LAD#25- Wilson's 14 Points

From the time of the American entry into the war, Wilson had maintained that the war would make the world a safe for democracy. He insisted that there should be peace without victory, meaning that the victors would not be vindictive toward the losers, so tat a fair and stable international situation in the postwar world would insure lasting peace. In an address to the congress on January 8, 1918, he presented his specific peace plan in the form of fourteen points. The first five points called for open rather then secret peace treaties, freedom of the seas, free trade, arms reduction, and a fair adjustment of colonial claims. The next eight points were concerned with the national aspirations of various European people and the adjustment of boundaries, as, for example, in the creation of an independent Poland. The fourteenth point, which he considered the most important called for a “general association of nations” to preserve the peace. The reception of the fourteen points was mixed in Europe, as there was a great desire to punish Germany. In the United States, however, many people opposed a peace plan that risked American involvement in another European war.