How did Wilson turn World War 1 into an ideological crusade?

Answer 1

Guidebook Essay 1 World War I was an international ordeal that the peaceable President Wilson dared not enter. However the people of the United States were eager to punish the Central Powers for their involvement in the deaths of several hundred American citizens by the U-boat menace. Pressed against a wall by millions of Americans seeking revenge Wilson had no choice but to yield to popular opinion. Despite Wilson's best efforts to keep America neutral, the United States was now officially involved in the war and instead of trying to promote peace Wilson set about justifying the war. He turned every click of the hammer into a cry for peace and every battle fought into an ideological crusade. Wilson urged the war was about liberty and democracy, he vowed it would be the last international war and he set up the Committee on Public Information to spread his word. Firstly Wilson claimed that the war was to "make the world safe for democracy." In his declaration of war speech Wilson declared that this conflict between Germany might be the last straw for not only Western diplomacy but for all of Western civilization, if we did not act. However if Americans were willing to throw their weight into the war effort then we might be able to spread the ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Secondly Wilson urged this war to be our final international conflict, in fact the final international conflict. He hoped that no longer would countries reach for their swords when they were out of words he declared that this was "the war to end all wars" and that Americans were to lead this great crusade of peace. His brainchild, the League of Nations, was much like a modern day United Nations which would seek to resolve conflicts between nations by moderation through the other countries. He hoped that this League would be a basis for peace around the world and that young American men would no longer be sacrificed in a needless battlefield of death and destruction. Finally Wilson set up the Committee of Public Information, the first United States executively established institution for the sole purpose of distributing Propaganda. Wilson had wonderful ideas that would justify Americans as peacemakers and harbingers of democratic principles to free the oppressed. However it would be a miracle if his word could be spread to every American in the world, of course there was his speech-making but in order to spread his word effectively he needed systematic distribution to everyone. The Committee spread his word and turned every bullet into the last fired and every death a sacrifice for democratic ideals. Quickly the vengeful Americans looked upon the Great War not as a senseless expanse of despair and bloodshed but as the angel of democracy bringing eternal peace upon the warring European Nations. In the end American public opinion swayed to support Wilson and his ideals of making the world safe for democracy seemed like the ultimate justification for the ultimate war at the time. However the public was fickle and they fell under the spell of the Wilsonian moral crusade just as easily as they fell under the influence of Republican Henry Cabot Lodge who sought to dismantle the League of Nations altogether which became a major factor in the initiation of the Second World War.