Woodrow Wilson: An Example of American Amnesia

Full disclosure: Woodrow Wilson is one of my least favorite POTUS...

Helen Keller called Woodrow Wilson...
"The greatest individual disappointment the world has ever known!"

When I ask my students what they "remember" about President Woodrow Wilson (or almost any POTUS/ historical figure), they usually respond with positive enthusiasm...aka positive memory.

In Wilson's case they share that he was:

1. An "Anti- War Isolationist" who reluctantly led us into World War I.
2. The man who "made the world safe for Democracy."
3. A "Leader for Peace" who helped to establish the League of Nations.
4. A supporter of women's suffrage.
5. An intellectual and great academic leader at Princeton University.
6. A great man who won the Nobel Peace Prize.

In a composite of every historical ranking done of the Presidents, Woodrow Wilson is ranked 7th...with over 50% of Americans having "very favorable" views of his Presidency...

Top 10 POTUS of All-Time Composite List

1. Abraham Lincoln

2. Franklin D. Roosevelt

3. George Washington

4. Theodore Roosevelt

5. Thomas Jefferson

6. Harry Truman

7. Woodrow Wilson

8. Dwight D. Eisenhower

9. John F. Kennedy

10. Ronald Reagan

 

"Can you handle The Truth?"

Who is to blame for this "whitewashed" version of history?  Is it "illiterate" history teachers, sanitized textbooks, hero-worshipping museums, myopic public television documentaries, "historical" novels, Hollywood movies (hoping Leo DiCaprio "tells it straight" in the upcoming Wilson movie) or our inclination to embrace the comfortable truth? 

 

The Real Woodrow Wilson:

 

 

A Southern Racist/ White Supremacist who promised to undo the "injustices of Reconstruction"...encouraged a rebirth of the KKK...fought integration at every point...enthusiastically supported "The Birth of a Nation" commenting...

 

"It is like writing history with lightning, and my only regret is that it is all so true."

 

...believed in "White Power Eugenics"...loved telling "darkie jokes"...gave tacit approval to race riots and lynching. All of this in spite of the political "support" and "pleading for justice" from many famous (W.E.B. DuBois, Ida B. Wells, William Monroe Trotter) Civil Rights leaders.

 

Made the world safe for Democracy?!?

 

 

An Aggressive Imperialist who authorized military interventions in Mexico (11 times), Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Panama, and Nicaragua. He also conducted a post-WWI "secret war"...invading Russia to fight against the Bolsheviks...which became the basis for much Cold War animosity. He also ignored a young Ho Chi Minh who was seeking American support for Vietnamese self-determination (against France) in Southeast Asia.

A Xenophobic Nativist who repeatedly questioned the loyalty of Americans he called "hyphenated Americans" stating,

"Any man who carries a hyphen about with him carries a dagger

that he is ready to plunge into the vitals of this Republic whenever he gets ready."

He imprisoned hundreds (including Eugene Debs) through enactment of the Alien and Sedition Acts....set up the Committee on Public Information to help spread anti-German WWI propaganda...and initiated the disastrous "Red Scare" Palmer Raids.