Wilson and the Peace of Paris

Woodrow Wilson was the enabler, if not the principal architect, of the disastrous 1919 Peace of Paris. The outcome of the war was decided by the 1918 Meuse-Argonne offensive. It consisted of 600,000 American soldiers and, as such, is the largest battle in our history.

The accord consisted of five treaties:  Neuilly (Bulgaria), Sevres (Turkey), St. Germain (Austria), Trianon (Hungary), and Versailles (Germany).  The Treaty of  Versailles was signed in the same Hall of Mirrors where the German Empire was proclaimed 48 years earlier. Imagine if the British had won the War of 1812 and we had to sign the treaty in Independence Hall!

Henry Kissinger called the Congress of Vienna “a world restored.” The Peace of Paris was a world ripped apart. It sowed the seeds of World War II and its consequences are felt to this day. It is ironic that Wilson’s name used to be on our school of international relations.

The son of the Virginian minister was in over his head. Frederick the Great was right when he observed, “It is a long way from the Ohio River to the Spree.”