Delivered in a Joint Session of Congress, January 8, 1918

Reprinted from the World War I Document Archive, available online at http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/1918/14points.html

"What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation.…"

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson led the American people into World War I not just to win the war but also to win the peace—that is, to create peacetime conditions that would rule out war in the future. Wilson hated war; it violated his moral and religious principles and caused innocent people undue suffering. Wilson also hated war because it disrupted the international trade that kept America strong. Wilson believed that America and...