On 18 August 1914, only two weeks after Britain joined the fight in World War I, US President Woodrow Wilson addressed his nation and asked his fellow Americans to be 'impartial in thought as well as in action.' But was Wilson, himself, unbiased to the outcome of the European war? The answer can be found in a letter and in the memoir entry from his trusted political lieutenant and roving diplomat - Edward M. House..
Consider the following lines written by House to Wilson in mid-August, 'if Germany wins, it means the unspeakable tyranny of militarism for days to come. German success will ultimately mean trouble for us. We will have to abandon the path you are blazing...and build up a military machine of vast proportions.'
.
Wilson could not have been unaffected by House's unsubtle conclusions. Indeed, Wilson was receiving anti-German comments from many friends and colleagues. By the end of August, the media had also turned against the Central Powers after its German destruction of Belgium.
.
When House met Wilson on vacation in the Cornish Colony in New Hampshire on 30 August, he recorded the following in his diary, 'He felt deeply the destruction of Louvain, and I found him unsympathetic with the German attitude as is the balance of America. He goes even further than I in his condemnation of Germany's part in this war, and almost allows his feeling to include the German people as a whole rather than the leaders alone. He said German philosophy was essentially selfish and lacking in personality.'
.
Rather than tilting toward the Allies after the sinking of the Lusitania in 1915 - as often portrayed by historians, Wilson clearly had a predisposition toward England and France at the outbreak of war in August 1914.
.
This begs the question: Despite White House statements to the contrary, can any US President be truly impartial toward war?
.
(Photo: Edward House and Woodrow Wilson)
.
J Roquen