[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 135 (Friday, December 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2141]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    HONORING PRESIDENT WILSON ON THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS BIRTH

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                           HON. RUSH D. HOLT

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 6, 2006

  Mr. HOLT. Mr. Speaker, December 28 will mark the 150 anniversary of 
the birth of our 28th president, Woodrow Wilson. Throughout 2006, a 
number of organizations--including the Woodrow Wilson House, the 
Boyhood Home of President Woodrow Wilson, the Woodrow Wilson Family 
Home, Princeton University, and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential 
Library--have held multiple public events to commemorate the life and 
work of President Wilson. Today, along with my colleague, Mr. 
Goodlatte, I'm pleased to offer a resolution both recognizing the 150th 
anniversary of President Wilson's birth and the contributions of the 
many organizations that have made this sesquicentennial successful. It 
also affords us a moment to reflect on how important Woodrow Wilson's 
legacy is for the United States.
  President Wilson lived to see three major wars in his lifetime, each 
of which reshaped America's role in the world: the Civil War, the 
Spanish-American War, and World War I. In the wake of the First World 
War, President Wilson had the vision to understand that if America was 
going to prosper in the 20th century, it needed to be a part of the 
world, not separated from it. That vision was encapsulated in the last 
of his famous ``14 points'' in his January 8, 1918 address to a joint 
session of Congress:

       XIV. A general association of nations must be formed under 
     specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual 
     guarantees of political independence and territorial 
     integrity to great and small states alike.

  Wilson sought to create a just peace for the defeated Triple Alliance 
powers and a secure world for all nations. He understood both the value 
and need for collective security, and above all the moral imperative 
underlying it, as he revealed in his 1918 State of the Union speech:

       We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to admit 
     of any further doubt or question. An evident principle runs 
     through the whole program I have outlined. It is the 
     principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities, and 
     their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with 
     one another, whether they be strong or weak. Unless this 
     principle [can] be made its foundation, no part of the 
     structure of international justice can stand.

  Wilson's vision for America's role abroad--U.S. participation and 
leadership in the League of Nations--was ultimately undone by his lack 
of vision in dealing with a Senate that his party no longer controlled 
and by some flaws in the design of the League. Then-Senate Majority 
Leader Henry Cabot Lodge was skeptical of the value of the League and 
wary of the risks of committing America to a permanent, high-profile 
role in international affairs. The personal animosity between the two 
men undoubtedly contributed to Lodge's opposition to ratification of 
the League treaty. The intransigence of both men doomed the League 
treaty's chances in the Senate.

  Today, there is little debate among historians about the 
consequences. Had Wilson and Lodge been able to set aside their 
differences and ensure Senate passage of the treaty, America's 
membership in the League might well have moved the body to take far 
more decisive action against the fascist dictatorships that emerged in 
Germany, Italy, and Japan in the 1920s and 1930s, perhaps preventing 
the Second World War. Other presidents since have relearned the lesson 
that unless the Congress--the representatives of the people--are true 
partners in America's foreign policy initiatives, the results are 
usually tragic. Such was the case in Vietnam, and it is the case in 
Iraq today.
  History ultimately validated Wilson's vision for America's role in 
the world, and his dream of an international body designed to mediate 
conflicts between nations did become a reality in the form of the 
United Nations. Wilson was an innovator in international affairs, and 
we need to recapture his spirit of innovation and inclusiveness if we 
are to meet both the threats and the opportunities that lie before us. 
I want to once again thank all of the fine organizations involved with 
the Wilson sesquicentennial celebrations for reminding us all what 
President Wilson has bequeathed to our Nation and the world.

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