Thomas W. Wilson was born in and raised in the south, the son and grandson of Presbyterian ministers. He attended college at Davidson before graduating from Princeton in 1879. After a half-hearted effort at the law and having dropped his first name, Woodrow decided on an academic career, and married Ellen Axson, also the oldest child of a minister. He received a PhD from Johns Hopkins and taught at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan before returning to Princeton as a full professor. He longed for a life in politics, but settled for success as a teacher, author and lecturer. At thirty-nine, he suffered from chest pains and paralysis of his right hand. The physician who treated him decades later surmised that it was a mini-stroke. In 1902, he was offered and accepted the presidency of Princeton. Ten years after his first stroke, he woke up one day having lost the vision in his left eye and with no feeling in his right arm. In 1907 and again in 1909, he dueled with the trustees of the university and evidenced the intransigence and inability to compromise that haunted his second term as president. A year later, Democratic pols offered him the New Jersey governorship, and likely, the 1912 nomination. After his election in NJ, he offered some progressive ideas to the legislature, and began running for president. With the Republican schism, the Democratic nomination would be priceless and Wilson claimed it on the 46th ballot at the Baltimore convention. He was a gifted orator, indeed a fantastic public speaker, and his campaign theme about addressing wealth inequality resonated with the public. He easily won a sweeping electoral victory and entered the White House full of hope. It is at this point though, that the author points out that the fifty-six-year old Wilson had no friends, was seldom introspective, and always faulted others for his stumbles.
He met with early success as tariff reform, the income tax and the Federal Reserve were soon enacted. That said in 1913, Wilson probably had another minor stroke, and was bedridden six times from stress-induced stomach turmoil and exhaustion, even though he played golf three times per week and spent only about six hours per day working. His first foray into foreign affairs was trying to cope with a revolution in Mexico. His approach was to make a series of moral pronouncements, and just assume that because he was right, everyone would follow. Thus, a morals-driven foreign policy with the goal of spreading democracy was introduced to the world. In August of his second year in office, he was met by war in Europe and the death of his wife two days later. Juggling neutrality would challenge Wilson, Congress, American business and the American people for the next two-and-a-half years. The most signifiant challenge was the sinking of the Lusitania in May, 1915 and the overwhelming complexity of Britain's and Germany's conduct at sea. He impulsively solved his personal grief and loneliness by proposing to a younger woman, Edith Galt, two months after he met her in 1915. Wilson believed in, worked hard at preserving and proclaimed neutrality. But the American people supported the Allies and American businesses were growing wealthier supplying them. Wall Street lent Britain and France substantial sums. "Wilson's decision to standby in silence as American banks lent $500 million to the Allies effectively brought US neutrality to an end." In 1916, tensions were heightened by continuing submarine attacks, which Germany thought an appropriate response to the illegal naval blockade that was starving them. Wilson ran for reelection with the party citing his work keeping America out of war. He barely won and he was convinced that the Germans would soon adopt unrestricted submarine warfare. They did on Feb. 1 and the US severed diplomatic relations. On April 6, 1917 the US declared war on the Central Powers and went to war "to make the world safe for democracy." In the two-and-half years prior to the US declaration, Wilson had sought to find a way to stop the war. He believed that the unsullied US was in a unique position to mediate. He also articulated a need for a league of nations to prevent future militancy, and spoke of "peace without victory." His emissary, Col. Edwin House went Europe and tried to find a means to end the war. The Europeans thought Wilson was naive and weak, particularly after the Lusitania, and a British diplomat referred to the Colonel as "the empty House." The US was entering the world stage led by an idealistic president who generated little respect from the Europeans.
The US did a superb job organizing a war effort from scratch. In addition to the existing cabinet, Wilson brought in Bernard Baruch, Herbert Hoover, and William Howard Taft to get things moving. And move they did. On the domestic front, the administration engaged in propaganda that was very effective, but also in censorship and outright suppression of free speech. Eugene Debs was prosecuted and jailed for decrying the draft and castigating war profiteers. "Wilson is still remembered as the president who repressed dissent more often more harshly than any other occupant of the White House." He opened up the year 1918 with his famous Fourteen Points speech outlining America's optimistic war aims. The first members of the AEF went into the line in April. "By the Fourth of July, the United States had fulfilled its promise of a million man army in France." The German's last offensive had failed and the end of the war was within view. November brought armistice and a Republican majority in both houses, in response to some heavy-handed politicking by the President.
Wilson wanted a peace that would benefit all, and a league of nations. His allies wanted revenge. He sailed for Europe in December, without a prominent Republican in his entourage. He was hailed by millions as the savior, "Moses from across the Atlantic." He considered Clemenceau an "old man" and Lloyd George, a "second rate politician." In the early going, Wilson accomplished the drafting of the covenant for the League of Nations, before returning home for a visit in February. During his time home, Sen. Henry Cabot Lodge, both leader of the Republicans in the Senate and Chmn. of the Foreign Relations committee encouraged a discussion of all the terms and possible modification of Article X of the covenant. Wilson would not hear of it. The majority of the country was with him. Unfortunately, he was shy of the two-thirds he needed in the Senate. Back in Paris, doing battle with the indefatigable Clemenceau, who remained hell bent on revenge and France's security with little concern for Wilson's ideals, wore out the president and sent him to bed. Wilson got his League from Clemenceau and George, but compromised elsewhere and gave them a blank check on reparations. "Self interest had triumphed with a vengeance, and U.S. Secty. of State Lansing did not believe the peace made in Paris would hold. It was humiliating, unduly punitive, and impossible to carry out." On June 28, 1919, the treaty was signed.
Wilson came home in physical decline and with his oratorical skills lost forever. He was three votes shy of the number he needed and was told that if he would accept a few reservations, he would have his treaty. Both the French and the British indicated they would allow the modifications. Wilson said he "would consent to nothing. The Senate must take its medicine." He took his case to the people and barnstormed the nation for weeks until he collapsed of 'nervous exhaustion'. A stoke felled him with a year-and-a half left in his term. However, the words stroke or paralyzed were never mentioned in public as the First Lady and Wilson's doctor, Rear Adm. Gary Grayson, began the coverup. The Cabinet received only a partial briefing, considered invoking the disability clause in the Constitution, but deferred any decision. No one knew who would determine disability and the Vice-President, Thomas Marshall, had no interest in becoming president. Washington engaged in watchful waiting. History suspects that the chief architect of the deception was Edith Wilson, with Grayson and the president's secretary, Joe Tumulty, as accomplices. Wilson was capable enough to remain intransigent, resisting all attempts at compromise and the treaty failed on November 19, 1919. "In the end, it was Wilson who broke the heart of the world." His last three years saw slow improvement in his health, but he never recovered. He was paralyzed and could not walk more than a few steps. He and his inner entourage flummoxed all and he remained in office until the end. He had hopes that he would be called upon for a third term, but Grayson quietly let the powers that be know he was unable to run or serve. He left a bitter man, rejecting his few friends and delusionally dreaming of bringing the treaty to the people. He died in February, 1924, and is buried at the National Cathedral. His wife declined the offer of a state funeral and burial at Arlington.
It seems to me that a brilliant man who loved privacy, eschewed the company of other men, particularly successful strong ones, and deplored negotiations in any form, was at best, tolerant of lesser minds would be better suited for many things other than politics and government. But he chose a public life and achieved fabulous highs in his first term and abysmal failure in his second. I have long held Wilson in low regard because of his insistence on the messianic foreign policy that I have long abhorred. There is nothing here that has changed my view on that, but I have come away with a somewhat higher regard for the man's intelligence, skills, idealism and integrity. Regardless of how one feels about, or comes to a new conclusion about Wilson, this is a great book. It is extraordinarily well-written and a pleasure to read. I recommend it to all.
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