Preface: The Gambler
To overcome his shyness, Woodrow Wilson turns major conflicts into all-or-nothing battles over principle—and refuses to compromise.
Act I: Peacemaker
President Wilson revels in the adoration of European masses, struggles with their leaders, and comes home to battle with a skeptical Senate and an anxious public.
1. Coming Home: Returning to the U.S. after the Paris Peace Conference, President Wilson struggles to find the rhetoric that will persuade skeptical Republicans in the Senate.
2. Loyal Opposition: Under the leadership of Henry Cabot Lodge, the Republicans devise a plan to defeat Wilson and the League of Nations. Their strategy: Death by a thousand cuts.
3. About a Boy: For all his life, Woodrow Wilson has carried forth the optimism and dreaminess of his youth—and translated it into careers of great achievement in academe and politics—but he has also borne lifelong damage from his upbringing.
4. Losing Control: At the Paris Peace Conference, Wilson loses most of his battles with Allied leaders. His one victory is their acceptance of the League of Nations. To console himself, he believes that the League can transform politics on every major issue.
5. Hard Summer: In the first summer after the armistice, America is riven by labor, race, economic and other problems. If Wilson cannot convince the American public that the League of Nations would address their parochial concerns, he probably will lose the fight for the League.
6. The Secret of My Success: Woodrow Wilson’s willingness to allow allies manage the reform process produces the greatest record of reform in American history.
Act II: Eye to Eye and Face to Face
The president takes to the road, explains the complexities of world affairs, and makes every argument—alternating intellectual and emotional appeals—to realize his dream of a new world order.
7. Leaving D.C.: Leery of negotiations with Republicans, President Wilson is determined to take his case to the people in a nationwide tour. His wife and aides worry that a tour will risk his health, but Wilson is determined to leave Washington once again.
8. Opening Night: Woodrow Wilson outlines his whole argument in Columbus, Ohio. The city, under Republican control and struggling with labor problems, gives him a tepid welcome.
9. Show Me: Wilson visits Missouri, the home state of Wilson’s harshest Democratic critic, Senator James Reed. Crowds in St. Louis and Kansas City respond well to Wilson’s appeals. His rhetoric is mainstream, with appeals to economic revitalization and concluding the war. But he also calls Republicans, “contemptible quitters,” hardening their opposition to the treaty.
10. A Call for Order: In Iowa, Wilson raises the specter of worldwide disorder if the Senate refuses to ratify the treaty. He bewails the recent Russian Revolution, which traded one set of ruling tyrants for another.
11. No Reservations: In Nebraska, and South Dakota, Wilson rejects lingering hopes that he will accept reservations to the treaty. He calls a reservation a “yes—but.” He also mocks the idea that any provision in the treaty needs clarification.
12. The New Normal: In Minnesota, Wilson focuses on domestic issues—like the cost of living, labor conflict, railroads, trade, and immigration—and argues that only ratification of the treaty can allow progress on domestic issues.
13. Radicalized: Wilson treads a fine line in a olitical civil war in North Dakota between conservative, business-oriented Republicans and the ruling socialist Nonpartisan League.
14. Celebration and Vitriol: Millions line parade routes in New York and Washington to celebrate General John Pershing. In Chicago, the Republican “truth squad” relentlessly attacks Wilson and his treaty—criticizing his authoritarian style of governance and calling for his impeachment.
15. Fear of the Unknown: As the president’s health falters in Billings and Helena, Wilson’s wife and aides battle over how hard to push him on the tour. The president makes an emotional argument for the League of Nations, recalling conversations with the mothers of soldiers killed inEurope. He also argues that the League will tamp down irrational hatreds that lead to war.
16. Enemy Territory: Not expecting to change minds, Wilson moved into Idaho, the home state of William Borah, one of the leading isolationist voices against the treaty.
17. Northwest Passage: In Tacoma and Spokane, Wilson is persuaded to make a simple case: that the League fulfills the war’s purpose, that Republicans have always supported such a body, and that only the League will allow Americans to resume normal life. He calls the League a virtual guarantee against war and stiffens his opposition to any changes in the treaty.
18. Bullitt: A precocious journalist-turned-diplomat named William Bullitt, who had sought a major role in the Paris conference, tells the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Secretary of State William Lansing considers the League of Nations a fool’s errand. Angry, the president still does nothing to discipline Lansing.
19. Silent Treatment: Wilson rides a new wave of enthusiasm in Seattle—until a brutally clever protest wallops him emotionally. The organizer of the protest mournfully calls himself Wilson’s “assassin” for his surprise confrontation.
20. Reckless: The relentless speed of world affairs is the top topic as the president visits Portland, where a member of the president’s party is killed in a car crash after driving recklessly.
21. Tomorrowland: In California, the home state of Hiram Johnson, Wilson begins to make his grand summation, responds to ethnic critics, and rallies vast crowds to his side.
22. Amped Up: Taking advantages of a new amplification technology, Wilson speaks to a throng of 50,000 at a stadium in San Diego. The address presages a new kind of rhetoric, based less on full-throated appeals and more on emotional connection.
23. Notorious: In Los Angeles, Wilson rides the popularity of movie celebrities—as his administration’s wartime propaganda efforts did. Wilson also meets an old lover, whose affair of the heart caused him to change his philosophy of government and public policy.
24. Long Journey Back: Moving into the American interior once again, Wilson stops in Sacramento and Reno and attempts to confront forces beyond his control. His Reno address is transmitted by radio to other audiences in Reno.
Act III: The End
An overworked and overwhelmed president makes his final appeals and struggles to battle many physical ailments—until he can fight no more.
25. Divided: Splits among Mormons in Salt Lake City reveal shifting sentiments in the American West and the communities of faith. In his address at the Mormon Tabernacle, Wilson shows the most extreme signs of physical and emotional strain to date.
26. Fortress of War: In Cheyenne, Wilson warns about the dangers the dangers of a permanent wartime footing—for both peace and domestic liberties.
27. War is Hell: Desperately tired from his long travels, Wilson describes the horrors of war in his Denver visit—and warns that the next world war could mean the end of civilization.
28. Closing Arguments: Evoking the sacrifices of the dead soldiers, Wilson makes an emotional plea in Pueblo to ratify the treaty. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, this address will be the last of his life.
29. Breakdown: En route to Kansas, Wilson collapses. Alarmed, Wilson’s doctor cancels the rest of the trip to bring the president home for medical care. The first lady and the president’s doctor tell newsmen that the president remains healthy and just needs a brief rest.
30. Home Alone: Soon after returning to Washington, Wilson suffers a severe stroke that leaves him a silent invalid for the rest of his presidency. Whatever his physical or mental condition, he stubbornly refuses all efforts to compromise. Twice, the Senate defeats the treaty.
Postscript: What If?
Wilson’s League of Nations might have offered a global mechanism for preventing wars. But this vision lacked the understanding of how global organizations might some day work to integrate the world and prevent a new world war.