The primary difference between the speeches President Woodrow Wilson gave before Congress in January 1917 and January 1918 was his tone. Naturally, the tone that a president uses has a deep influence on a broad range of circumstances. While the focus of both speeches was the ongoing conflict in Europe and what the United States could do to help facilitate its resolution; the tone of the 1917 speech was more idealistic, hopeful and indefinite, and the 1918 speech was more practical, pessimistic and direct.
In the 1917 speech, Wilson illustrated his hopefulness on the belief that the warring parties in Europe were, at long last, ready to negotiate a settlement. To be sure, Wilson opens the speech with a reference to how both sides had voiced their agreement in principle to discuss the terms of a peace, as well as a mention of a decrease in hostilities overall. In addition, Wilson was hopeful that the end of the war could occur without American involvement. Wilson illustrated his idealism in his discussion, for the majority of the speech, on how the nations of the world must use the atrocities of the war as the impetus to form a global anti-war, pro-peace organization that would eliminate forever the possibility of another world war (APP, 1917). While the speech foretold what the world could be like if Wilson’s theory was followed, it provided few details on ust how the world could achieve this goal besides that general idea that now was the time to stop world wars, and everyone recognized this fact. Indeed, Wilson suggests that rather than a simple peace between adversaries, any negotiated settlement to the fighting in Europe must not simply focus on issues that started and sustained the war but on large worldwide issues whose resolution can be the basis for a permeant peace.
Conversely, in the 1918 speech, Wilson seemed resigned to the belief that the war behind’s end would not be negotiated but rather ended by the defeat and capitulation of the aggressor, namely Germany. As a consequence, Wilson’s 1918 speech was practical in that it set out a clear program of what needed to be done in order to reach and sustain peace in Europe. In addition, the speech also outlined what actions the U.S. was preparing and planning to take to resolve the conflict. Accordingly, unlike the 1917 speech, in 1918, Wilson pointed out who was the aggressor and our target state of the world’s wrath. Moreover, it made clear what needed to be done to attain peace. Lastly, it unambiguously committed American troops to help facilitate the achievement to a permeant worldwide age of peace. This aspect of the speech is best illustrated in the 14-point plan, Wilson enumerated in the speech, which he felt were necessary to a permanent worldwide peace. For example, unlike in the 1917 speech, Wilson made clear that a negotiated settlement would have to include German capitulation in the form of withdrawal from Belgium, France, Romania, Serbia, and Montenegro. Moreover, it explicitly called for, rather than the tacit suggestion posted in the 1917 speech, that a “general association of nation” is established to take over the policing of world stability (APP, 1918).
While only a year had passed between the two speeches, much had occurred in the interim that led Wilson to change his original decision not to get involved in the fighting in Europe. First, German naval forces began targeting U.S. ships in route to or from the United Kingdom and Europe. Without a doubt, these acts forced the U.S. to take a more aggressive posture. Second, was the realization, that despite the positive talk between belligerents, nothing was going to happen unless German took steps, such as refrain from sinking civilian ships. In other words, the events of the day proved that Germany had no real intention of withdrawing or even working with the locals. Indeed, there was a growing school of thought, as demonstrated in the 1918 speech that depending on the perspective German was either to fight to the end rathe r than admit defeat.
Works Cited
Woodrow Wilson. “Woodrow Wilson: address to the Senate of the United States: a world league of peace.” The American Presidency Project (APP), 22 Jan. 1917. Web. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=65396
Woodrow Wilson. “Woodrow Wilson: address to a joint session of Congress on the conditions of peace.” The American Presidency Project (APP), 08 Jan. 1918. Web. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=65405
