Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow

28th president of the USA 1913–21, a Democrat. One of the USA's most successful presidents and world's most respected statesmen, he was known for his humanity, honesty, and integrity. He kept the USA out of World War I until 1917, and in January 1918 issued his Fourteen Points as a basis for a just peace settlement, which included the formation of a League of Nations. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919. Congress later refused to commit the USA to the League.

Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, and educated at Princeton University, of which he became president 1902–10. In 1910 he became governor of New Jersey. Elected US president in 1912 against Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft, he initiated antitrust legislation and secured valuable social reforms in his progressive ‘New Freedom’ programme, and was re-elected in 1916. He also instituted a federal income tax, the first since the Civil War. A champion of peace and neutrality, he strove to keep the USA out of World War I, a policy popular with most Americans. However the German U-boat campaign, sensationalized by the sinking of the British liner Lusitania (with 128 Americans lost), forced him to declare war in 1917. At the peace conference in Paris he secured the inclusion of the League of Nations in individual peace treaties, but his refusal to compromise on its text contributed to its defeat in Congress. In 1919 Wilson suffered a stroke during a nationwide campaign to gain support for the League and retired from public life.