The 96th anniversary of Woodrow Wilson's 14 point statement on a WW1 peace treaty occured last Wednesday.
Wilson's fourteen points were seen as a fair peace treaty for Germany to accept. Some important points in this speech mentioned, focus on open diplomacy rather than secret agreements, reducing the military and weapons and readjusting the colonies fairly. The fourteen points speech was given in Janaury of 1918 and the actual armistice occured later that year on 11th November 1918.
However, by the time of the treaty of Versaille on 28th June 1919, the French and British had changed aspects of the fourteen points most importantly the 231 Article, which is known as the War guilt clause as it meant Germany accepted full reponsibility for the war and had to pay back huge reparations. This wasn't mentioned in the fourteen points and the treaty of Versaille was never ratified by the US Senate.
Many believe the changing of the fourteen points fuelled the rise for national socialism.
