[jessaustin]

Let's not give Wilson too much credit. He could have simply kept his campaign promises to keep USA out of WWI. At the start of 1917, all combatants were ready to negotiate peace. Wilson's perfidy on behalf of armaments manufacturers invigorated the bloodlust of the English and (especially) French ruling classes, lengthened the war, and through the "Spanish" (really Kansan) flu epidemic killed tens of millions. Later at Paris, he made a show of resisting their excesses for about a week before he contracted the flu (karma!) and lost the intellectual capacity to affect negotiations.