Fourteen Points

On January 8, 1918, toward the end of World War I, President Woodrow Wilson stood before both houses of Congress to lay out a vision for the postwar period. He proposed a plan based on “Fourteen Points,” which gave his short speech its name. Newspapers around the world quickly reprinted the speech’s core passages under that title. This guide uses the full text of the speech in the Congressional Record for the House of Representatives (Vol. 56, Part 1). The list of 14 points, which have often been published alone, composes most of the speech’s second half.

Wilson opens his speech with an explanation of why America needs to define the peace for which it is fighting. He recounts the recent peace talks at Brest-Litovsk between the enemy Central Powers (Germany and Austria) and Russia, a US ally. Wilson describes how the Russians offered reasonable and just principles for a settlement. In contrast, the Central Powers talked about liberal ideas but in practice made harsh demands to which the Russians could not submit (690).

Wilson speculates that this discrepancy shows tension between the Central Powers’ civilian and military leaders, which may offer hope for future negotiations.