The changed name for the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs was the result of concern with Wilson’s Southern views of racial matters, as if a Southern man could or should suddenly become a New England abolitionist! At the time, I was more concerned with Wilson’s performance at the Peace Conference at the end of World War I. I now apologize, having read The Ghost at the Feast by Robert Kagan, which rehabilitates almost all the criticisms I and many others had about Wilson in the years leading up to the World War and thereafter. I now see him as a hero and not any more as a Presbyterian fool. He tried to avoid war, he did his best, but when war was the only way to block German plans for the subjugation of most of Europe, he did the right thing. Clemenceau said talking to him was like taking to Christ, a typical French piece of arrogance and self-righteousness. The allies made Wilson’s life miserable as did the Republicans back home, Henry Cabot Lodge and Teddy Roosevelt. He actually made Princeton proud, and we should recognize this.
In Response to: Princeton Considers Removing Statue of John Witherspoon