ABSTRACT
The reader has probably been bored by the detailed examination of Woodrow Wilson's words and actions in the months of February, March and April 1919. The whole stream of human life may be deflected by the character of a single individual. If Miltiades had fled from Marathon or Charles Martel had turned tail at Poitiers, Western civilization would have developed differently. The psychological consequences of Wilson's moral collapse were perhaps as serious as the political and economic consequences. Mankind needs heroes, and just as the hero who is faithful to his trust raises the whole level of human life, so the hero who betrays his trust lowers the level of human life. Wilson preached magnificently, promised superbly, then fled. If Wilson were alive and would submit to psychoanalysis it might be possible to discover exactly why and when he abandoned the fight he had promised to make.
