Introduction
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States of America. His tenure lasted between 1913 and 1921. During his presidency, he lowered tariffs, decreased working days for laborers to eight hours, and prohibited child labor. These achievements are crucial and well documented in the history of the American struggles for improving living conditions for its citizens. However, in overall, this paper reveals that the presidency of Woodrow Wilson was a failure.
Woodrow Wilson’s Failures
President Woodrow’s foreign policies influenced the US relations with other nations negatively. For instance, his inversion of Nicaragua, Haiti, Mexico, and Panama led to the emergence of animosity between these nations and the US. Through these inversions, he attempted to shape political regimes to suit his own stakes (Shenkman, 1999). For example, in Haiti and Nicaragua, he selected people of his own choice to lead the nations after destabilizing their current political regimes. Perhaps, this move undermined democracy since people were not allowed to elect political leaders of their own choice. In Mexico, under his directives, the American army confronted the Mexican army in an effort to find Pacho Villa. However, this search was in vain. Thus, it only led to the suffering of innocent people due to the humanitarian crisis that was associated with war.
The emergence of WWI offered an opportunity for president Woodrow to articulate his political views in the international arena more precisely. He accomplished this mission by advocating for “freedom of the seas, self-determination, arm reduction, end of secret treaties and alliances, and a League of Nations to help avoid conflicts” (Post, 1983, p.301). He also advocated for the creation of new states that were divided along ethnic lines while at the same time engaging in redrawing the map of the world (Shenkman, 1999). Unfortunately, these attempts failed. If his allies had embraced these divisions, they could have led to the destruction of the American diversity, which currently acts the source of the American society’s nationalism. President Woodrow also tried to convince various allies in WWI to embrace global peace without necessarily achieving victory in a bid to mitigate possibilities of the emergence of WWII. However, the First World War allies ignored Woodrow’s pleas. Instead, they severely punished Germans.
Later, Woodrow’s vision for America inspired the American presidents, including Roosevelt and George W. Bush. Unfortunately, he failed to articulate his vision in Latin America. For instance, he fostered discrimination within various federal facilities in Latin America (Cooper, 2008). This case compromised his vision of self-determination. During WWI, president Woodrow compromised the freedom for which he had been advocating. Ambrosius (2006) states that he “allowed the government to open mail, restricted free speech, and imprisoned dissidents, and approved the Palmer Raids, which rounded up and deported foreigners and arrested people for criticizing the government after WWI” (p.511). In this context, Woodrow applied his vision with segregations. Cooper (2008) contends with this position by claiming that his vision on civil liberties was only valid in the time of seeking peace together with people who contended with him.
Woodrow failed to create an American culture that unified all people across their diversity differences. In his book, History of American People, he depicted an immense empathy for the European immigrants. On the other hand, he considered African-Americans and their children highly unsuited for the American citizenship. He claimed that they encountered challenges in terms of assimilating the Native-American’s society (Cooper, 2008). He supported the argument that slavery was an inappropriate practice that was only based on principles of economic labor, as opposed to a moral standing (Vought, 1997). He viewed African-Americans as people who lacked the capacity for self-governance. Hence, according to him, their freedom was unnecessary. In this sense, president Woodrow was an advocate and supporter of racism.
In 1912, majority of the African-Americans abandoned the Republican Party to support Wilson who was a democrat because of his promise for unselective support for various minority groups. Nevertheless, after his successful appointment into office, his cabinet members explored biased tribal rulings. His administration focused on reducing the number of black leaders who were appointed for various political positions (Vought, 1997). With the support of Woodrow, his cabinet members also explored segregationist policies in various federal government appointment positions. Supportive facilities for dividing people along racial lines were also established in the offices of the federal governments.
In Washington DC, under the directive from the president’s cabinet members, the headquarters of the post office quickly adopted segregationist policies. African-American workers were degraded. In some situations, they were fired. At the finance unit, African-American recruits became the targets of ethnic policies when cultural separation of office cafeteria and lavatories occurred. Perhaps, support of these racist policies emanated from Woodrow’s negative perceptions on African-Americans. Indeed, he perceived blacks as close relatives of animals. Vought (1997) supports this assertion by informing that he depicted an old black man possessing monkey features in the History of American People. Through this depiction, he failed in terms of honoring his promise of respecting the rights and freedom of the African-Americans that he had made prior to his election in 1912. Thus, he provided the foundation for stereotyping African-Americans as an inferior race, a problem that ailed America through early 1920s and 1930s.
President Woodrow also failed in delivering his promise on equal rights of minorities and Native-Americans through the establishment of clauses that acted as impediments to successful recruitment of minorities into the public service. For instance, in 1914, his government introduced a requirement for all job applicants to include their passports in their public service’s job application letters. This requirement, which continued from 1914 to 1940, opened a room for segregation of people on racial lines during public service hiring processes.
President Woodrow promised that he would request Britain to declare independence in Ireland. However, he reversed his promise because the Irish problem was principally an internal problem for the UK. Ambrosius (2006) adds that he did not see the “dispute and the unrest in Ireland as comparable to the plight of the various nationalities in Europe as a fall-out from World War I” (p.527). Consequently, Irish-Americans withdrew their support for him. On his part, President Woodrow pointed a finger of blame to the Irish-Americans by claiming that they (together with Germans) failed to support his 14 Points, especially the League of Nations. The failure for President Woodrow to honor his promise to Irish-Americans encompasses one of his major failures amongst his other disappointments such as the inclusion of the US in the League of Nations and/or fostering distrust of Mexico, Nicaragua, and Haiti among others.
Conclusion
Some historians embrace the administration of Woodrow Wilson, the 28th president of the United States. They associate his presidency with a reduction of monopolistic power that guaranteed freedom to laborers through the lessening of working hours. However, in contrast, he encouraged the growth of segregationist policies, eroded civil liberties, and failed to honor several promises. Based on these failures, the paper holds the position that his presidency was a failure.
References
Ambrosius, L. (2006). Woodrow Wilson and George W. Bush: Historical Comparisons of Ends and Means in Their Foreign Policies. Diplomatic History, 30 (2), 509–543.
Cooper, J. (2008). Reconsidering Woodrow Wilson: Progressivism, Internationalism, War, and Peace. New York, NY: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Post, M. (1983). Woodrow Wilson Re-examined The Mind-Body Controversy, Redux and Other Disputations. Political Psychology, 4(2), 289-306.
Shenkman, R. (1999). Presidential Ambition. New York, NY: Harper Collins.
Vought, H. (1997). Woodrow Wilson, Ethnicity, and the Myth of American Unity. Historical Anthology, 2(1), 440-461.