In Wilson's view, America's neutrality was a reflection of strength, moral strength, rather than weakness or timidity. His other slogan in 1916, besi… - Arthur Herman

Albert Burleson, had already declared war on the Socialist Party by yanking second-class postal rates for a series of socialist-minded periodicals, including The Masses, the Milwaukee Leader, the New York Call, and the paper Trotsky had written for, the Forward.19

It was not the last time a well-meaning American Progressive would express the view that if only we made our good intentions plain, the opposition of our foes would melt away.

There was Wilson's overweening spiritual arrogance, which Nicolson saw as part of the president's Presbyterian inheritance. There was Wilson's thin-skinned response to the slightest criticism or opposition, but above all, there was, as Wilson himself admitted, the American president's "one-track mind."