Taft’s and Wilson’s diplomacy
The Diplomacy of Taft and Wilson
William Howard Taft’s presidency had a slightly different approach to diplomacy. He
planned on “substituting dollars for bullets.” Taft pointed out that America’s foreign investments
had increased from $800 million in 1898 to more than $2.5 billion in 1909. In the Caribbean, Taft
worried that the European powers might create a threat to American power should Latin American
nations default on their debts (to default on a loan is to refuse to pay the loan off). Taft worked to
replace European loans with American loans. American bankers assumed the debts of Honduras
and invested in Haiti to make sure that Europe did not interfere. When the government of
Nicaragua refused to pay off their debts to Britain by taking out American loans, the president
dispatched a warship to the area and used political pressure to make the Nicaraguan government
pay up. The Senate also worked to protect American interests by warning other nations that their
companies were not to invest heavily in Latin America or Mexico.
When Woodrow Wilson entered the presidency he knew little about foreign policy. He
believed that democracy was the best opportunity for stability and order in the world. He promised
to use a foreign policy based on moral values.
Wilson scrapped dollar diplomacy in Asia. Wilson wanted to make sure that China was no
longer exploited by Russia and Japan. Unfortunately, revolution in China prevented him from
taking his stand against the Japanese and Russian governments dominating China. In fact, the
start of World War I in 1914 turned Russian attention away from its eastern borders and toward
Europe. Japan seized German holdings and would have taken more of China if the British and the
Chinese people had not stopped them.
In Latin America Wilson promised to focus on “human rights” and “national integrity.”
However, when the Dominican Republic threatened to default on its loans, Wilson sent in the
marines. The following year the US ended up in Cuba to protect American investments from attacks
by Cubans. When Haiti’s central bank became controlled by New York bankers, the US took a new
interest in that country. When an uprising threatened the security of the country, Wilson sent in
the marines and negotiated a treaty in 1915 that granted the US control over the country’s foreign
and financial affairs as well as the right to intervene whenever the US thought it was a good idea.
The marines stayed in Haiti for 19 years.
In Mexico, Wilson saw a chance to play out his moral foreign policy. In 1913 General
Victoriano Huerta gained control of Mexico’s government and murdered Francisco Madero, a
reformer who had come to power in 1911. Wilson refused to recognize the new power. American
businesses begged the president to recognize the new government so that trade could resume.
Wilson demanded elections. He saw an opportunity to step in when Huerta’s agents arrested seven
US sailors who, while on shore, had strayed beyond their designated area. Huerta apologized and
released the prisoners, but refused to issue a 21-gun salute to the American flag to satisfy
American honor. Wilson asked Congress for permission to use American troops to force Huerta to
recognize American “rights and dignity.”
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Taft’s and Wilson’s diplomacy
While Congress debated, Wilson learned that a German arms shipment for Huerta’s military
planned to unload at Vera Cruz. Wilson ordered the navy to land troops and occupy the port.
Fighting broke out in May that killed 19 Americans and over 126 Mexicans. Wilson intended to
overthrow Huerta. Instead he offended most Mexicans, and had to accept outside interference
from Latin American nations to negotiate a settlement.
Meanwhile, Huerta and Venustiano Carranza, the “constitutionalist” leader who Wilson
supported, continued to struggle for power. During that summer, Carranza’s forces drove Huerta
from power. Much to Wilson’s surprise, Carranza announced plans for land reform that would
threaten US holdings and claimed the rights to all Mexican oil, which greatly disturbed American
oil companies. Wilson turned against Carranza and threw his support behind Francisco “Pancho”
Villa. Wilson saw Villa as a Robin Hood style figure. However, Carranza’s forces were too strong for
Villa. In 1915 Wilson abandoned his ideas for moral diplomacy in Mexico and recognized Carranza’s
government.
Villa was not pleased. He responded to this withdrawal of support by terrorizing Americans,
hoping to force Wilson into a retaliation that might topple Carranza’s government. In March of
1916 he led a force of fifteen hundred revolutionaries across the border to burn the town of
Columbus, New Mexico. This attack left seventeen Americans and more than one hundred Mexicans
dead.
Outraged by the attack, Wilson sent General John J. Pershing after Villa to capture him and
bring him to the United States for trial. Villa and his men constantly eluded capture. Pershing
expanded his army to more than 11,600 men and moved more than 300 miles into Mexico.
Carranza, annoyed by this military advance into his country, ordered Pershing to stop his advance.
American troops clashed with Carranza’s forces, resulting in the death of twelve Americans and
the capture of twenty-four more. This brought the countries to the brink of war. Carranza released
the prisoners but demanded that Wilson withdraw American troops from Mexico. Wilson, facing
reelection, would not withdraw his troops. However, once he won the election of 1916, and with
the prospect of war in Europe, he ordered withdrawal of all troops in January of 1917.
Entry into World War I:
War broke out in Europe in the summer of 1914. The United States pledged to remain
neutral. One of the great challenges to neutrality was the German Navy's submarine warfare. Many
Americans, and Wilson in particular, regarded the sinking of defenseless merchant ships from
beneath the waves as unfair and a violation of the rules of war, to say nothing of the rules
governing the civilized behavior of human beings in general. The question was not merely one of
interference with free trade, but, as with many of Wilson's positions, a moral issue. It was the use
of submarines that would eventually bring the United States into the war, and in his request to
Congress for a declaration of war in 1917, Wilson described the actions of German submarines as
“warfare against mankind.”
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Taft’s and Wilson’s diplomacy
Germany's actions strengthened Wilson's private conviction that the struggle in Europe was
between the forces of democracy and those of authoritarianism. While Wilson was worried about
British and French imperialism, he saw German Kaiser Wilhelm II as the greatest threat. Thus,
Wilson blocked an attempt by Congress to end the shipment of arms to Europe that was intended to
enforce more strictly the spirit and letter of neutrality. In 1915, he also canceled a measure
forbidding loans to belligerents, opening up America's financial resources to the Allied Powers.
Still, the United States did not immediately enter the war, despite damage caused by the
German submarines. On May 7, 1915, a torpedo struck the British passenger liner Lusitania, killing
128 Americans and prompting a strong U.S. protest. In response, the German government promised
to give warning to passenger ships before firing on them. This protocol of giving warning before a
submarine attack was one of Wilson's main demands, calculated in the president's mind to render
the actions of submarines less unfair. However, surfacing to warn targets eliminated the
submarine's most effective characteristics—stealth and surprise—and exposed it to enemy
battleships. Nonetheless, the Germans scaled back their effort, hoping to avoid direct American
intervention on the side of the Allies.
By January 1917, the German High Command decided to resume unrestricted submarine
warfare, believing that Germany could win the war against the exhausted Allies before the United
States could bring its full force to bear in the conflict. During the next two months, the German
Navy sunk several American merchant vessels, and Wilson broke off all diplomatic relations with
Germany. Still, he hoped to keep the United States out of the war.
In late February, the British government revealed that they had intercepted a telegram
from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador in Mexico. The socalled Zimmermann Note proposed a German-Mexican alliance against the United States and
promised the return of former Mexican territory in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. When word of
the telegram leaked out in the United States, the American public turned decisively against
Germany. After the Germans sunk several more American ships in the following weeks, Wilson
finally asked for a declaration of war.
Sources:
Gillon, Steven M, and Matson, Cathy D.. The American Experiment, A History of the United States: Volume II. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2002.
http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com/library/searches/searchdisplay.aspx?entryid=263294&fulltext=World+War+I&nav=non
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