Wilson and Eisenhower's contrasting visions of America's international role

Inaugural Addresses

Wilson and Eisenhower

Woodrow Wilson and Dwight D. Eisenhower have proven to be two of the few unanimously respected presidents in the modern era. Both led the country at a time when the country was being compelled to take on a greater role in international affairs. Their inaugural addresses illustrate their understanding of the country's role. Wilson's address envisions the outside world as distant and benevolent while Eisenhower's address envisions the outside world as insidious and fast approaching.

Wilson's Inaugural Address

Wilson is clearly attempting to establish protections for the common man in the face of exploitation by the corporate/government cartel, observing that "The great Government we loved has too often been made use of for private and selfish purposes, and those who used it had forgotten the people." These forgotten people were the faceless "constituent parts" of the American Industrial machine, of Big Trusts, which had dominated American government since the end of the Civil War.

Before proceeding with the rest of the address, Wilson makes sure to illustrate the damage which corporate interests was causing in the U.S. He criticizes "A tariff which cuts us off from our proper part in the commerce of the world, violates the just principles of taxation… a banking and currency system & #8230; perfectly adapted to concentrating cash and restricting credits; an industrial system which…holds capital in leading strings, restricts the liberties and…opportunities of labor, and exploits without renewing or conserving the natural resources of the country." Every element of Wilson's description was a direct indictment on the wealthy few industrialists who dominated the U.S.

Wilson emphasized that American industrial success had come at a great cost to the laborers who created it. He emphasized "the human cost, the cost of lives snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and broken, the fearful physical and spiritual cost to the men and women and children upon whom the dead weight and burden of it all has fallen stressed that "Wilson revisits the Machine metaphor throughout the speech, imploring that "Society must see to it that it does not itself crush or weaken or damage its own constituent parts."

In explaining his solutions, Wilson did not revert to his former persona of the stately professor, but of a firebrand preacher. He framed his goals as a moral imperative, explaining that it is "Our duty is to cleanse, to reconsider, to restore, to correct the evil without impairing the good…" However, he was careful to temper these convictions with more rational inducements, clarifying that "These are matters of justice," "not pity." Wilson also attempts to temper the strong anti-business tone of his speech, pointing out the benefits his policies will have on industry: "Sanitary laws, pure food laws, and laws determining conditions of labor which individuals are powerless to determine for themselves are intimate parts of the very business of justice and legal efficiency."

Eisenhower's Address

Eisenhower's address attempted to mobilize the country's efforts, with some vaguely foreign, insidious threat to civilization, as if the country was still at war,. Although it was Eisenhower's inauguration, he seemed to be inaugurating the U.S.' new position as guarantor of peace and order, trying to motivate it to strengthen itself so as to do its job right.

Because the U.S. did not have many tangible, material problems at the time, Eisenhower, unlike Wilson, had frame the problem in broad, vague, and strangely ultimate terms. He asserts that the "forces of good and evil are massed and armed and opposed as rarely before in history." Eisenhower paints the global political picture as the dawn of a new historical epoch, that the "Masses of Asia have awakened to strike off shackles of the past. Great nations of Europe have fought their bloodiest wars." However, he implies that it is uncertain whether this new epoch is benevolent or malicious, asking Americans "Are we nearing the light -- a day of freedom and of peace for all mankind? Or are the shadows of another night closing in upon us?"

In explaining his plan, Eisenhower employed a conspicuously organized, almost military style containing nine strategic objectives, or what he called "rules of conduct." Eisenhower promised Americans protection from danger through the observance of "eternal moral and natural laws" and the refinement of what appear to be distinctly American virtues, the "love of truth, pride of work, devotion to country." Eisenhower thought the best outlet for American energies and the best defense against America's threats was to produce as if it was wartime. Perhaps Eisenhower believed that war brought out the best in people, as he seemed to be motivating individual Americans on to moral excellence in the conquest of omnipresent threats.

Conclusion

Wilson's emphasis on the protection of the powerless multitude has been reflected in Democrat policy throughout the 20th Century, in the Great Deal, in unemployment insurance, and the party's opposition to corporate interests. Meanwhile, Eisenhower's vision of the Republican Party's mission, to keep the country strong, prosperous, and safe from Communism, is reflected in the Cold War, trade liberalization policies, and the post-9/11 Terrorism policy. Thus, the position expounded in the respective speeches came to define the speaker's respective parties into the modern era.

Although the challenges confronting the United States have changed since the inaugurations of Wilson and Eisenhower, what has not changed is the American desire for prosperity and the right to enjoy that prosperity in peace and security. Indeed, it is not only a desire, it has become an expectation. In their inaugural addresses, each president crafted his party's basic approach to meeting these expectations.