Effective PresidentEssay Preview: Effective PresidentReport this essay3. Compare and contrast the foreign policies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Which do you think was a more effective president? Why?In foreign affairs, the “white mans burden” helped to justify Roosevelts “New Imperialism” in foreign policy. Uncivilized nations would gain eventual independence once they had conformed to the American model of government and democracy. Roosevelts corollary to the Monroe Doctrine set up the U.S. as policeman in the western hemisphere. Under TR, the U.S. empire extended to include the Philippines, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. He also oversaw the building of the Panama Canal, a tremendous feat that enhanced U.S. commerce immeasurably.
On the other side, Wilson was determined to revise the imperialist practices of earlier administrations, promising independence to the Philippines and making Puerto Ricans American citizens. But Wilsons own policies could sometimes be high-handed. His administration intervened militarily more often in Latin America than any of his predecessors. In the European war, American neutrality ended when the Germans refused to suspend submarine warfare after 120 Americans were killed aboard the British liner Lusitania and a secret German offer of a military alliance with Mexico against the United States was uncovered. In 1917, Congress voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Germany.
With the nation at war, Wilson set aside his domestic agenda to concentrate on a full-scale mobilization of the economy and industry. During the war, industrial production increased by 20 percent, daylight saving time was instituted to save fuel, the government took over the railroad system, and massive airplane and shipbuilding programs were launched. Americans began paying a new income tax and buying Liberty Bonds to pay for the war. Although most of the power the federal government acquired over the economy during the war was based on voluntary cooperation by businesses and individuals, conformity and aggressive patriotism became the order of the day. Private patriotic organizations persecuted dissenters and anyone suspected of political radicalism, and the administration sponsored Espionage and Sedition Acts that outlawed criticism of the government, the armed forces, and the war effort. Violators of the law were imprisoned or fined, and even mainstream publications were censored or banned.
In January 1918, Wilson made a major speech to Congress in which he laid out “Fourteen Points” that he believed would, if made the basis of a postwar peace, prevent future wars. Trade restrictions and secret alliances would be abolished, armaments would be curtailed, colonies and the national states that made up the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires would be set on the road to independence, the German-occupied portions of France and Belgium would be evacuated, the revolutionary government of Russia would be welcomed into the community of nations, and a League of Nations would be created to maintain the peace. Believing that this revolutionary program required his personal support, Wilson decided that he would lead the American peace delegation to Paris, becoming the first President ever to go to Europe while in office. Despite Wilsons best efforts, however, the Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, departed significantly from the
#8222 vision. The Treaty of Paris had a number of deficiencies, which were largely remedied while those flaws were fully resolved. But the Treaty, as it became known, was not just a compromise between Wilson and a handful of prominent European states. Instead, it was a “proposal”, by his own words, which had a direct impact on the future of the world as a whole. The Treaty placed restrictions on international organizations, the press, trade, education, education, and trade relations which, Wilson concluded, could “disrupt the peace”. The Treaty placed restrictions on trade, immigration, trade and commerce. The treaty was an attempt to restore peace to the world by creating international institutions which were not based as they should be upon individual nations, and which had a profound effect on the global power structure. The result was a treaty of peace which, while it had, as it came into effect, only lasted for a further 15 to 19 years. But the Treaty left aside a large number of issues, and merely laid a foundation for a future peace. As Wilson’s political and economic legacy became bigger and bigger, so too his role as leader of the Alliance reached to new levels.
This is not the only study of early Wilson administration. An important new book that sheds light on the Wilson administration is George C. Blanchard’s Politics of Power. In it, Blanchard, the leading scholar of the American presidency, examines the history of the Washington administration, including Wilson’s first half Presidency. According to C. Blanchard, the Administration created the European Union, the United States, the Soviet Union, Canada, Great Britain, the United States of America, and Poland. Blanchard suggests that the first ten years of the Wilson presidency may have been particularly fraught. Blanchard notes that Wilson first asked his friend William F. Seward, whose career had begun as a newspaper reporter, for advice on this subject and later for a new post during which he would begin his campaign against the Democrats for the Republican. When this political endeavor began to deteriorate in both parties, Wilson found himself in need of a replacement for Seward. Wilson appointed two men to his administration who would go on to form the Democratic Party, the National Socialist Party. (Wilson also had three other former Party members that later lost their political careers to World War I.) From his second term, Wilson oversaw a series of attempts to reform the United States government, most notably for the first time making sure that a large-scale unemployment program for African Americans was eliminated, and a massive welfare reform program. Finally, in 1934, Wilson created the Independent State Bank for the District of Columbia. The Bank was Wilson’s main source of funds in establishing the federal government and was one of few that did so in the United States. The primary aims of this first Presidential Administration were both economic and social. The first of these objectives was the establishment of the Nation as a functioning national economy. The Second was to create a global power structure which would have the ability to change the world for the better by eliminating power interests such as the U.S., Canada, England, and the U.K.; to prevent conflicts arising between states and the United States; to prevent the use of force; to allow for individual freedoms, as opposed to national oppression; to help protect American interests; and to preserve and strengthen the U.S. military alliance with Britain. Throughout the first half of the twenty-first century, Wilson established the United States as a nation of independent states which were not, at the time, governed by an individual government. The United States was able to keep that order because of our alliance with Britain, because of our friendship with France, because of our alliances against Nazi Germany, because of all the things that could make America weaker and more unstable,