ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the King-Crane Commission from the Syrian perspective. Diplomatic historians have usually cited the King-Crane Commission as either an example of US naïveté in the face of European realpolitik or as a representation of the principles that differentiate the "new diplomacy" from the old. During World War I and the subsequent peace negotiations, the French, British, and US governments all made declarations that indicated support for self-determination for the peoples of the Ottoman Empire. For Woodrow Wilson, the liberation of peoples and postwar self-determination were sine qua nons for US participation in the war. In his writings, Wilson argued that the expansion of international trade, print media, and, most important, public education during the previous century had created an autonomous realm of public opinion in most nations that facilitated the global diffusion of democratic ideals and structures. The members of the King-Crane Commission shared Wilson's understanding about the nature of public opinion.
