The immediate cause of America’s entry
into World War I in April 1917 was the German announcement of
unrestricted submarine warfare, and the subsequent sinking of ships with
Americans on board. But President Wilson’s war aims went beyond the defense of
U.S. maritime interests. In his War Message to Congress he declared our object
“is to vindicate the principles of peace and justice in the life of the world.”
President Woodrow Wilsons delivering his Fourteen Points to Congress
Wilson used several speeches earlier in the year to sketch out his vision of an
end to the war that would bring a “just and secure peace,” and not merely “a new
balance of power.” He then appointed a committee of experts known as The Inquiry
to help him refine his ideas for peace. In December 1917 he asked The Inquiry to
draw up specific recommendations for a comprehensive peace settlement. Using
these recommendations, Wilson presented a program of fourteen points to a joint
session of Congress on January 8, 1918. Eight of the fourteen points treated
specific territorial issues among the combatant nations. Five of the other six
concerned general principles for a peaceful world: open covenants (i.e. treaties
or agreements), openly arrived at; freedom of the seas; free trade; reduction of
armaments; and adjustment of colonial claims based on the principles of
self-determination. The fourteenth point proposed what was to become the League
of Nations to guarantee the “political independence and territorial integrity
[of] great and small states alike.” Wilson's idealism pervades the fourteen
points, but he also had more practical objectives in mind: keeping Russia in the
war by convincing the Bolsheviks that they would receive a better peace from the
Allies; bolstering Allied morale; and undermining German war support. The
address was immediately hailed in the United States and Allied nations, and even
by Lenin, as a landmark of enlightenment in international relations. Wilson
subsequently used the Fourteen Points as the basis for negotiation of the
Versailles Treaty that ended the First World War. Although the treaty did not
fully realize Wilson’s unselfish vision, the Fourteen Points still stand as the
most powerful expression of the idealist strain in American diplomacy.
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