"The War to End War"

During World War I, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson embraced the ideal that the conflict could create conditions that would make future wars impossible and help make the world safe for democracy. Although the phrase “the war to end war” became closely associated with Wilson during America’s involvement in the war, he did not coin it and used it only once. The phrase first came from the English author H.G. Wells, who in 1914 wrote articles arguing that defeating Germany would end all war, later collected in The War That Will End War. Wilson’s prediction proved wrong, and the phrase later became a way to mock his idealism and the broader belief that war could prevent war. Future presidents such as Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard M. Nixon publicly criticized that premise. Wilson’s idealism had strongly united the nation behind the war effort, but after the war, when those goals were unmet, skepticism and disillusionment spread among the American people, feelings that in many ways remain.

Gonzales, Louisiana · United States