PROJECT: WWI: AMERICAN POLICY AND KEY EVENTS
Choose one of the following options and write a report of 400 words.
a. As Woodrow Wilson, how would you have presented your argument for a just peace rather than a peace of vengeance? Be thorough and persuasive, challenging your arguments with those from the opposing side.
b. How did the Strategic Allied victories in the battles at Cantigny, the Argonne Forest, and Chateau-Thierry help Europe's fight against Germany in World War I?
c. Analyze the effect of General John J. Pershing's decisions to keep United States forces independent rather than integrating them into the European armies.

On January 8, 1918, Wilson gave what was to become his most famous speech. Known as the Fourteen Points Speech because it outlined the fourteen elements Wilson felt were essential to a lasting peace, it was delivered to establish moral goals for America's participation in World War I. Wilson also hoped the speech would encourage the Central powers to end the hostilities. The plan initially backfired; instead of signaling for peace talks, the German Army actually intensified its efforts on the European western front. Within ten months, however, the German Army conceded and appealed to Wilson to begin a series of peace talks based on the Fourteen Points. An armistice was declared on November eleven, 1918.

Of the fourteen key areas Wilson described, eight concerned specific geopolitical issues that had to be resolved after the war, while the remaining six dealt with general ideology necessary for peace. The most significant of the points included freedom of the seas, an end to secret treaties and negotiations, establishing equal and free trade, arms reduction, welcoming the new Soviet Russia into the international community, granting self-government to the peoples in Central Europe and the Balkans, independence for Turkey and Poland, and establishing a forum of nations to ensure freedom and peace for all peoples of the world.

Explanation:

representative government

a. always outside of government control.