![]() ![]() Wilson appointed former presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan, a noted anti-imperialist and proponent of world peace, as his Secretary of State. ![]() But he proposed an idealistic foreign policy based on morality, rather than American self-interest, and felt that American interference in another nation’s affairs should occur only when the circumstances rose to the level of a moral imperative. Wilson did share the commonly held view that American values were superior to those of the rest of the world, that democracy was the best system to promote peace and stability, and that the United States should continue to actively pursue economic markets abroad. ![]() When Woodrow Wilson took over the White House in March 1913, he promised a less expansionist approach to American foreign policy than Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft had pursued. Despite campaign promises and diplomatic efforts, Wilson could only postpone American involvement in the war. Germany’s war tactics struck most observers as morally reprehensible, while also putting American free trade with the Entente at risk. But as Europe’s political situation grew dire, it became increasingly difficult for Wilson to insist that the conflict growing overseas was not America’s responsibility. He believed that the nation needed to intervene in international events only when there was a moral imperative to do so. Unlike his immediate predecessors, President Woodrow Wilson had planned to shrink the role of the United States in foreign affairs. ![]() (2) American Isolationism and the European Origins of War Still, the American public was of mixed opinion many resisted the idea of American intervention and American lives lost, no matter how bad the circumstances. But as the war engulfed Europe and the belligerents’ total war strategies targeted commerce and travel across the Atlantic, it became clear that the United States would not be able to maintain its position of neutrality. government under President Woodrow Wilson opposed any entanglement in international military conflicts. 20 The Great War To The Roaring Twenties Americans and the Great War, 1914–1919 Introduction ![]()
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