Wilson and the New Diplomacy

Problems of the first administration: dollar diplomacy in Dominican Republic and China and Nicaragua, German threat to Haiti and its Mole St. Nicholas, Senate opposition to Bryan-Chamorro and Panama Canal tolls, Congressman John Tillman's opposition to Canadian-American Migratory Bird Treaty (last passenger pigeon died 1914), Mexico's Huerta and Texas rangerism, California Alien Land crisis, Japan's 21 Demands on China despite Wilson's policy of nonrecognition. "American insensitivity to the nationalism of other peoples became another imperial legacy. Filipino resistance to American domination, Cuban anger against the Platt Amerndment, Colombian outrage over Panama, and Mexican rejection of Wilsonian intervention bore witness to the depth of nationalistic sentiments. " It was an "informal empire administered by troops, financial advisers, and reformers who showed contempt for native people's culture, politics, and economies through a paternialistic discourse." Churchill's 2 worlds: "the actual, visual world with its peaceful activities" and another world "of monstrous shadows moving in convulsive combination through vistas of fathomless catastrophe."

I. Wilson the Idealist

A. Strong Leadership

• 1856 born Thomas Woodrow Wilson in Virginia
  • strong father, weak mother
• 1879 class at Princeton
  • studied classics, debate team
• 1885 class at Johns Hopkins grad school
  • Ph.D. in politics & history
• 1885 marriage to Ellen Axson
  • close-knit family of 3 daughters
  • 2nd wife Edith Boling Galt
• 1888 professor at Princeton
  • admired Disraeli, Gladstone
• 1902 president at Princeton
  • sought reforms, preceptorial
• 1906 arterial illness
  • personality changed, more stubborn
• 1907 affair with Mary Hulbert
  • need for moral compensation
• 1910 governor of New Jersey
  • Insurgent progressivism
• 1912 elected President of U.S.
  • due to Republican split
• 1913 New Freedom program
  • Underwood tariff
  • Federal Reserve Act
  • Clayton Act

B. Key Ideas

1. Religion
   • "The Bible reveals men unto themselves, not as creatures in bondage, not as men under human authority, but responsible through his own conscience to his Lord and Maker."
   • "I will not cry 'peace' so long as there is sin and wrong in the world ... America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy scripture."
2. Morality
   • Foreign policy must be "more concerned about human rights than about property rights."
   • "The force of America is the force of moral principle."
3. Democracy
   • "When properly directed, there is no people not fitted for self-government."
   • "Discipline - discipline generations deep."
4. Progress
   • U.S. to be the "preceptor to the world."
5. Mission
   • "America's mission was to realize an ideal of liberty, provide a model of democracy, vindicate moral principle, give examples of action and ideals of government, uphold the rights of man, work for humanity and the happiness of men everywhere, lead the thinking of the world, promote peace - in sum, to serve mankind and progress."

II. Wilson the Realist.

A. China

• feared "wedge" of revolution 1911 and rise of Japan
• Yuan Shih-kai replaces Sun Yat-sen
• Koumintang's Sung Chiao-jen wins elections 1912
• Yuan kills Sung March 1913 - civil war
• Wilson grants recognition to Yuan May 2, 1913, to encourage a parliament
• no support for 6-Power railroad consortium's loan, but Yuan gets money
• Japan's 21 Demands - Shantung, Manchuria, Fukien
• "territorial contiguity" allows "special relations"
• Wilson agreed with Sen. James Phelan effort to stop Japanese immigration - already 50,000 arrived and Calif becoming a "Japanese plantation"
• Webb Land Act 1913 to prohibit aliens owning land
• strong Japanese opposition - fear of war - Navy sought preparedness
• Wilson dissolved Bradley Fiske's Joint Board in April
• Wilson used diplomacy, not military - sent WJB to Calif - Webb Act did not mention Japanese, only aliens "unqualified for citizenship"
• realists in 1915 cabinet: Lansing (State), McAdoo (Treasury), Josephus Daniels (Navy), Lindley Garrison (War)
• R. Lansing vs. minister P. Reinsch
• Wilson follows "moral suasion", status quo
• Lansing-Ishii Agreement 1917

B. Caribbean

• Bryan-Chamorro Treaty 1913 gave U.S. 99-year lease on Corn Islands and Fonseca Gulf, plus exclusive canal option to prevent foreign canal, paid $3 million to Nicaragua to be used to repay American bankers - Senate opposed intevention clause, U.S. ignored opposition of Central American Court of Justice
• Marines in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba
• but some idealism:
  • Panama Canal tolls equalized
  • Jones Act for Puerto Rico
  • Colombia treaty 1914 - $25m. indemnity for Panama Canal
  • no United Fruit-sponsored coup in Costa Rica - Wilson lectured J.F. Dulles
  • Bryan's 22 "cooling-off" treaties

C. Mexico

• see Mexican Revolution outline

---