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Too Proud to Fight: Woodrow Wilson's Neutrality

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Lord Justice Devlin has written a magnificent account of United States policy, and the personal views of President Wilson himself, during the first two years of World War One. The two were closely related, as Wilson's administration, more than most, was something of a one man band, with Cabinet officers (notably Secretary of State Lansing) often treated a bit like office boys.

Devlin notes the variations in Wilson's outlook as the war proceeded, from being distinctly pro-Ally in 1915 to a much cooler attitude in 1916, as British blacklists and other blockade measures brought Anglo-American relations under increasing strain, to the point where an intelligent man like Colonel House could talk seriously of America being drawn into war against the Allies rather than the Germans. That was, of course, highly unlikely, but Devlin spells out how American belligerancy in April 1917 came as a life saver for a Britain faced with a looming financial crisis.

Devlin also gives an interesting and sympathetic picture of Wilson's first Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan. Widely dismissed as a naive fool, he comes over here as a sensible (if sentimental) man with perfectly valid concerns about where Wilson's policies might lead, and who may, on this point, have been more perceptive than the President himself.

On the central question of why, in the end, America abandoned neutrality, Devlin concludes, and makes a pretty good case, that it was "because Wilson so decided". However, he also makes it clear that it was the Germans themselves who played the biggest role in deciding him to join the war against them. Quite literally, they torpedoed themselves in the foot, and snatched defeat from the jaws of almost certain victory.

In a preface, Devlin injects a personal note. He himself was "in" the WW1 generation but not "of" it, old enough to remember the war, but still too young to fight. Dedicating his book to the "Unfulfilled" who fell in WW1, losing the chance to make their mark in the world as he had done, and especially to one particular member of his own family. He says poignantly that "if it could have been written differently, my cousin would not have died". That line brings me out in goose bumps.

All in all, this book is an absolute "must" for anyone interested in its subject matter, or who cares about how and why WW1 and its aftermath turned out the way they did.