| The 1355th meeting of the Connecticut
Academy of Arts and Sciences was held on Tuesday, November 16,
2004 at 5 p.m. at the New Haven Lawn Club. Some 85 members and
their guests enjoyed cocktails before the talk. Dr. Ernest Kohorn,
the President welcomed the group and announced the newly elected
member Hans Bergmann, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at
Quinnipiac University. He was particularly pleased with this
election because Quinnipiac University had just become a new
Institutional Member of the Academy. Dr. Kohorn introduced the speaker for the evening, Gaddis Smith, the Larned Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University. The title of Professor Smith's lecture was "Is Woodrow Wilson Turning Over in His Grave? --Reflections on the Panacea of National Self-Determinism". Professor Smith said that Woodrow Wilson was a firm believer in the self-determination of nations, however he saw dictators and rebels as difficulties in the achievement of this goal. In 1913 Nuerta overthrew Madero in Mexico. Wilson ignored tradition and declared that he could not recognize a tyrant, which he considered Nuerta to be. Nor would he tolerate any joint intervention in Mexico. He planned on teaching the Mexicans how to elect good men. In 1914 Huerta's forces in Tampico seized American sailors. Although they were released, the Admiral demanded a 21-gun salute to the flag as an apology for this insult. The Mexicans refused, Wilson was not happy and when he learned that a ship with a delivery of munitions for Huerta was heading for Vera Cruz, he ordered the Marines to invade, expecting no resistance. However there was a poor world reaction and Wilson was embarrassed that he had used force when he had condemned it in Huerta. When Wilson recognized the new Carranza government relations with Mexico improved but Francisco "Pancho"Villa, one of Carranza's lieutenants devised a strategy, using terrorist tactics, to discredit Carranza. In 1916 Pancho Villa stopped a Mexican train, removed 17 American citizens and shot 16 of them on the spot. Wilson refused to be drawn into a second Mexican invasion so easily so Villa led 1500 Villistas into Columbus, New Mexico set the town on fire thus killing 19 more Americans. By this time Wilson had no choice but to react and he ordered an expedition led by General Pershing to catch Villa. Wilson and Carranza had agreed that either nation could pursue bandits across the borders but Carranza was not happy with such a large and prolonged expedition and there were many clashes with several deaths on both sides. Americans called for war but Wilson had learned from his first escapade into Mexico and was not about to repeat his mistake. He waited until tempers cooled and he ordered Pershing to withdraw. Villa was not caught but neither was he a threat any more. Had Wilson not been educable and able to change his mind there would have been war with Mexico at that time. Wilson also tried to keep the U.S. out of World War I but he felt that "the world must be made safe for Democracy". The U.S. entered the war shortly after the overthrow of the Czar in Russia although Lenin was appealing to the masses with a Wilsonian idea-national self-determination. In 1918 the Germans asked for an armistice. Wilson formulated his peace suggestions as his famous fourteen points, seeking self-determination for the rest of the world. The Allied statesmen adopted these 14 points as a basis for the peace. Wilson then went further and suggested that the formation of a League of Nations must be part of the peace. Although the plenary council to the Peace Conference accepted the idea the U.S. Congress was opposed to membership in the League. Wilson decided to take the issue to the people and traveled across the whole country arguing that the League of Nations was founded according to American principles of self-government, warning against violent revolutions such as had occurred in Russia rather than revolutions by vote. He traveled 8,000 miles in 22 days, giving 38 speeches. He finally collapsed and in 1919 he had a stroke and the treaty was never ratified. He died a disappointed, broken man in1924. The similarities with the present political situation were patent. Asked what lessons we have learned from Wilson Professor Gaddis replied that the U.S. went into Iraq without historical or political wisdom. At least Wilson was educable and understood how to learn from his mistakes. |