thing. Jan 15 1953 before the Senate Military Affairs Committee, in response to

Wilson Harriette (1786-1846), English courtesan. Born on February 2, 1786 in Shepherd Market, Mayfair in London, “at 10 minutes past eight,” as she herself specified in her memoirs. Born Harriet Dubochet. One of fifteen children of a Swiss

Woodrow Wilson

Thomas Woodrow Wilson. Born December 28, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia - died February 3, 1924 in Washington. American politician, 28th President of the United States (1913-1921). Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, the son of Joseph Wilson (1822-1903), Doctor of Divinity, and Janet Woodrow (1826-1888). His mother's surname became his second, and later his first, name.

Woodrow Wilson was of predominantly Scottish and Irish blood. His paternal grandparents emigrated to the United States in 1807 from Strabane (County Tyrone, Northern Ireland). Settling in Ohio, Wilson's grandfather soon began publishing the abolitionist and protectionist newspaper The Western Herald and Gazette. In Steubenville (Ohio), his son Joseph Ruggles was born, who did not follow in his father’s footsteps.

Presbyterian theologian Joseph Ruggles Wilson married Janet Woodrow, a native of Carlisle (English County of Cumberland). Her father, Dr. Thomas Woodrow, and mother, Marion Williamson, were Scottish. In 1851, Joseph and Janet moved to the South, where Joseph Ruggles Wilson soon bought slaves and declared himself an ideological defender of slavery. But being a relatively humane man, Joseph organized a Sunday school for his slaves.

In 1861, the Wilsons came out in support of the Confederacy. They opened a hospital for wounded soldiers at the church. Joseph Ruggles Wilson became one of the founders of the Southern Presbyterian Church Society (which broke away from the Northern Presbyterian Church Society in 1861). Joseph Ruggles soon joined the Confederate Army as a chaplain.

From Woodrow Wilson’s childhood memories, the most vivid were his father’s words: “Abraham Lincoln was elected president - that means there will be war!” and meeting with General Robert E. Lee.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson did not learn to read until about age 12, experiencing learning difficulties. Then he mastered shorthand and made significant efforts to compensate for the lag in his studies. He studied at home with his father, then at a small school in Augusta.

In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, which trained ministers of the Presbyterian Church. That same year, Woodrow joined the Columbia First Presbyterian Church and remained a member until the end of his days. Due to illness, he left college in the summer of 1874 and settled in Wilmington, North Carolina, where his family now lived.

In 1875 he entered Princeton University, from which he graduated in 1879. Starting from the second year of study, he was actively interested in political philosophy and history, was an active participant in the informal discussion club, and organized an independent Liberal Discussion Society.

In 1879, Wilson entered the University of Virginia Law School, but at the end of 1880, due to poor health, he went home to Wilmington, where he continued his independent studies.

In 1882, in Atlanta, he successfully passed the exam for the right to practice law. One of Wilson's classmates at the University of Virginia invited him to join his law firm as a partner. Wilson joined the partnership in May 1882 and began practicing law.

There was fierce competition in the city with 143 other lawyers, Wilson rarely took cases and quickly became disillusioned with legal work. Wilson studied law with the goal of entering politics, but realized that he could not continue scientific research and practice law at the same time to gain experience, and in July 1883 he left legal practice to begin an academic career.

In April 1883, Wilson entered graduate school at Johns Hopkins University to study for a PhD in history and political science.

His book was published in January 1885 "Congressional Rule: A Study of American Politics", which proposed reform of government power in the United States by strengthening the executive power - the president and members of his cabinet. For this book, Wilson was awarded a special prize from Johns Hopkins University.

Having received his doctorate in 1886, Wilson went to teach history at Bryn Mawr College for Women, near Philadelphia, then moved to Wesleyan University (Connecticut).

In 1890 he was invited to teach political science at Princeton University. Wrote a book "History of the American People"(“A History of the American People”).

In 1902-1910 - rector of Princeton University.

In November 1910, Woodrow Wilson became governor of New Jersey. As governor, he did not follow the party line and decided for himself what he needed to do.

Wilson introduced the New Jersey primary to elect candidates and a number of social laws, such as workers' accident insurance. Because of all this, he became known beyond one region.

President of the U.S.A

Woodrow Wilson ran for the Democratic presidential nomination while serving as Governor of New Jersey. His candidacy was put forward by the Democratic Party as a compromise in Baltimore at a meeting of June 25 - July 2 after a long internal party crisis.

In the elections, Wilson's main rivals were the then 27th President of the United States, William Taft, from the Republican Party, and the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party.

Roosevelt and Taft competed for the Republican vote, causing division and confusion in their camp, which made the task much easier for Democrat Wilson. According to American political scientists, if Roosevelt had not taken part in the elections, Wilson would hardly have won against Taft. Additionally, US Vice President James Sherman died on October 30, 1912, leaving Taft without a vice presidential candidate.

According to the election results, Woodrow Wilson received 41.8% of the vote, Theodore Roosevelt - 27.4%, William Taft - 23.2%. Woodrow Wilson won most of the states and subsequently received 435 of the 531 electoral votes. Thomas Marshall was elected Vice President of the United States.

Woodrow Wilson became the first Southern president since Zachary Taylor in 1848. He was the only US president to hold a doctorate and one of only two presidents, along with Theodore Roosevelt, who was also president of the American Historical Association.

During his first presidential term, Woodrow Wilson, as part of the “New Freedom” policy, carried out economic reforms - the creation of a federal reserve system, banking reform, anti-monopoly reform, and took a neutral position in foreign policy, trying to keep the country from entering the First World War.

During 1914-1917, Woodrow Wilson kept the country from entering World War I.

In 1916, he offered his services as a mediator, but the warring parties did not take his proposals seriously. Republicans, led by Theodore Roosevelt, criticized Wilson for his peace-loving policies and reluctance to create a strong army. At the same time, Wilson won the sympathy of pacifist-minded Americans, arguing that the arms race would lead to the US being drawn into war.

Wilson actively opposed the unrestricted submarine warfare that Germany unleashed. As part of unrestricted submarine warfare, the German navy destroyed ships entering the zone adjacent to Great Britain.

On May 7, 1915, a German submarine sank the passenger liner Lusitania, killing more than 1,000 people, including 124 Americans, causing outrage in the United States.

In 1916, he issued an ultimatum against Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare, and also dismissed his pacifist Secretary of State, Brian. Germany agreed to Wilson's demands, after which he demanded that Great Britain limit the naval blockade of Germany, which led to a complication of Anglo-American relations.

In 1916, Wilson was re-nominated as a presidential candidate. Wilson's main slogan was “He kept us out of war.” Wilson's opponent and Republican candidate Charles Evans Hughes advocated for greater emphasis on mobilization and preparation for war, and Wilson's supporters accused him of dragging the country into war. Wilson came out with a fairly peace-loving program, but put pressure on Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare. In the election campaign, Wilson emphasized his achievements, refraining from directly criticizing Hughes.

Wilson narrowly won the election, with vote counting taking days and causing controversy. Thus, Wilson won in California by a small margin of 3,773 votes, in New Hampshire by 54 votes, and lost to Hughes in Minnesota by 393 votes. Wilson received 277 electoral votes and Hughes 254.

It is believed that Wilson won the 1916 election mainly due to voters who supported Theodore Roosevelt and Eugene Debs in 1912.

During Wilson's second term, he focused his efforts on World War I, which the United States entered on April 6, 1917, little more than a month into Wilson's second term.

When Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917, Wilson decided to bring the United States into World War I. It did not sign alliance agreements with Great Britain or France, preferring to act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. Wilson formed a large army through conscription and appointed General John Pershing as commander, leaving him considerable discretion in matters of tactics, strategy, and even diplomacy.

He called "declare war to end all wars"- this meant that he wanted to lay the foundations for a world without war, to prevent future catastrophic wars that would cause death and destruction.

These intentions served as the basis for Wilson's Fourteen Points, which were developed and proposed to resolve territorial disputes, ensure free trade, and create a peacekeeping organization (which later emerged as the League of Nations). Woodrow Wilson by that time had decided that the war had become a threat to all humanity. In his speech declaring war, he stated that if the United States had not entered the war, the entire Western civilization might have been destroyed.

To quell defeatist sentiments at home, Wilson passed through Congress Espionage Act(1917) and Sedition Act(1918), aimed at suppressing anti-British, anti-war or pro-German sentiment. He supported the socialists, who, in turn, supported participation in the war. Although he himself had no sympathy for radical organizations, they saw great benefits in rising wages under the Wilson administration.

However, there was no price regulation, and retail prices increased sharply. When income taxes were increased, knowledge workers suffered the most. War bonds issued by the Government were a great success.

Wilson created the Committee on Public Information, headed by George Creel, which disseminated patriotic anti-German messages and carried out various forms of censorship, popularly known as Creel Commission.

In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the objectives of the war, which became known as the “Fourteen Points.”

Wilson's Fourteen Points:

I. Elimination of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy;
II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters;
III. Freedom of trade, elimination of economic barriers;
IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security;
V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial issues, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies;
VI. Liberation of Russian territories, resolution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government;
VII. Liberation of the territory of Belgium, recognition of its sovereignty;
VIII. Liberation of French territories, restoration of justice for Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871;
IX. Establishing the borders of Italy based on nationality;
X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary;
XI. Liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with reliable access to the Adriatic Sea, guarantees of the independence of the Balkan states;
XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) simultaneously with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles for the free passage of ships;
XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea;
XIV. Creation of a general international union of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.

Wilson's speech caused a mixed reaction both in the United States and its allies. France wanted reparations from Germany because French industry and agriculture had been destroyed by the war, and Britain, as the most powerful naval power, did not want freedom of navigation.

Wilson made compromises with Clemenceau, Lloyd George and other European leaders during the Paris peace negotiations, trying to ensure that Clause 14 was implemented and the League of Nations was created. In the end, the agreement on the League of Nations was defeated by Congress, and in Europe only 4 of the 14 theses were implemented.

Woodrow Wilson (documentary)

Under Wilson, from 1914 to 1918, the United States repeatedly intervened in the affairs of Latin American countries, especially Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama.

The US sent troops into Nicaragua and used them to support one of the Nicaraguan presidential candidates, then forced them to enter into the Bryan-Chamorro Agreement.

American troops in Haiti forced the local parliament to choose a candidate supported by Wilson, and occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934.

After Russia experienced the October Revolution and emerged from the war, the Allies sent troops to prevent either the Bolsheviks or the Germans from appropriating weapons, ammunition, and other supplies that the Allies were providing to aid the Provisional Government. Wilson sent expeditions to the Trans-Siberian Railway and the key port cities of Arkhangelsk and Vladivostok to intercept supplies for the Provisional Government. Their tasks did not include fighting the Bolsheviks, but several clashes with them took place.

Wilson withdrew the main force on April 1, 1920, although separate formations remained until 1922.

At the end of World War I, Wilson, along with Lansing and Colby, laid the foundations for the Cold War and containment policies.

After the end of the First World War, Wilson participated in negotiations that resolved issues of statehood for oppressed nations and the establishment of an equal world. On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave a speech to Congress in which he voiced his peace theses, as well as the idea of ​​a League of Nations to help preserve the territorial integrity and political independence of nations large and small. He saw in his 14 theses the path to ending the war and achieving an equal peace for all nations.

Wilson spent six months in Paris attending the Paris Peace Conference and becoming the first US president to visit Europe while in office. He constantly worked to promote his plans, and achieved the inclusion of a provision for the League of Nations in the Versailles Agreement.

Wilson received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 for his efforts to maintain peace. However, Wilson was unable to obtain Senate ratification of the League of Nations agreement, and the United States did not join. The Republicans, led by House Henry, held the majority in the Senate after the 1918 elections, but Wilson refused to allow the Republicans to negotiate in Paris and rejected their proposed amendments. The main disagreement centered on whether the League of Nations would limit Congress's power to declare war. Historians have recognized the failure to join the League of Nations as the greatest failure of the Wilson administration.

Wilson paid insufficient attention to the problems of demobilization after the war; the process was poorly managed and chaotic. Four million soldiers were sent home with little money. Soon problems arose in agriculture, many farmers went bankrupt. In 1919, there were riots in Chicago and other cities.

Following a series of attacks by radical anarchist groups in New York and other cities, Wilson directed Attorney General Mitchell Palmer to put an end to the violence. A decision was made to arrest internal propagandists and expel external ones.

In recent years, Wilson broke ties with many of his political allies. He wanted to run for a third term, but the Democratic Party did not support him.

In 1919, Wilson actively campaigned for the ratification of the League of Nations agreement and traveled around the country to give speeches, as a result of which he began to experience physical strain and fatigue. After one of his speeches in support of the League of Nations in Pueblo on September 25, 1919, Wilson became seriously ill, and on October 2, 1919, he suffered a severe stroke, which left him paralyzed on the entire left side of his body and blind in one eye.

For several months he could only move in a wheelchair; subsequently he was able to walk with a cane. It remains unclear who was responsible for executive decision-making during Wilson's period of incapacity. It is believed that most likely these were the first lady and presidential advisers. The president's inner circle, led by his wife, completely isolated Vice President Thomas Marshall from the course of presidential correspondence, signing papers and other things. Marshall himself did not risk taking on the responsibility of accepting the powers of the acting president, although some political forces urged him to do so.

Wilson was almost completely incapacitated for the rest of his presidency, but this fact was hidden from the general public until his death on February 3, 1924.

In 1921, Woodrow Wilson and his wife left the White House and settled in Washington in the Embassy Row. In recent years, Wilson had a hard time with the failures to create the League of Nations, believed that he had deceived the American people and needlessly dragged the country into the First World War.

In 1944, Wilson was the subject of a biographical film, Wilson (1944), directed by Henry King and starring Alexander Knox, which won five Oscars.

Woodrow Wilson is depicted on the $100,000 bill, the largest in the country's history.

In the Polish city of Poznan there is a monument to Woodrow Wilson, erected on the site of a relocated monument to the leader of the Polish labor movement, Marcin Kasprzak.

On November 5, 2011, a monument to Woodrow Wilson was unveiled in Prague (Czech Republic). At the Versailles Peace Conference, which ended World War I in 1919, Wilson advocated for the independence of Czechoslovakia. This is the second monument - the first was destroyed during the Second World War.

Woodrow Wilson's personal life

Thomas Wilson's first love was his cousin Henrietta Woodrow. They met while he was studying at the University of Virginia. Henrietta did not reciprocate and, when Wilson approached her, she refused him. In order not to hurt her cousin’s feelings, Henrietta explained her refusal not by dislike, but by her close relationship with him. In memory of his love, in 1882 he took Henrietta’s surname as his middle name: Woodrow. And from then on he demanded that he be called only that.

Love for Henrietta and a broken heart were soon eclipsed by new love. Although Ellen Exxon he first met when he himself was six years old, and Ellen only two years old. Little Tommy really liked the girl’s dimples and her cheerful character. The second time Tom and Ellen met twenty years later: immediately after Henrietta’s refusal, Thomas Woodrow Wilson came to his uncle James Bones, went into the Presbyterian church and saw her. Woodrow visited Ellen's father, the rector of the church, to ask him about his daughter's situation and when it would be appropriate to woo her. After moving to Atlanta, he wrote to her weekly. Ellen answered him and kept all his letters - 1400 of them.

Ellen did everything to help Woodrow. She edited the texts of his speeches, she learned German to help him in his scientific work, she read a lot and followed all the important innovations in art and literature in order to familiarize Woodrow with them in time. Ellen was not only a loving and caring wife, she was also Woodrow Wilson's secret adviser.

The marriage produced three daughters:

Margaret Woodrow Wilson(1886-1944) - singer, entrepreneur.

Jesse Woodrow Wilson Sayre(1887-1933) - born in Gainesville, Georgia. She graduated from Goucher College in Baltimore and worked in a settlement house in Philadelphia for three years. On November 25, 1913, she married Francis W. Sayre. She and her husband settled in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Sayre attended Harvard Law School. Jessie was active in the League of Women Voters. She died during surgery to remove her appendix.

Eleanor Randolph Wilson (1889-1967).

First wife Ellen died on August 6, 1914 from Bright's disease. As she died, she told attending physician Gray Grayson, “Keep an eye on Woodrow.”

Ellen said more than once that she would like Wilson to find himself a new wife after her death, but always an intelligent and worthy woman. She also blessed her husband for a new marriage.

Soon he met Edith Bolling Gault, who became his second wife. In December 1915 they got married. There were no children in this marriage.

Woodrow Wilson was an avid car enthusiast and took daily road trips even while he was president. The president’s passion also influenced the financing of work on the construction of public roads.

He was also a baseball fan, playing for the college team as a student, and in 1916 he became the first sitting US president to attend the World Baseball Championship.

Thomas Woodrow Wilson - 28th President of the United States- born December 28, 1856 in Strawton (Virginia), died February 3, 1924 in Washington, DC. President of the United States from March 4, 1913 to March 4, 1921.

In the post-Lincoln gallery of American presidents, Woodrow Wilson rises as an outlier. If they, as a rule, came from among professional politicians, lawyers or leading groups in economics, then Wilson initially belonged to the university-academic stratum of his country. In addition, unlike most presidents of that era, he was from the southern states. His childhood memories included the Civil War. He was born on December 28, 1856, the son of Presbyterian minister and teacher Joseph R. Wilson and his wife Janet, in Stockton, Virginia, and was in no way destined for the profession of politics. He, of course, inherited his father’s talent as an orator and organizer. But in his parents' home he was brought up in a strict Calvinist faith, and at first everything indicated that he would follow his father's profession. It turned out differently: as a freshman and a popular student representative at Princeton University, he became more and more interested in a political career. His ideal was the English Christian liberal statesman William Gladstone.

By studying legal sciences, he seemed to be heading straight towards his goal. But legal sciences did not satisfy him. A few months of work as a lawyer in Atlanta (Georgia) was enough for him. Meanwhile, what attracted him more was political and journalistic writing. Here he more and more discovered his real talent. He wanted to use it to influence the public. To improve his qualifications, in 1883, as a graduate, he enrolled in a course in political science at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, which even then belonged to the leading American universities. He defended his degree with a book that immediately made him famous outside the university world: Congressional Government (1885). It was a convincing criticism of the ineffective way for the public, and, ultimately, the undemocratic way of working of the American people's representation. I became more and more involved in the comparative study of constitutions and for this I learned to read German. After a series of small works, the main fruit of his studies appeared in 1899, the work “The State,” a comparative doctrine of government. Meanwhile, he made an academic and journalistic name for himself. In 1890, Princeton University invited him to the law department. What he did teach with increasing success was more in the realm of political science. But even beyond the walls of the university his popularity grew. More and more, he expressed his views on current political topics in polished essays with broad impact. In 1902, Princeton University appointed him as its president. It seemed that at the age of 46 he had reached the pinnacle of his life - he was highly respected at the university and outside the university, he was economically secure, and lived in a happy marriage with his wife Helen, with whom he had three daughters.

The experience gained as president of the university in a unique way predetermined Wilson's future career as a politician.

Successes in fundamental reforms of academic teaching were countered by a total collapse at the end of his presidency. In his missionary zeal for reform, he made his enemies some of Princeton's academic celebrities (for example, the classical philologist Andrew F. West). Completely at odds with his university and with poor health, he gave up and resigned in 1910. But he had almost no time for disappointment and grief. University conflicts took place before the eyes of the entire public and made him known throughout the country as a politician of higher education. Already in 1906, his name appeared in the conservative wing of the Democratic Party as a possible candidate for the presidency. Wilson offered himself to the Democratic party leaders, who raised him to the shield as a descendant of one of the families of the southern states and as a publicist who thought conservatively in economic matters. Already a year after the break in Princeton in November 1910, he was elected governor of New Jersey. During the election campaign, and even more so while in office, he disappointed his conservative political donors. For the first time, a reproach of disloyalty was heard behind his back, since, in order to improve his chances in the elections, he openly moved to the camp of progressivism. This reformist movement, which gained more and more supporters in both major parties, agitated for the democratization of political practice, for social and state measures, environmental protection and for economic reforms that would stop the formation of such concentrations of power as cartels and monopolies, and were no longer subject to the free development of the market. In the spirit of his program, Wilson introduced primary elections in New Jersey for the election of candidates within the party and a number of social laws (for example, workers' accident insurance). Because of all this, he became known beyond one region. During the second phase of his tenure as governor, his legislative affairs became thoroughly confused, but this in no way diminished his authority. In 1912, he was elected as the candidate for the Democratic Party's presidency against William Bryan, an eloquent populist voice primarily for the interests of agrarian reform in the American West. By the time of his nomination, the presidential chances for him and the Democratic Party could not have been better, as the rival Republican party was mired in controversy and disagreement. A new progressive party entered the election race with Republican ex-President Theodore Roosevelt as its candidate. Republican voters are split. Wilson entered the election campaign with his party's traditional call for free trade and with a progressive economic reform program that placed more emphasis on the self-regulating forces of the economy than on government control, as demanded by his opponent Roosevelt. He won the election on November 3, 1912, with a clear, although relative, majority.

On March 4, 1913, he, accompanied by the expectations of American supporters of reform, entered the White House. It would be “ironic,” he said, if he, completely focused on the interests of domestic policy, had to deal a lot with foreign policy in the future.

This time Wilson did not disappoint his supporters. The system of reforms that he carried through Congress with great skill under the slogan “New Freedom” within one year of his election was realized: American tariffs were reduced, banking and the monetary circulation system were radically modernized and subordinated ( which did not exist before) to the central administration (Federal Reserve Board); finally, in the interests of preventing distortions of competition, federal-state control over industrial concerns was transformed and strengthened through the creation of a federal trade commission. However, to ensure the passage of this law by Congress, Wilson was forced to pay a price to conservative Democrats. Among other things, this included, which was not difficult for representatives of the southern states, the temporary restoration of apartheid provisions in some Washington federal bodies.

Sooner than expected, the progressive democratic principles of his "New Freedom" were questioned from outside. Without recognizing himself as truly a foreign policymaker, Wilson cherished the idea that democracy, even outside the United States, would promote peaceful progressive development. He distanced himself from the imperialist-motivated “dollar diplomacy” of his predecessor Taft and canceled, for example, American participation in the international consortium for the development of China. But the integrity of his outward-looking hopes for democratization was truly tested only in the neighboring country of Mexico. Here he established a didactic position that is still in force on the problem of the humane-democratically inspired policy of intervention of a developed country in relation to a “third world” country. In Mexico, at the beginning of 1913, as a result of a coup, the general of Indian origin, Victoriano Huerta, came to power; should he be recognized diplomatically? The European powers, primarily England and Germany, demanded this as well as American oil interests. Wilson opposed, he wanted to recognize only the democratically legitimate Mexican government and provided military assistance to Huerta's internal opponents under the leadership of the reform-oriented politician Venustiano Carranza. The United States itself was drawn into the war that thus became inevitable in April 1914. Wilson received a double experience: even a progressively understood intervention in another country exposes its initiator to reproaches for interference; such an intervention is quite easy to start, but it is infinitely difficult to finish. Only at the end of 1916 did the last parts of the United States leave northern Mexico. But Wilson achieved his goal: Huerta was overthrown, Carranza took the helm, elections and the constitutional development of Mexico were ensured.

Meanwhile, a war began in Europe, which required broader action from Wilson as a foreign policymaker. The first months of the war passed for him in the shadow of a personal family crisis. At the beginning of 1914, his deeply revered wife died. However, he could not, even if he wanted to, ignore the impact of the world war on his country. Like all the great European wars before it, this one urgently required American neutrality. Despite his personal attachments to Great Britain and its spiritual life (his ancestors were from Scotland, and he himself traveled throughout England many times), Wilson tried to honestly and dispassionately remain neutral. Given the minority population in the United States, he had no other choice. Despite this, American relations with the German Empire quickly deteriorated in early 1915. The reason for this was the so-called unrestricted submarine war, i.e. the decision of the German naval leadership to sink without warning all merchant ships, neutral or not, within the military zone it declared around England. Incidents with American ships and human losses were thus already programmed. The disaster occurred on May 7, 1915. A German submarine torpedoed the British passenger ship Lusitania in the military zone in front of Ireland. Most of the passengers - more than 1,000 men, women and children - drowned, including 124 Americans. In the United States, such terrorism at sea caused a wave of indignation. For the first time, we talked about the war with Germany. Wilson insisted on the German government to conduct submarine warfare according to the rules of cruising warfare, that is, to spare the lives of neutrals. After further incidents, finally the torpedoing of the French steamer Sussex, on April 18, 1916, he reinforced his demand with an ultimatum. His tough stance towards Germany had already led to a rift between him and his pacifist Foreign Secretary, Brian, as early as 1915. His successor was Robert Lansing, a legal expert who had long been sympathetic to England in the American Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Subsequently, critics argued that it was Wilson who chose the course of clashes with Germany taking into account the interests of weapons. There is no evidence for this. But Wilson persistently, even harshly defended existing international law and the prestige of the United States as a great power. Economic motives were taken into account by him only when, at the end of 1914, the emerging conditions of the American economy largely depended on the flow of goods from the United States to the European Western powers. Wilson understood this. If he wanted to prevent the country from falling into the stagnation it experienced before the war, he could not allow the German war under water to choke off these exports.

The German-American conflict, which the Western powers so hoped for, did not take place, because Germany, back in April 1916, with the so-called “Sus-sex Pledges”, finally submitted to the American demand and stopped unrestricted submarine warfare. After this, the British blockade practice towards the United States led to tension in British-American relations. Wilson learned how fragile American neutrality was. Through his trusted adviser, Colonel Edward House, he repeatedly tried to mediate between the warring parties - in vain. For the upcoming presidential election in November 1916, Wilson announced his candidacy with the slogan “He didn’t keep us out of the war.” To these tactics he owed, at least in part, his victory by an extremely narrow margin over the candidate of the newly united Republican party, Charles E. Hughes.

In confirmation of his presidency, Wilson decided to intensify his efforts to promote peace. To make his allies more amenable to peace, he was not even afraid to apply financial pressure. On December 18, 1916, Wilson publicly offered American mediation to the warring parties, but was met with refusal on both sides. Unwaveringly he continued his secret probings and his public campaign for a “peace without victory.” The German government initially created the appearance of a certain willingness to meet halfway, but then destroyed all hopes for peace and completely undermined its credibility when, on January 31, 1917, it announced that in the following days it would again return to unrestricted submarine warfare. If Wilson did not want to lose face, then after his ultimatum of April 18, 1916, he could do nothing more than break off diplomatic relations with Berlin. After the sinking of the first American ships by German submarines, the American government declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, with almost unanimous approval from Congress. Wilson could count on the loyalty of his compatriots, especially since the inhabitants of the American West already felt threatened. In January 1917, the German government offered Mexico an alliance with the so-called Zimmermann Note and promised to return to it the areas from Texas to Arizona that had been ceded to the United States in the 19th century. The British Secret Service intercepted this note and provided it to Wilson. He published it on March 1, 1917 and caused a sensation.

Wilson was deeply aware of the gravity of the step that the United States took in declaring war on Germany. He predicted an outbreak of war hysteria and cruelty also in his own country - the end would be peace on enslaving terms. However, he saw no other way out after the German government provoked the United States as a world power and defender of international law. Now a concession, he believed, would damage the authority of the United States as a global mediator. Now the United States, due to its contribution to the victory over the countries of Central Europe, had to create the preconditions for a progressive world in the American sense. The question was what such a world should look like. Wilson was aware of the fact that his new European partners were in no way pursuing the “progressive” or overt imperialist military goals that they had stipulated in numerous secret agreements. In order not to involve the United States in such interests, Wilson called his country only “part of the association” (not an “ally”) of the Entente. Such a diplomatic distinction was all the more necessary because in the fall of 1917 the Bolsheviks came to power in Russia and hastily published the secret treaties of the allies in order to discredit the Western powers as imperialist conquerors in the eyes of their own population. When, at the end of 1917, precisely as a militaristic Germany entered into peace negotiations with Russia, there was an acute danger of a severe crisis of confidence within the Allied countries, especially in the sphere of the political left, a crisis that threatened to harm the will of the entire population of the Entente countries to hold out to the end and thus most call the victory of the Western powers into question. To counteract this, at the same time to commit the European "unionists" to a specifically progressive American program of war aims, in order, moreover, to push Russia to return to the Western Union and to mobilize left factions among the enemies against their governments, January 8, 1918 Wilson proclaimed his famous “Fourteen Points” as the leading line in the struggle for a progressive world. The future world, as the President declared before the solemnly assembled Congress, must rest on the principles of open diplomacy, global free trade, general disarmament and drawing borders according to the map of nationalities. The peoples of the Habsburg monarchy should enjoy wide autonomy, and the new Russia should be given all the advantages of such a progressive world. In paragraph 14, Wilson named the creation of a union of peoples as the most important guarantee of peace. As for Germany, it must compensate for the injustice caused to France by the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, restore the sovereignty of Belgium and compensate for the damage, and finally provide Poland with free access to the sea. Wilson added that he would talk about such a peace only with the German government, which relies on the majority (center and left) in the Reichstag, and not with the German imperialist “war party.”

First of all, it was necessary to defeat the German military power. To achieve this, Wilson mobilized the entire American economy. Key industries were placed under state control during the war. The money needed to finance the war was obtained through war loans, as well as taxes, which were imposed primarily on the high-income segments of the population. The vast majority of Americans supported their government with unconditional enthusiasm. Potential critics, primarily among the German minority or among American socialists and pacifists, were intimidated or silenced through postal censorship. Since the beginning of 1918, an ever-increasing flow of American soldiers rushed to Europe - in the fall there were 1.2 million of them. In order for the European Western powers to hold out, the moral, material and military contribution of the United States to the joint prosecution of the war was necessary. This, finally, was decisive in the offensive on the Western Front, which the Western powers switched to in July 1918 in France. On October 3, 1918, it was all over: in the face of looming defeat, Germany asked for a cessation of hostilities and peace based on Wilson's Fourteen Points. The global political influence of the American president has reached its highest point. The decision about war and peace fell to his lot. Germany gave him the opportunity to formally commit the European Western powers to his peace program. The readiness for this was the higher, the less the military defeat of Germany seemed established in reality in the eyes of the Western European allies. That is why Wilson exchanged notes with Germany. However, as a prerequisite for an armistice (and thus avoiding capitulation) and for "Wilson's Peace", he demanded that the German people abandon their old military system. What exactly was meant by this remains an open question. After difficult negotiations, he, through his emissary Colonel House, got the European allies in Paris to grant Germany's request - and thus at the same time, although with certain reservations, accepted his peace program. And in November 1918 a truce was concluded. After more than four years of war, which gradually developed into a world war, the guns fell silent.

Wilson saw the fact that peace had been achieved in the spirit of his “Fourteen Points” as a decisive test of his abilities as a statesman and at the same time the fulfillment of a world-historical mission. Therefore, he insisted that this peace be concluded even with his European partners. The enthusiasm with which he was greeted by the population of London, Paris and Rome awakened his wildest hopes. In fact, he and his advisers were thoroughly prepared for the substantive issues ahead - the idea of ​​Americans having no idea about European affairs at the 1919 peace conference is the stuff of legend. What Wilson underestimated was the real difficulties of making peace and the lack of willingness to compromise - which means: the lack of respect for his Fourteen Points on the part of Europeans when it came to their national interests.

Thus, the Paris peace negotiations of the victors (January - May 1919) became a nerve-wracking test of patience for Wilson. One of the negotiating partners repeatedly threatened to withdraw: successively France, Japan, Italy and, finally, Great Britain. Each attempt at a solution excluded the problem of Russia, where the civil war was raging between the Bolsheviks and the “White Guards” and the Allied (also American) troops kept strategically important zones occupied, especially the ports - in general, of course, a limited intervention, which, however, in political and military aspects was meaningless after the armistice and which did not prevent the Bolsheviks from establishing themselves politically in Central Europe in the spring of 1919 (among others in Hungary). Wilson himself took to heart the development of a charter for a union of peoples (according to the Scottish-Biblical tradition, he spoke of the Covenant). This was achieved already in the first weeks of the conference. The ingenious arbitration system was supposed to avoid the outbreak of military conflicts: if this failed, then sanctions distributed by category were provided. Treaties or provisions no longer meeting the requirements of the time, the observance of which threatened the peace, had to be examined for possible modification. The Charter of the League of Nations, as Wilson understood it, was supposed to establish the Treaty of Versailles on all counts, not for all time. Germany was initially denied membership in the League of Nations. It lost its colonies, for which the mandates of the League of Nations were envisaged.

For some of the most important controversial issues, more or less unstable compromises were found, such as for the Rhineland, which politically remained part of Germany, while being occupied for a long time by the Western powers and demilitarized. The League of Nations was ultimately and differently responsible for the Saarland and Danzig. Other questions remained more or less open, such as the Italian-Yugoslav border or the amount of reparations that should be imposed on Germany as one of the powers responsible for starting the war. The new German government was forced under massive pressure to sign the Treaty of Versailles. This happened on June 28, 1919. Wilson was convinced that the treaty was in the spirit of the Fourteen Points, which he had advocated for in secret conferences with his allies. However, this was not the complete truth, as some contemporaries also understood among the victorious powers, and later the famous national economist John Maynard Keynes. First of all, it was completely impossible to make Germany and the new Russia loyal bearers of the new world order.

With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, Wilson faced another critical task: according to the American Constitution, the treaty must be approved in the US Senate by a two-thirds majority before it can be ratified by the United States. Specifically for Wilson, this meant that he had to win over part of the Senate faction of the Republican Party for his system of peace. This was all the more difficult because the Republicans emerged victorious from the midterm elections in November 1918. Since the Republicans, for their part, were not united in their position on the treaty, Wilson's chances of winning the vote were not so bad. Republican criticism concerned not at all those parts of the treaty that related to Germany, but to a large extent the charter of the League of Nations, which was a single integral part of the entire treaty, outweighed the concern that the United States, as a member of the League of Nations, in the foreseeable future will be obliged to comply with the Versailles peace order and that at the same time they can be automatically involved in all conceivable military conflicts on Earth. This criticism is clearly exaggerated, since the main and primarily disputed Article 10 of the Charter of the League of Nations was only advisory in nature, but concerned the main question of whether the United States as a world power was ready, and to what extent, to allow world organization in any way curtail its own sovereign freedom of decision, i.e., its ability to declare war. The criticism leveled at the League of Nations was fundamentally nationalist, but provided additional fodder for Wilson's disenchanted leftist supporters who completely rejected the Versailles treaty system as "imperialist." From the point of view of Wilson's opponents, these debates were the most important because they concerned the constitutional and legal competences of Congress, and above all, the right to declare war. Finally, the Republican opposition received an impetus thanks to the desire of many Americans, who were tired of the “great times,” to return to normal life. Inflationary trends in the American post-war economy, the resulting social conflicts, the political opposition of the radical left and, not least, Wilson’s own secrecy during the world conference and his intractability did not make the president’s position easier. His inclination to accede to the republican desires to change Article 10 of the Charter of the League of Nations was not in the least increased by the impression of this criticism and these difficulties.

In this uncertain situation, he decided to make a long trip around the country in order to personally convey his aspirations to the American people and, thus, put pressure on the Senate. For tactics aimed at excluding critical senators, the American Constitution did not offer any means, since each senator was practically invulnerable during his six-year mandate. Wilson's doctors also warned him against the stress on his health associated with his intention. They knew that the peace conference had already undermined the resistance of the president’s body. However, despite these doubts, Wilson insisted on his own. Like the biblical prophet, he was deeply imbued with his destiny to promote the success of a good work for the future of the whole world. With stirring eloquence he campaigned in the great cities of the Middle and Far West for his system of peace. If the United States remained aloof from it, the next world war would soon break out, he predicted. However, all his speeches ultimately did not have success and impact: while delivering a speech in Pueblo (Colorado), he suddenly began to experience severe headaches and nausea. Although he was immediately flown back to Washington, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage on October 2, 1919. He recovered slowly and not completely. Thus, the supervision of government affairs fell into the hands of his wife, Wilson married in 1915 the widow Edith Bolling Gault, an attractive representative of the Washington business world, who, without thinking about politics, had only one desire - to protect her husband from all the excitement , which put his health at risk. Based on this humanly understandable interest, she decided what could be said to the patient and what could not be said.

No other situation could have been more fatal to the defense of the Treaty of Versailles in the United States than this. Since Wilson's actual illness was kept secret, wild rumors circulated about his mental state, which discredited him and his cause.

The conflict in the Senate reached its highest point in November 1919. Wilson refused to make any concession to his political opponents, led by Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, which, in his understanding, contradicted the main goals of the League of Nations charter. Attempts to reach an agreement between Democratic senators supporting Wilson and moderate Republicans willing to make concessions failed due to the stubbornness of the ailing president. “It must not be forgotten,” he wrote on March 8, 1920, “that this article (10 of the League of Nations Charter) represents a renunciation of the misleading ambition of the strong nations with whom we were allies in the war... As for me, I am also intolerant of the imperialist intentions of other nations, just as I am intolerant of the same intentions of Germany.” In two votes - on November 19, 1919 and March 19, 1920 - the Senate rejected the Versailles Treaty in its presented form. The United States refused to be the guarantor of the Versailles Peace Treaty and the League of Nations. The Anglo-American guarantee agreed in Paris to maintain the demilitarized status of the Rhineland also turned out to be invalid. However, Wilson’s contribution to the content of the treaty was not in vain, since after ratification by other counterparties, it entered into force in an unchanged form without the United States.

However, Wilson viewed the Senate decision as a bitter personal defeat. Although half paralyzed, he did not want to accept such an end to his political career. I secretly thought about running for president again. Realizing how far he was moving from reality, serious politicians of his party did not even take this desire into account. Wilson now hoped for an overwhelming victory for his party in the next election, which he saw as a “great and solemn referendum” on the League of Nations charter. But these hopes were dashed, and thoroughly. The Democrats suffered the worst defeat in their history in the November 1920 presidential elections. The American people have already turned their backs on their prophet. Wilson's political career had a tragic end, not entirely undeservedly for him. The ex-president has several years left, marred by chronic illness and growing loneliness. He died on February 3, 1924. He found his final resting place in the neo-Gothic National Cathedral in Washington.

Regardless of his final downfall, Wilson is one of the great American presidents who gave the United States a new turn. Starting with him and thanks to him, the United States became a nation that turned to Europe, interested in the fate of the non-American world as a whole. This was true even after leaving the presidency, when his successors were still unclear about the scope of America's role as a world power in Europe from a security policy perspective. But nine years after his death, the new American President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, after initial hesitation, joined his legacy. The idea of ​​an internationally organized world experienced a triumphant awakening during the Second World War, also in the United States, and found its expression in the Charter of the United Nations. The European Allies owe their victory in the First World War, or at least the scale of that victory, to the United States, led and inspired by Wilson. Even here he showed himself to be a morally impeccable, incorruptible and materially disinterested reformer, imbued with deep and strict religiosity, perhaps not always personally accessible to outsiders, not always completely frank, but nevertheless, a clear mind, captivating an orator, an outstanding organizer and, not least, a passionate, sometimes unyielding fighter for what he considered a good cause. Despite his apparent downfall, his political successes moved the United States significantly forward toward greater modernity and greater openness to the world.

In preparing the material, we used Klaus Schwabe’s article “The Crusade for Democracy.”

Long before Bush father and son, Bill Clinton And Barack Obama, the 28th President of the United States of America undertook to resolve the global military conflict and establish new harmonious relations between peoples. His efforts ended with a Nobel Peace Prize and a stroke.

Speaker in poor health

Thomas Woodrow Wilson born December 28, 1856 in Staunton, Virginia, son of Presbyterian Pastor Joseph Ruggles Wilson.

Since childhood, the future politician was in poor health, so he received his primary education at home. In 1873 he entered Davidson College in North Carolina, then Princeton University in 1879. Woodrow began to show his oratorical talent, inherited from his father and grandfather, during his student years, when he became interested in political history and philosophy.

Having started a career as a lawyer, the young man quickly became disillusioned with it and decided to try his hand at an academic field with a focus on politics.

After receiving his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University, Wilson went to teach history at Bryn Mawr Women's College, then moved to Wesleyan University (Connecticut), but did not stay there either. In 1890, Princeton University invited Wilson to the law department.

After a number of small essays, in 1899 he published a large political work, The State, a comparative analysis of government power.

Woodrow Wilson circa 1880. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Compromise President

In 1902, Wilson took the post of rector of Princeton University, trying in this position to implement a number of educational reforms. The confrontation between the rector and the professorship dragged on for eight years and ended in the defeat of Wilson, who resigned. The protracted and noisy conflict, however, benefited Wilson the politician, since they started talking about him as a possible candidate for the presidency from the Democratic Party.

An intermediate step on the path to the presidency for Wilson was the post of governor of New Jersey, which he received as a result of the 1910 elections. An active position and a number of social laws initiated by the governor (in particular, accident insurance for workers) made Wilson a well-known federal politician.

In the presidential election of 1912, Wilson became the candidate of the Democratic Party as a compromise figure that suited everyone. It also helped Wilson that the traditional Republican electorate was split in two by the struggle between William Taft and former US leader Theodore Roosevelt, who, after his resignation, broke relations with Taft and the Republican Party and created the Progressive Party.

Ultimately, Wilson took full advantage of this situation, winning with 41.8% of the vote and 435 of the 531 electoral votes.

“If the world wants peace, it must follow America's moral precepts.”

The main test for the United States in foreign policy during the reign of President Wilson was the First World War.

Wilson, who advocated expanding US influence in world politics, initially proceeded from the need to avoid the country's involvement in armed conflicts in Europe. He adhered to the framework of the so-called "dollar diplomacy" and was convinced that "if the world really wants peace, it must follow the moral precepts of America."

From 1914 to 1917, Wilson was an ardent supporter of US neutrality in World War I, believing that America's special position entitled it to offer its mediation.

However, Wilson's attempts to offer mediation services to the conflicting parties did not find understanding among them.

At the same time, already in 1915, Wilson did not exclude the possibility of US participation in the war, after the passenger ship Lusitania was destroyed as part of the “unrestricted submarine war” unleashed by Germany, resulting in the death of about 1,000 people, including 124 Americans.

The US demands for an end to unrestricted submarine warfare, put forward by Wilson, were fulfilled by the German side, which somewhat delayed American military intervention.

Woodrow Wilson's 1916 presidential campaign slogan was "He kept us out of war." Wilson came out with a fairly peace-loving program, but put pressure on Germany to end unrestricted submarine warfare. His opponent, Republican Charles Evans Hughes, advocated more active US preparations for war. As a result, Wilson managed to be re-elected by a narrow margin. Wilson received 277 electoral votes and Hughes 254.

President Wilson puts before Congress the question of declaring war on Germany. Meeting February 3, 1917. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

"Fourteen Points"

Germany's resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917 prompted the United States to enter the war.

Wilson's concept was that the United States should act independently as an "associated" (rather than allied) country. It is with this that the directive to the commander of the American army in Europe, John Pershing, is connected, ordering his troops to act together with the allies, but maintaining a separate position.

According to Wilson, the United States entered World War I "to end all wars." According to the politician, the United States could help Europe lay the foundations for further peaceful coexistence.

In his speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, Woodrow Wilson formulated his theses on the objectives of the war, which became known as the “Fourteen Points”:

I. Elimination of secret agreements, openness of international diplomacy.

II. Freedom of navigation outside territorial waters

III. Freedom of trade, removal of economic barriers

IV. Disarmament, reducing the armament of countries to the minimum level necessary to ensure national security.

V. Free and impartial consideration of all colonial issues, taking into account both the colonial claims of the owners of the colonies and the interests of the population of the colonies.

VI. Liberation of Russian territories, resolution of its issues based on its independence and freedom to choose the form of government.

VII. Liberation of the territory of Belgium, recognition of its sovereignty.

VIII. Liberation of French territories, restoration of justice for Alsace-Lorraine, occupied in 1871.

IX. Establishing the borders of Italy based on nationality.

X. Free development of the peoples of Austria-Hungary.

XI. Liberation of the territories of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, providing Serbia with reliable access to the Adriatic Sea, guaranteeing the independence of the Balkan states.

XII. The independence of the Turkish parts of the Ottoman Empire (modern Turkey) simultaneously with the sovereignty and autonomous development of the peoples under Turkish rule, the openness of the Dardanelles for the free passage of ships.

XIII. Creation of an independent Polish state uniting all Polish territories and with access to the sea.

XIV. Creation of a general international union of nations in order to guarantee the integrity and independence of both large and small states.

If we move away from the issues of resolving the immediate armed conflict in Europe, Wilson saw his main task as the creation of a World Association of States, in which the United States would play a leading role.

Signatories to the Treaty of Versailles. J. Clemenceau, W. Wilson, D. Lloyd George. Paris, 1919. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org

Burnt out at work

Since the United States made the most important financial and military contribution to the victory of the Entente bloc in the First World War, the European powers could not simply brush aside Wilson's ideas, although many did not share them.

Woodrow Wilson, who worked in Paris for six months during the 1919 peace conference, became the first sitting American president to visit Europe. He worked constantly to advance his plans, and had the League of Nations included in the Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, according to Wilson, was in keeping with the spirit of the Fourteen Points, although its approval in this form ran into desperate resistance from the Europeans. The negotiation process brought Wilson to the brink of nervous exhaustion. Nevertheless, he managed, at minimal cost, to bring the United States, as a major economic power, to the forefront in world politics.

In 1919, Woodrow Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contributions to the Treaty of Versailles. And in the same year, he suffered his most crushing defeat - having managed to achieve the creation of the League of Nations in the international arena, Wilson was unable to achieve ratification of the League of Nations agreement by the Senate, and the United States did not join this international organization. Wilson's Fourteen Points program was only partially implemented in Europe.

For Wilson, the heavy pressures during the negotiations and the failure to ratify the agreement on the League of Nations turned into a stroke in October 1919, after which he effectively lost his legal capacity, although he remained in office until the end of his term.

In 1921, the sick Wilson and his wife settled in the Embassy Quarter in Washington, where they spent the last years of their life. Woodrow Wilson died on February 3, 1924 and was buried in the Washington Cathedral.

A $100,000 banknote with a portrait of Wilson. Photo: