LAD #31 - Wilson's 14 Points

Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points
Delivered in Joint Session, January 8, 1918
Summary:

President Woodrow Wilson was a pacifist before the Great War, and ever after its armistice he still felt it necessary to obtain some sort of peace. The Central Powers wished to discuss a treaty with Russia in regards to what it would do with its excess land, Wilson stepped up the plate with his own ideas, known as his 'Fourteen Points,' all of which would be used to maintain freedom.

To begin with, he decreed that no international treaty should be private, and that freedom of the seas ought to be an intangible right and enforced. Any economic barriers on trade were to be removed to set equal trading conditions peacefully, and the amount of arms possessed by each nation would be lowered. All acquired land would be returned to its rightful owners, and any war-ravaged nations would be restored to what they had once been along with former borders. Through these points, imperialism could be seen as over and done with, with a sort of 'alliance' formed against those who wished to continue doing so. (One of his main points would be the idea of a 'League of Nations,' though the plan was never followed through.)

Wilson concluded that these actions ought to be followed through peacefully with the goal of freedom in mind, and were attainable through cooperation. In following his Fourteen Points, the integrity of the world would be put to the test, and yet very few points were ever enacted.