In this little speech I address you gentlemen here, Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd George, Georges Clemenceau and Vittorio Orlando, to discuss a very important issue and of general interest to the public. This has to do with Wilson's 14 points. For those who do not know them, let me first of all give a brief review of them, roughly, so that we are all in the same harmony.
With this text, the main objective of President Wilson was to end the war once and establish a policy with peace as its main flag. This text was an obligation of the President, since he had won the election with the proposition that the United States would not participate in the war and that he would maintain his status as a neutral nation.
This is why President Wilson exposes an improvement in international relations and establishing open diplomacy without secrets. In the text he also wishes to create a peace plan with Russia and that is why in his speech he makes a small reference to them and their position of not agreeing against negotiations between Germany and Russia.
Now let's focus on the 14 points. The first point is about peace and diplomacy without secrets and open to the public. The second on the freedom of navigation by the seas. The third point on equality in trade. The fourth on the reduction of armament (something that to date has not been fulfilled, since each nation has increased its military capacity). The next points about the return of the territories that have been invaded. The ninth point on the adjustment of the borders of Italy. The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth points revert to territorial issues.
In my opinion, the most important issue of all is the fourteenth point, since President Wilson proposes the creation of a committee to associate all nations, an equal integration for all (although frankly this point has not been fulfilled, since Although the organization already exists, there are some countries with much more power than others, with their capacity to veto projects, etc., so the equitable and egalitarian thing remains in the air).
When the United States was at war and with the intention of getting out of it, President Wilson intended with the help of Russia to create this association of countries, in order to achieve a stable and lasting world peace and thus be able to solve problems between peacefully, by treaties and not by military means.
Although I consider this text very important and of great value, since through this the bases for the Treaty of Versailles were created, for a peace between nations, I consider that a limitation of it was that the points are only focused on military clauses , clauses on armaments, clauses on which countries were obliged to return the occupied territories and did not focus on what is really important, and this refers to the will of the people, what did people think, whether or not they agreed, since society, in the end, is the one that suffers and is involved in the conflict, and reaching agreements without its opinion seems to me to be an error in this text.
Explanation:
The Fourteen Points were principles for trying to achieve peace after the end of World War I. Although this speech was accepted by the countries of Europe, they were skeptical about its applicability.
The first five points of President Wilson's speech are general and call for the end of secret diplomacy, freedom of navigation in the seas, free trade, the decrease in armament. The following points are focused on the resolution of the conflict: Alsace-Lorraine's return to France, the establishment of a Polish state, and the last point, Wilson's idealism where he wishes to establish a League of Nations.
