In Wilson's mind, the signing represented the defeat not simply of Germany but of an entire way of organizing the world. Balance of power, armed alli… - Arthur Herman

In a single day, the Allies' entire financial support network hovered on the brink of collapse. It had all been Wilson's doing, the response to a note he had sent to the Federal Reserve shortly before the election. The president was determined not to let America's financial entanglement with the Allies' cause draw it further into support of their war effort.

The Progressive president was also a keen white supremacist and insisted on segregating the U.S. Army in the same way he had most of the federal government

The only thing that could save the revolution, Lenin wrote in 1913, would be a war between Austria and Russia. "But it's scarcely likely that Franz Josef and Nikolasha [Lenin's nickname for the czar he despised] would grant us this pleasure."41