By Mike Ferner

October 29, 2018 "Information Clearing House" -  Historians debate to what extent the Treaty of Versailles was responsible for Hitler’s march to World War II, but there can be little doubt that the treaty ending the “War to End All Wars” continues to be a major factor in our ongoing “War Without End.”

On November, 11, 1918, Europe laid exhausted and nearly bled dry. Just months before the war ended on that date, fresh, motivated U.S. troops entered the fight and assured an Allied victory.  As a result, President Woodrow Wilson played an oversized role in the fateful redrawing of borders across half the globe.

Wilson was the primary proponent of American Exceptionalism, an idea promoted by the U.S. elite ever since.  The myth that somehow America would always advance humanitarian interests attracted many, particularly the dispossessed, encouraged by Wilson’s “Fourteen Points.” The president took to his messianic mission with paternalistic passion but as the record shows, imperialism infected not only European powers, it also drove Wilson.  Nonetheless, this outspoken advocate of some vague form of self-determination mesmerized literally millions. He was an empty vessel into which whole nations poured their hopes for a better life.

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