The shocking Russian invasion of Ukraine has left most Americans bewildered, angry and deeply troubled. But exactly how our nation should respond remains unclear. Polls have shown a surprising number of Americans uncertain about the desirability of sanctions or the admission of Ukraine into NATO, although most wholeheartedly support President Joe Biden’s refusal to deploy combat troops.
But few recognize that another Democratic president, also in office less than two years, faced a near-identical crisis over 100 years ago. In the early weeks of World War I in 1914, news of the brutal German invasion of Belgium reached President Woodrow Wilson and the American public.
Wilson, though deeply sympathetic to the Belgians, recognized that the attack complicated his vision for America’s place in the European war. The United States and its people, he had believed, must remain “impartial in thought as well as in action.” Only then would the nation be in a position to play a significant role in the eventual peace process and postwar reconstruction of Europe.
