President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points

Despite the isolationist values the United States had during the era of World War I, it was almost unavoidable that the country would eventually join the war. Which is why it is critical to look at President Woodrow Wilson’s speeches he made before and after entering World War I. His speech that was created before the United States entered in 1917 “A World League of Peace” hold subtle, but important differences and similarities from his second speech, “The Fourteen Points.” I honestly believe that there are more differences than similarities between the two. These differences can be interpreted to how President Wilson speaks of policies concerning the aftermath of the war, and how the role of the United States in the war affected how he spoke …show more content…
This speech was written almost a year after the previous one, and by this time the United States had entered World War I. Unlike his other speech, President Wilson was very specific about policies that would occur after the war. It is in this speech that he created the League of Nations, “A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence…” (Wilson, “Address to a Joint Session,” 3) and then states how such an organization will be created in the following paragraphs. This is a very different approach to his organization idea when compared to the previous speech. Additionally, when the issue of self-determination is being discussed in this speech, President Wilson clearly states what nations he believes should be given sovereignty, “A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy should be effected along clearly recognizable lines of nationality,” (Wilson, “Address to a Joint Session,” 3) along with areas of Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Germany. This time around, with the strict, specific fourteen points, the United States is a major player of facilitating peace in the world. No longer does President Wilson believe that his country can simply be an honest broker. Also in this speech, the United State takes the obvious role of active participant, not …show more content…
In all honesty, the speeches were very similar to one another once looking past the obvious differences. Such as how both speeches center around peace. The reason why President Wilson joined World War I was to spread peace and liberty to the rest of the world, a principle brought up multiple times in the two speeches. Also, as previously stated, the President mentioned the creation of an organization of peace both times. He pushed for the organization in order to spread his American views of democracy and liberty for all. In addition to that, President Wilson seems to oppose the war in both speeches, despite being a part of it when the second speech was