Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin

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Recommended: Causes and Effects of WWI

Through the years, peace has been achieved in different ways, yet the manner in which it is accomplished has been endlessly debated about. Woodrow Wilson and Vladimir Lenin were two very different individuals who were raised in two different countries. Lenin was born and raised in Russia, and Wilson was born and raised in the United States. They each had their own ideas on how peace should be achieved, but they were alike in one way though; they were both important revolutionaries of the twentieth century. Wilson’s vision for the postwar world was direct and accommodating of the entire world and was more appropriate unlike Lenin’s vision; Lenin believed peace is obtained by waging war first, a belief I believe is more realistic.

Wilson believed that peace could be obtained through diplomacy, and this is exhibited through his address to a joint session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace. Wilson states, “What we demand in this war….is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation.” Wilson believed that the fourteen points that he addressed to that joint session of Congress would lead the world to a happier, safer world, a peaceful world. He first points out that all “covenants of peace” (Wilson) should proceed in the eyes of everyone. Secondly, he points out that there should be “absolute freedom of navigation upon the seas” (Wilson) during a time of war or peace. For his third point, he states that should be a decrease in trade barriers and an “establishment of an equality of trade conditions among all the nations consenting to the peace” (Wilson). For his fourth point, he believes that there should be a reduction in the amount of “national armaments…to the l...

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...I eventually led Wilson to involve America in the war, yet he still did not encourage it as a way to obtain peace. He addressed a joint session of Congress on January 8, 1918 about his fourteen points that would lead the world to peace, and on November 11, 1918, World War I ended.

Works Cited

“War and Revolution in the Twentieth Century.” In Lives and Legacies: Biographies in Western Civilization, Volume Two, ed. Jonathan S. Perry, 97-109. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc., 2009.

Wilson, Woodrow. “Address to a Joint Session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace,” January 8, 1918. John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online]. Santa Barbara, California: University of California. (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=65405.

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