PEACE MAKERS FAIL

A review of Margaret Macmillan’s Pairs 1919: Six Months That Changed the World (2001)

(Rating 4 of 5)

Margaret Macmillan gives an incredible account of one half of am important year.  That year, 1919, was both a historical and horrible year at the same time.  For centuries the foreign policy of nations had been in the Metternichian school of realism based on the ‘balance of power’ and the winner taking the spoils.  1919, however began with the birth of new kind of foreign policy: idealism.  Wilson and his fourteen points were to rewrite the rules of old and bring forth a more just foreign policy.  No longer were international conflicts about the strong prevailing over the weak in the anarchy of nations, the old ways were to be replaced with sensible law and order with justice as the prevailing principle.  These efforts ended in failure.   

 

In some ways it was not Wilson’s fault.  Political realism is called that for a reason.  Europe had a long history, far longer than his United States.  The Ottoman Empire first rose to power after finishing off the Byzantine-Romans in 1453, almost forty years before Christopher Columbus went on his first voyage.  Now that Empire was going to die after centuries of decline. Arguing over who deserved to own what after centuries of war, conquest, and re-conquest, was not going to be an easy task for anyone involved.   

The Big four Vittorio Orlando, David Lloyd George, George Clemenceau, and Woodrow Wilson

  

Macmillan takes her reader on a guided tour through this year exploring the war torn parts of the globe area by area.  She explains to the reader the basic needs of each interest in the conflict.  Many liked Wilson’s ideas, even if they had a hard time understanding them. 

     

“Of all the ideas Wilson brought to Europe, this concept of self-determination was, and has remained, one of the most controversial and opaque.  During the Peace Conference, the head of the American mission in Vienna sent repeated requests to Paris and Washington for an explanation of the term.  No answer ever came.  It has never been easy to determine what Wilson meant.” (p.11)

Many who argued ‘self-determination’ in Eastern Europe had a hard time understanding their ‘natural country’ may not be as big as their history told them it should be.  

The German Empire had gone to war against the Allies.  Upon Germany’s defeat the Kaiser was overthrown and a Republic established.  It would have been in everyone’s best interest if the new Republic were welcomed with open arms by victorious nations.  History took a different turn.  France was angry wanted revenge, not just its lost provinces restored—that was going to happen—but France wanted to see Germany humiliated.  France wanted Germany to have to pay reparations and accept sole responsibility for the cause of the war.   

Clearly one of the dumbest men ever to rule a nation, Kaiser Wilhelm II

It was absurd to suggest that Germany was the sole power responsible; it wasn’t even the first to declare war.  However, France had to pay reparations when Prussia humiliated her in 1870.  That was when the German Empire was established with Wilhelm I as Kaiser.  France could not take the defeat and deposition of Kaiser Wilhelm II, grandson of the Wilhelm I, as revenge enough.  They had to have revenge on the German people is well.  The Third French Republic and its allies set the German Republic up to fail. 

       

“In the dark days of 1917, when the French armies had been shattered on the Western Front and there was and there was talk of collapse at home, Clemenceau the Father of Victory, as the French called him, finally came into his own.  As prime minister, he held France together to final victory.  When the Germans made their last great push toward Paris in the spring of 1918, Clemenceau made it clear that there would be no surrender.  If the Germans took the city, he intended to stay until the last moment and then escape by plane.” (p.31)

I have only one complaint about the book.  Capitalization.  I am sorry but it should be British Empire, Roman Empire, Ottoman Empire, etc.  Not British empire, Roman empire, and Ottoman empire.  I know it is a style now but it is one that I think needs to go away.  

Aside from the grammatical style, this is a great book.  It takes you from the rooms of Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George[1], and George Clemenceau, to the frontiers of China and everything in between.  Chapter 1 of the modern world begins here.  Macmillan correctly points out that World War II was not because of the Treaty of Versailles but the history that happened in-between, nevertheless Europe did not receive a good start in 1919.

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[1] Even though the author is Lloyd George’s great-granddaughter she has an easy time portraying him as another famous commoner said, ‘warts and all.’  

{Video is by WatchMojo}

DREAMS OF AN IDEALIST

 A review of Thomas J. Knock’s To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (1992)

(Rating 4 of 5)

Thomas Knock’s book To End All Wars is a study of President Wilson’s foreign policy.  There is a bit of a mini-biography in the beginning the traces President Wilson’s intellectual development and rise to the presidency.  Everything else focuses on the President’s work abroad. In his first term the book's focus is on United States’ relationship with other nations in the Americas.  The Knock's focus on second term is partly on World War I but more so the battle to create the League of Nations.  

One of the ironies the Knock points out is: with all the major foreign policy issues that would arise with President Wilson’s time in office, the 1912 election had almost nothing to do with foreign policy.  Knock however is quick to defend Wilson’s own remark about how it would be ironic if foreign policy were to cover his Administration.  Knock argues that Wilson’s comment was based on the content of the election campaign not on his personal study of the issues. 

 

            “The election of 1912, like almost all the others of the preceding century, did not hinge on foreign policy.  President Taft now and then reflected upon his futile exertions for reciprocal trade with Canada and arbitration treaties with the European powers.  Debs viewed foreign policy as irrelevant to working-class interests, just as he had done during the debate over imperialism in 1900.  The Progressive platform advocated free passage through the Panama Canal for American coastwise shippers and recommended the construction of two battleships per year, while the Democratic platform called for independence for the Philippines.  But none of the candidates said much about even these rather innocuous issues.” (pg. 19)

 

Wilson was an idealist but Wilson was not alone in his idealism.  There were many people and movements on both sides of the political spectrum who wanted to change from the theories that used balance of power and national interest in guiding foreign policy, and to replace it with a new internationalism that would embrace the rule of law over nations. 

            “Jane Addams played a key a pivotal in this wing of the internationalist movement; indeed, she personified its purposes and values perhaps better than anyone else.  Dismayed by the failure of the established peace societies to show any muscle, Addams, with the help of Paul Kellogg and Lillian Wald, organized the Woman’s Peace party in January 1915.  The Woman’s Peace party distinguished itself as the first organization of its kind--unlike the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace or the World Peace Foundation--to engage in direct political action (and on a variety of fronts) in order to achieve its goals.” (pg.50-1)

There is very little in this book about World War I as a conflict.  It discusses how Wilson had America enter as an associate belligerent power rather than an ally.  Wilson was disgusted with the allies and their plans to divide up the spoils after the war.  Wilson wished for a new way of doing things and the actions of the allies, to him, represented what was wrong with the world. 

            “In addition to arbitration, Wilson concentrated on disarmament.  Sounding much like a card-carrying member of the American Union Against Militarism, he posed to alternatives to his audiences--disarmament through the League or the eventuality of a national security state.  Should it stand apart, he argued, the United States would have to be ‘physically ready for whatever comes.’” (p.261)

Wilson’s view of what America might become has become reality.  I am not sure his ideas for change were a realistic alternative.  The League was not worth much and even the U.N. that replaced it has some terrible flaws.  It is ironic that the ship Wilson used to go France in was the called the George Washington.  I can think of no president whose views on foreign policy were closer to the exact opposite of Wilson than Washington.  I am not talking about entangled alliances either.  Washington was a realist who felt that nations would only go along with whatever aligned with their interests.  Wilson talked of ‘equity of nations’.  Why would a great power like Great Britain want to be on an equal footing with Luxemburg?  Wilson’s goals were admirable and maybe one day be attainable, but his methods were questionable at best.   

{Video was posted on YouTube by historycomestolife}
 

IDEALISTIC VISIONARY

A review of Kendrick A. Clements’s Woodrow Wilson: World Statesman (1987)

(Rating 4 of 5)

Kendrick Clements presents a very good and well organized biography of President Woodrow Wilson. In eleven well written chapters he details and explains the life of this very complicated President. Wilson’s life takes many interesting turns, he starts out in life and politics as a die-hard imperialist, his position starts to transform into what he would later call ‘collective security.’ Clements lays this out brilliantly in his Wilson narrative.

The first few chapters focus on his youth and educational background. He was born Thomas Woodrow Wilson, and ultimately choosing to go by the middle name. Wilson would make a career in academia writing several papers on government. In this, his position often shifts, in his first major work,Congressional Government: A Study in American Politics, Wilson describes the American Government as inefficient and desires a parliamentary government, like the government in Great Britain. Although his first major work is a sharp critique of the American system, it was nevertheless was an important study to the American way of government. As time goes on Wilson changes his position and starts studying and writing more positively about U.S. Constitutional government, due to his admiration of President Grover Cleveland. In his last academic work, Constitutional Government of the United States, Wilson wrote a positive piece on American Government based on the presidencies of William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt; he was impressed by the office of the president stating it was as big as the one who occupies it. Wilson would become the President of Princeton University, before leaving to take up politics.


(President Grover Cleveland who Wilson admired)

In 1910, Wilson was elected Governor of New Jersey over his opponent Vivian M. Lewis. As the new Governor, Wilson began a process of reform. Wilson established state primaries, reformed the public utilities commission, and established worker compensation laws to protect ordinary people. Wilson was being seen by many as a person who should be put in charge of the entire nation.

“Within the narrow goals set out by progressivism, Wilson was a marked success as governor of New Jersey. He and other progressives demonstrated that state government could be revitalized to deal with modern society. The irony of his success, however, was that triumph at the state level made him a national figure and a potential candidate for the presidency. The best leaders were thus plucked from the states and thrust upon the national stage, where to be successful they had to argue that the very problems they had been dealing with effectively at the state level could only be attacked from Washington. The success of state reform movements seemed to doom them and to focus attention on the national government. Wilson, for one, certainly made no attempt to resist the siren’s song.” p.73

(Although opponents in 1912, Wilson continued TR's tradition of a strong president)


(William H. Taft, Wilson's predecessor as president and 1912 opponent)

In the famous election of 1912, Wilson defeated both William H. Taft and Theodore Roosevelt to capture the presidency. The first President, who had made an academic study of the presidency before entering it, was going to have tremendous success. Wilson would be able to get almost whatever he wanted out of the Congress. He would create the Federal Reserve, and reestablish the presidential tradition of delivering the State of the Union to the Congress in person. He would also make a great deal of economic reforms to help low income people.


(President Woodrow Wilson)

Unfortunately he also, as President, issued executive orders, that segregated the Federal Government for the first time in history. Defenders might point out that he was a moderate when a great deal of the Congress wanted to expel all African-Americans from Federal jobs, and action that Wilson refused to do. However, Wilson's actions were harmful to many people and a long-term government mistake.

“Yet there were ways in which Wilson’s detachment was a liability. Because his decisions were based on principal rather than being expedient reactions to immediate problems, he spent a great deal of time alone, reading, thinking, and writing. Some people thought him cold and aloof. He had no social ambitions, did not entertain extensively in the White House, and seemed to avoid rather than cultivate the social contacts with politicians that are the channels though which a great deal of public business flows though Washington.” p.103

(Wilson at work)

In 1916, Wilson would narrowly win re-election, over Charles Even Hughes, under the slogan that he kept us out of the war. Wilson however, thanks to the Zimmerman note and the sinking of the Lusitania, would end up having the United States Congress to declare war. The United States spent little time in the war, but after is where Woodrow Wilson made his big splash; the Fourteen Points and the League of Nations proposal were historic and unprecedented. They would change the very nature of foreign relations for all nations. Unfortunately, the only major nation that did not join the new League was the United States, Wilson had alienated his support at home and his treaty failed to win U.S. Senate ratification.


(Anti-Wilson cartoon)

“Just as the stroke impaired Wilson’s ability to concentrate, so it seemed to narrow and limit his mind, stripping away his political skills and ability to deal with complexities, bringing emotion very near to the surface, and intensifying his deep-seated tendency to judge all issues as right or wrong. On such matters he could be clear and decisive, firing Lansing for his disloyalty on the treaty and for encouraging a movement toward intervention in Mexico, refusing to see House because he thought the colonel had given away too much in Paris. Unwittingly, Edith and Dr. Grayson contributed to his oversimplification of issues by shielding him from his problems that might be complicated and unpleasant. Because, like many stoke victims, he denied the severity of his own illness, Wilson really believed that he was quite himself. By 1920 he was even talking about running for a third term to vindicate his stand on the league.” p.216

Toward the end of his presidency he had a stroke, and was mostly unable to function as the President, his wife, Edith, (who he married during presidency after his first wife, Ellen, had died) would to bring papers for him to sign so no one would know of his condition.


(Edith Wilson helped her husband run the country when he had a stroke)

His time in his post-presidency was very short. He did, however, outlive his own successor—Warren G. Harding died in 1923—where Wilson lived until 1924. Clements wrote an awesome biography that details all of these events and much more. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

{Video is from Historic Films Stock Footage Archive.}