Wilson by A. Scott Berg.
New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013
As Reviewed by Ted Odenwald
Even after 100 years, our views of historic figures can still take on new dimensions. Two recently discovered treasure troves of letters have proved to be key sources to A. Scott Berg’s insightful biography of our 28th president. One collection, found in the home of Wilson’s descendants, contains correspondence between Wilson and family members, friends, and political peers. Many of these letters provide insights into the patterns of behavior of this significant leader and those around him. The other set of letters was found by the family of Dr. Cary T. Grayson, Wilson’s personal physician for most of his political career. Correspondence between the Doctor, the President, the President’s family and associates, provide detailed –and sometimes shocking– documentation of the perilous status of Wilson’s health. Both sets of letters shed light on the determination (or obstinacy) with which the President pursued his goals—a determination that at times seemed irrational and self-destructive. This biography presents “the personal paradox that was the man.” He was “stern and impassive, yet emotional; calm and patient, yet quick-tempered and impulsive.”
Berg describes Wilson’s rise from a sheltered and aimless student from the South to a brilliant politician as meteoric. Driven by his intellectual brilliance, a gift for communicating forcefully and clearly to all of society’s levels, and an uncanny knack for identifying and utilizing the skills of his subordinates, he proved to be an exceptional executive. As the President of Princeton University, he restored the image of the school from that of an “exclusive country club for young gentlemen,” to that of an institution of learning; he reorganized all departments and “restructured the pedagogy with the preceptorial system.” His greatest challenge was battling the school’s traditional world in which young men were molded into mutually exclusive social cliques, vapid “groups of wealth and fashion, devoted to non-essentials and the smattering of culture.” Wilson’s desire was to end social clubs, replacing them with academically oriented “quads.”
Wilson was shocked when New Jersey Democratic bosses pressed him into running for governor. His political clean slate, his intelligence, his eloquence, and his reputed integrity were all traits that would earn him the respect of his constituents. What the party leaders did not anticipate was his seriousness about refusing to have any political debts, except to the people. He refused to be controlled by business bosses or political leaders.
The remainder of this biography focuses on four key phases of Wilson’s life: his first-term efforts to keep the U.S. out of the European conflict; his eventual guiding of America into the Great War, with his goal of making the world safe for democracy; his struggles to negotiate a lasting peace through a fair treaty; and his frantic struggles to sell the peace treaty at home and to get this country to join the League of Nations.
“I will not resort to war…until I have exhausted every means to keep out of this mess.” Wilson, hoping to remain neutral, seemed ready to absorb any number of affronts, as German u-boats sank merchant ships with impunity and without warning, causing a large number of casualties (including Americans). Constantly beleaguered by hawks such as Theodore Roosevelt, who accused the President of being “at heart an abject coward,” Wilson called for preparedness, but was looking more towards civil defense than a war machine. “Valor,” he believed, “withholds itself from small … entanglements and waits for the great opportunity when the sword will flash as if it carried the light of heaven upon its blade.” The accumulation of provocations, including a conspiracy in which Germany encouraged Mexico to take diversionary actions against the U.S., led to our country’s involvement.
Wilson’s objectives in 1917 were to achieve an “equal peace,” so that a “New World” could evolve: “governments would be run by the consent of the governed,” and “no right anywhere [would exist] to hand people about from sovereignty to sovereignty, as if they were property.” Throughout the closing year of the war, Wilson worked on drafts for a peace plan that would be acceptable to both sides—not humiliating Germany, but sufficiently placating France, England, and their allies. His ultimate purpose was establishing an “affiliation of democratic nations” that would become a “League of Honour” for sharing of opinions and resolving conflicts. But to his dismay, Wilson discovered that most of the nations were out for blood, demanding reparations and penalties that would forever cripple Germany’s economy . As Wilson pushed for a hasty acceptance of his principles, other leaders, particularly France’s Clemenceau, did all that they could to prolong the process and frustrate the American leader’s efforts, always looking for ways to humiliate Germany.
Acceptance of the treaty by the U.S. Congress was doomed from the beginning because of the stubbornness of two men: Senator Henry Cabot Lodge and the President himself. Lodge, an inveterate hater of Wilson, was determined to reject any proposal that came recommended by the Presdient. He and his Republican cohorts tore the treaty apart, introducing all kinds of amendments—many of them hair-splitting trifles. Wilson refused to budge. The more his opponents pushed, the more entrenched he became in his position. Consequently, America failed to support the treaty and refused to join the League of Nations—a humiliating defeat for the President.
There are two areas which are disturbing even today. First, Berg points out that there is strong evidence that Wilson was a racist. In spite of his calls for freedom and equality, he never seemed to rise above the racial beliefs of his Southern upbringing. His cabinet was “a team of Rebels—lawyers from the South, who never shed this [background], Anglo-Saxon, Protestants all….” “[He] treated every person of color, regardless of that person’s position, with decency and dignity; but he never failed to consider the color of the person’s skin.” An advocate of Jim Crow laws, Wilson “…didn’t equate subjugation with segregation.” In fact, he felt that segregation was an avenue through which Negroes could improve their status. He had many confrontations with equal rights activists who complained that there was segregation within the government. Questions were raised about the requirement of a photo on applications for civil service positions. Wilson expressed fears that African-Americans serving in the Great War would return home, having embraced “Bolshevism” in Europe. “For all of his talk of evenhandedness, Wilson did not consider the races fundamentally equal, and he had no intention of equalizing them under the law.”
The second disturbing area is the President’s health. It is generally known that for about 18 months of his second term, Wilson was ill. He was so debilitated by a stroke caused by a thrombosis, that his second wife, Edith, performed most of the physical and mental duties of the office. In what Berg sees as a “power grab,” Edith, Wilson’s personal secretary, and Dr. Grayson perpetrated “the greatest conspiracy that had ever engulfed the White House.” Also shocking, but less known, Wilson’s health history included a series of “incidents” or “accidents” which are typical of vascular disease. Additionally, he suffered many mental breakdowns during his adult life. Both the physical and mental distresses contributed to a chronic battle with hypertension. Given his obsession with achieving his personal objectives and given the intensity with which his political foes such as Lodge tried to crush Wilson’s ambitions, it is safe to say that the President was a ticking time bomb for his entire two terms. Berg also points to a number of incidents of irrational action, irascibility, and odd self-destructive choices that could be evidence of Wilson’s suffering in the early stages of dementia.
Personal and philosophical shortcomings aside, Woodrow Wilson is still viewed as one of the great world leaders of the twentieth century. According to Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Few, if any, figure in modern history held loftier dreams and endured greater pain and maintained deeper faith than [Wilson], especially in promoting the ideals of public service, liberal thought, the extension of democracy, and peace through justice.”
Ted Odenwald and his wife, Shirley have lived in Oakland for 43 years. He taught HS English at Glen Rock High School for all of those years plus one more. Now he is enjoying time spent with his family, singing in the North Jersey Chorus and quenching his wanderlust. Ted is also the Worship Leader at the Ramapo Valley Baptist Church in Oakland.