Fourteen Points The " Fourteen Points " was a 1918 statement by United States President Woodrow Wilson that the Great War was being fought for a moral cause and for postwar peace in Europe . Europeans generally welcomed Wilson ' s intervention , but his main Allied colleagues ( Georges Clemenceau of France , David Lloyd George of the Great Britain , and Vittorio Emanuele Orlando of Italy ) were skeptical of the applicability of Wilsonian idealism . The U . S . had joined the Allies in fighting the Central Powers on April 6 , 1917 . Its entry into the war had in part been due to Germany ' s resumption of submarine warfare against merchant ships trading with France and Britain . However , Wilson had not entered into the war with any affinity with the long - festering almost tribal disputes between the Allies and Germany ; if America was going to fight , he would try to unlink the war to nationalistic disputes or ambitions . The need for high aims was made more important , when after the fall of the Russian Regime , the Bolsheviks disclosed secret treaties made between the allies . Wilson ' s speech also responded to Vladimir Lenin ' s Decree on Peace of November 1917 , immediately after the October Revolution , which proposed an immediate withdrawal of Russia from the war , calling for a just and democratic peace that was not compromised by territorial annexations , and led to the Treaty of Brest - Litovsk on March 3 , 1918 . The speech made by Wilson on January 8 , 1918 laid out a policy ( free trade , open agreements , democracy and self - determination ) . The Fourteen Points speech was the only explicit statement of war aims by any of the nations fighting in World War I . Some belligerents gave general indications of their aims , but most kept their post - war goals private . The Fourteen Points in the speech were based on the research of the Inquiry , a team of about 150 advisors led by foreign - policy advisor Edward M . House , into the topics likely to arise in the anticipated peace conference . Reaction . Reaction by the Allies . The speech was made without prior coordination or consultation with Wilson ' s counterparts in Europe . Clemenceau , upon hearing of the Fourteen points , was said to have sarcastically claimed " The good Lord only had ten ! " ( Le bon Dieu n ' en avait que dix ! ) . As the only public statement of war aims , it became the basis for the terms of the German surrender at the end of the First World War . After the speech , " Colonel " Edward M . House worked to secure the acceptance of the Fourteen Points by Entente leaders . On October 16 , 1918 , President Woodrow Wilson and Sir William Wiseman , the head of British intelligence in America had an interview . This interview was one reason why the German government accepted the Fourteen Points and the stated principles for peace negotiations . The report was made as negotiation points , and later the Fourteen Points were accepted by France and Italy on November 1 , 1918 . Britain later signed off on all of the points except the freedom of the seas . The United Kingdom also wanted Germany to make reparation payments for the war , and thought that that should be added to the Fourteen Points . The speech was delivered 10 months before the Armistice with Germany and became the basis for the terms of the German surrender , as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 . The Treaty of Versailles had little to do with the Fourteen Points and was never ratified by the U . S . Senate . Influence on the Germans to surrender . The speech was widely disseminated as an instrument of allied propaganda . Copies were also dropped behind German lines , to encourage the Central Powers to surrender in the expectation of a just settlement . Indeed , a note sent to Wilson by Prince Maximilian of Baden , the German imperial chancellor , in October 1918 requested an immediate armistice and peace negotiations on the basis of the Fourteen Points . Wilson ' s speech vs . Treaty of Versailles . President Wilson became physically ill at the beginning of the Paris Peace Conference , giving way to French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau to advance demands substantially different from Wilson ' s Fourteen Points . Clemenceau viewed Germany as having unfairly attained an economic victory over France , due to the heavy damage German forces dealt to France ' s industries even during the German retreat , and expressed dissatisfaction with France ' s allies at the peace conference . Notably , Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles , which would become known as the War Guilt Clause was seen by the Germans as assigning full responsibility for the war and its damages on Germany , however the same clause was included in all peace treaties and historian Sally Marks has noted that only German diplomats saw it as assigning responsibility for the war . The allies would initially assess 269 billion Mark s in reparations . In 1921 , this figure was established at 132 billion marks . However , only a fraction of this total had to be paid . The figure was designed to look imposing and show the public that Germany was being punished , while it also recognized what Germany could realistically pay . Germany ' s ability and willingness to pay that sum continue to be a topic of debate among historians . Germany was also denied an air force , and the German army was not to exceed 100 , 000 men . The text of the Fourteen Points had been widely distributed in Germany as propaganda prior to the end of the war , and was well known by the Germans . The differences between this document and the final Treaty of Versailles fueled great anger in Germany . German outrage over reparations and the War Guilt Clause is viewed as a likely contributing factor to the rise of national socialism . At the end of World War I , only two foreign armies had entered Germany , and both advances had been brief and ultimately trivial - the advance of Russian troops into the Eastern border of Prussia , and French troops occupying Mühlhausen / Mulhouse for a few days , both at the outbreak of the war . Otherwise no foreign army entered the German 1918 borders during the War . This made the peace seem unfairly punitive to many , particularly Germans . Nobel Peace Prize . Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize , for his peace - making efforts . He also inspired independence movements around the world including the March 1st Movement in Korea . The Fourteen Points in Rhetoric . Woodrow Wilson ' s 14 points relates to Rhetoric because its main point is to persuade . Wilson was the first national leader to address the world , including Western Europe , South America , and Asia through radio transmission . He hoped to persuade the governments and people of American and their new allies to support his vision , particularly a league of nations . Wilson ' s Fourteen Points address was also broadcast into the enemy nations , where he hoped he would persuade the German and Austrian people to pressure their governments to make peace . Wilson ' s first point states , " Open covenants of peace , openly arrived at , after which there shall be no private understandings of any kind but diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view . " Wilson ' s disdain for closed door meetings and secret agreements can surely be seen in the succeeding presidents ' rhetoric . The next piece of rhetoric in Wilson ' s speech is his ideas on egalitarianism applied on a global scale and enforced by this multi - national organization . Wilson states that he wishes for " Equality among the peoples of the world . . . An evident principle runs through the whole program I have outlined . It is the principle of justice to all peoples and nationalities and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and safety with one another , whether they be strong or weak . Admittedly this concept may never be applicable , let alone achieved by American diplomacy . The most Rhetorical influence of the speech was Wilson ' s closing paragraph : " For such arrangements and covenants we are willing to fight and to continue to fight until they are achieved ; but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire a just and stable peace such as can be secured only by removing the chief provocations to war , which this program does remove . We have no jealousy of German greatness , and there is nothing in this program that impairs it . We grudge her no achievement or distinction of learning or of pacific enterprise such as have made her record very bright and very enviable . We do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her legitimate influence or power . We do not wish to fight her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other peace - loving nations of the world in covenants of justice and law and fair dealing . We wish her only to accept a place of equality among the peoples of the world - - the new world in which we now live - - instead of a place of mastery . " This is Wilson ' s greatest point in his rhetoric . He gives justification to his persuasion and his reasoning of why the world wide peace is needed .