Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study

by Alexander L. George, Juliette L. George

Analysis of the failure of the U.S. Senate to accept the League of Nations and other defeats of Wilson's. Examines Wilson's character and association with House, national politics, President's collapse, more. Psychoanalytical interpretation.

Genres: History, Biography, World War I

361 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1964

Reviews

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good political analysis of Woodrow Wilson and the friendship with Colonel House. The emphasis is on World War I and the failure to reach agreement on the League of Nations which consumes about half the book. The relationship between the two is indeed bizarre – both individuals are in need of psychiatric help. Wilson for being inordinately hard-headed and unrelentingly stubborn. House almost exists in two realities – praising and a “yes-man” to Wilson, but venting criticism in his diaries for most of the duration of their relationship. The authors point out that most of Wilson’s behaviour patterns during the League of Nations debacle was readily apparent during his Presidency of Princeton University.

Wilson was a very hard-headed President – he was unable to delegate tasks particularly if they became part of his “Pet Projects”. He would surround himself with cronies who he knew would be agreeable to his ideas. Colonel House was the “top crony” until the Paris period. The prime reason for the failure of the League of Nations was Wilson’s inability to compromise on even minor revisions proposed by the U.S. Senate. Over the years Wilson had built up many adversaries due to his incapability to respect the rights of Senate members who disagreed with him. Wilson even failed to compromise with Senate revisions after representatives of the French and British Governments stated that they were amenable to the proposed alterations. Accommodation and negotiation were simply not a part of Wilson’s belief system.

Wilson also single-handedly managed the U.S. negotiations in Paris which further alienated the Senate and Congress.

Despite attempts to put “Wilson on the Freudian couch” there are some missing pieces in this. Nothing is said about the relation of Wilson to his children and only generalizations about a domineering father.

As already alluded to Wilson was very much his own person - he was adopted by a right-wing cabal to run for the Presidency but immediately dropped their pretences and passed very progressive legislation. He was disturbed by events in Europe, but reluctant for the United States to enter the War. Prior to the U.S. Declaration of War in 1917 he sent House over twice to attempt to negotiate a peace between the belligerents. His only consolation was to enter the War on the condition that afterwards he would formulate a peace and the “League of Nations”. But alas, in this single-minded determination, he failed due to his personality dysfunctions. Franklin Roosevelt, by contrast, was a far more astute politician and knew how to negotiate and ingratiate himself with adversaries, and he also could delegate.

As additional notes:
The psycho-babble in the introduction was irrelevant and silly – possibly this is due to the Freudian vogue in wave when the book was written in the early 1960’s.
Although the United States was allegedly against colonialism, they brooked no interference with their Monroe Doctrine (this was one of the Senate reserve clauses).

[Jim Vander Maas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a personality study of Woodrow Wilson and his advisor Colonel House.
You could say that both of them were immensely talented but flawed characters. They both grew up in the South post civil war. Wilson was dominated by his need to gain his fathers acceptance while House grew up in a wealthy and rough Texas family.

Wilson was a Calvinist who believed you were predestined to be a part of God’s elect. Good works and clean thoughts are signs of election whereas sinful behavior was a sign of one’ s doom. His only responsibility is to the Lord and Maker. Wilson would hold to his principles no matter what the opposition. Something that would be effective at times but in the end would kill him.

He had problems in school early with possibly dyslexia but soon became a prize student who loved debate and writing. Woodrow would go to Princeton, then to law school. He set up a practice in Atlanta but never got it going and was not inspired by law. After more schooling(?) he became an author and published a well received book comparing the American style of government to the British. But he wanted to be a leader of men and not just a thinker. He became president of a women’s college then Bryan Mawn before making the big career move of becoming president of Princeton University.

He accomplished many things at Princeton but his most significant battle occurred over the location of a graduate school and ending fraternity - like lunch clubs. His stubbornness and inability to compromise with the administration was a precursor to how he would handle negotiations with Congress years later.

“As long as I am President of Princeton, I will dictate the architectural policy. “

Wilson was backed by the democratic machine to become Governor of New Jersey. Once he became Gov. he turned against his backers and became a progressive. He passed many reforms that required balancing the democratic machine and a republican congress to get bills through. His main bill was election reform.

He started to gain national attention as a possible Democratic candidate for President. The head of the party at that point was William Jennings Bryant who had lost two straight elections.

Eddie House was the seventh son of one of the wealthiest men in Texas. Shootouts and brutal beatings was what went down in Houston. Ed was plagued by malaria and dealt with physical ailments. He did not want to hold public office but was a man behind the scenes that others could rely on.
House and Wilson hit it off right away with the same viewpoints on the issues of the day. House was mainly a yes man who would never disagree with Wilson yet tried to manipulate him in his own way. Still he was invaluable to Wilson who needed someone to confirm he was doing the right thing and as a screen in which others would have to work.

House did great work to get Wilson in the good graces of Billie Bryan, even after Wilson had insulted the leader of the democratic party earlier. Wilson received the democratic nomination and defeated a divided party of Howie Taft as republican candidate and Teddy Roosevelt as a progressive party candidate.

Woody was extremely effective in his first term of office. With a democratic Congress he passed bills that started the Federal Reserve Commission, lowered tariffs and increased taxes to cover, and passed the Sherman Anti-Trust act. He also outlawed child labor and made railroad workers set to a forty hour week.

But The Great War broke out and America wanted to remain out of it. Even though he won his second term with the slogan that he kept the country out of war it was soon after that America had no choice but to enter the war.

Woodrow worked hard to make this a war to end all wars and create the 14 points for the peace conference. He wanted an organized just peace. The points included freedom of the seas, determination of certain territories but most of all it called for an establishment of nations that would guarantee the independence and integrity of all Nations.

Wilson also wrote the Covenant for the League of Nations. A job he took as all his and wanted nobody’s input. This was a great piece of idealistic writing but was vague on details. He also thought the League of Nations was more important than the peace treaty itself.

He didn’t appoint anyone from the Senate to be a part of the Peace Treaty and he did not inform any of the few delegates that did go with him what was happening. He wanted to do it all himself so that he would get all the credit. His arrogance and speech making was a put off to the other big four of the committee. Cllemenceau from France wanted to make the Germans pay dearly, Lloyd George had his agenda for Great Britian as did Orlando from Italy who wanted to seize land.

Meanwhile relations between Wilson and Congress deteriorated. Congress had to read the treaty in the newspaper, Wilson never even sent it to them. Ex President Taft was a republican but fought to have the League of Nations to go through.

“ I don’t like Wilson any better than you do, but I think I can rise above my personal attitude . . . in order to help along the world and the country. I don’t care who gets credit for the league of nations.

One of the main issues is how strong the League of Nations would be. As one writer put it:
The League of Nations must be either a strenuous body so transcending nationality as to be impossible of American approval or a futile thing of pious aspirations and impotent achievement.

The Senate wanted to know if it interfered with the Monroe Doctrine or if they must send men into a war that the United States wanted no part of. Would it interfere with National Sovereignty? A lot of details to be worked out that Wilson wanted no one else to amend or even make suggestions.

Meanwhile Wilson went back to Washington for a couple of weeks and let House deal with the negotiations. When Wilson came back he was upset about how much House compromised. This was the beginning of the end of their friendship.

Wilson’s main opponent was Henry Cabot Lodge. They hated each other and it almost became a personal vendetta to make sure the treaty didn’t pass. The Congress divided into three groups, a few who were behind Wilson and wanted it passed as it was, the irreconcilables who didn’t want the treaty at all, and the reservationist who wanted it to pass with amendment’s.

But Wilson could of passed it if he worked with the revisionists. His excuse for not negotiating on the amendments was that it would then have to go back to the Allies for their approval again and that they would want to make amendments. I can see why he didn’t want to open that can of worms yet he was about to kill his own baby.

It was believed the public wanted the treaty and an exhausted Wilson went on a national tour to convince the masses that it needed to be passed as it was. Although he had public support, people became weary and didn’t understand all the details and negotiations that went on.

Wilson became ill after this tour and eventually had a stroke. His wife Edith basically ran the country and wouldn’t let anyone see Woody.

The bottom line was that Wilson could of passed the document if he would of compromised with the revisionists. The revisions were slight but Wilson didn’t move an inch.

The League of Nations was established without the United States in it. It became a week organization that could not enforce anything including Hitlers establishment of power in Germany and the next World War. After WWII the United Nations was formed and sits in New York with limited power.

This is the first I have read of Wilson who in many ways was a great President but had many personality flaws that got in his way of accomplishing more.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

The work of Alexander and Juliette George represents a highly controversial attempt to explain why Wilson so impulsively sought control over the events he confronted. Writing a psychobiography of Wilson, the Georges sought to present a cohesive explanation for Wilson's seemingly irrational behavior. Though their work leads up to an explanation of Wilson's fatal intransigence over modifications in the League of Nations provisions of the Versailles treaty, their analysis applies equally well to Wilson's response to the "rising tide of revolution."

The Georges's argument is that Wilson's relationship with his hyper-critical, perfectionist father created latent anxieties in Wilson about his own self-worth and intellectual abilities. The need to be morally and intellectually superior, and constantly in control of his environment, was the result of this insecurity. Admittedly hypothetical, this explanation has the benefit of identifying a source for Wilson's utter irrationality in allowing Henry Cabbot Lodge to maneuver him into a defeat of his beloved League of Nations in the U. S. Senate. Appealing to an inner and subconscious logic, the Georges restored consistency to Wilson's behavior. The question remains whether restoring consistency is the historian's goal.

[Michael Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it is presented as a personality study of Wilson, House and their friendship---and it does some of that--it also provides a good overview of the Wilson presidency.

[Peter A. van Tilburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good analysis of the character of Wilson and how he repeated mistakes in various careers during his life. Tragic how his altruistic and in the mean time after WWII realised world view was hampered by his character. He was not capable of making a compromise somuch as winning and getting others to agree with him and exercising power over others.

[Jeremy]

Read selections from this while doing a research paper on President Wilson.