The Great Influenza and its Impact on American History

Woodrow Wilson was president of the United States for two terms from 1912 until 1920. He was a Progressive and a believer in government, and big government, to be the way that America should be governed.   Wilson won reelection in 1916 based on his having kept America out of the first world war raging in Europe.   On April 2, 1917 Wilson delivered his statement for war to Congress following Germany’s announcement to initiate unrestricted submarine warfare against all merchant vessels, in addition to the revelation of the Zimmerman note in which Germany tried to involve Mexico against the Southwestern United States. Wilson was determined to carry on total war until victory was achieved.

Not during the Civil War, nor World War II nor the Korean War had any chief executive taken control of every facet of government which impacted every citizen. He was an organizational genius and created a host of government institutions to assist in winning this war as if it were a crusade. (1) By the spring of 1918 a strong strain of influenza started hitting the troops in numerous camps that had been established; the flu caused numerous deaths among the troops and continued wreaking its havoc on troop ships sent to France with many of the troops arriving sick. American troops were involved in the final stages of the war for only a few months; the peace conference started in Paris in December of 1918.

There were many participants from many nations but it was the Big Four: President Woodrow Wilson of the United States, Prime Minister David Lloyd George of Great Britain, Premier Georges Clemenceau of France, and, of least importance, Italian Premier Minister Vittorio Orlando. who were responsible for the drafting of the peace treaty. Wilson’s 14 points and his determination to accomplish “A peace without victory” fell on the deaf ears of Georges Clemenceau who wanted to humiliate Germany by dismembering parts of Germany and giving them to other nations, by stationing occupation forces in Germany for 15 years as well as demanding reparations that would stifle Germany’s economy; Lloyd George feared this humiliation of Germany would do more harm than good in achieving a permanent peace; but because he won his position of Prime Minister by promising to be tough with Germany, he failed to heed what he knew to be right and sided with Clemenceau. The Italian representative was only interested in what Italy could get out of the peace treaty and uninterested in anything else.

In March of 1919 Wilson’s wife and Gary Grayson, Wilson’s personal White House physician, came down with influenza. Clemenceau and George both cane down with a moderate influenza.  In the meantime Wilson’s sessions with Clemenceau and George were brutal, Wilson fighting against a humiliation of Germany.  Wilson continued to fight insisting, “The only principle I recognize is that of the consent of the governed.” On April 2 after the negotiations for the day finished, he called the French “damnable”–for him, a deeply religious man, an extreme epithet. He told his press spokesman “We’ve got to make peace on the principles laid down and accepted or not make it at all.” (2)  Wilson was prepared to leave the conference with no treaty at all rather than concede to the French position. But in the evening of April 3 Wilson was hit with a serious attack of influenza, probably caught from Clemenceau.

Wilson had coughing so severe that it interfered with his breathing; he had profuse diarrhoea and a temperature of over 103 degrees.  A young aide in the American delegation got the flu at the same time as Wilson and died 4 days later at age 25. After 4 days in bed he got up and renewed his threat to leave the conference, even having a ship readied for departure. On April 8 Wilson insisted on continuing the conferences at his sickbed, but he was not the same man. (3)

After a matter of days Wilson suddenly agreed to all the demands of Clemenceau as well as demands of other countries such as Italy, China and Japan, abandoning all his principles.  The influenza had put him in deep depression, affecting his mind, and was unable to think or reason as he had before the attack of influenza. (4), (5) On May 7 Germany was presented the treaty, complaining bitterly that Wilson had violated all his principles designed to bring about true peace.  Four months later, after his return home to Washington, Wilson suffered a massive stroke, which incapacitated him to such an extent that Grayson and Wilson’s wife effectively took over the reigns of government until the next election in 1920.

One cannot absolutely say for sure that had President Wilson not been struck by such a debilitating bout of influenza, that he would have stuck to his principles, even carrying out his threat to leave the conference unless there was agreement on his desire to see peace without victory, instead of the virtual dismemberment of opposing nations in the war. Those who knew him well and his fighting spirit felt certain that he would have left the conference rather than give in to the demands of Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Had this been so, with Wilson either winning over their demands or leaving for home without a treaty, how history would have been changed without the specter of another world war only 20 years after the ratification of the treaty!.

But the great influenza of 1918 had so damaged the mind of the president that he was unable to accomplish his peace without victory. The American people should now be cognizant of the great pandemic of 1918 which brought about the demise of the mental capacities of President Wilson, but such is not the case. By the 1920s people had forgotten the horrific number of deaths due to influenza as well as the effect on one of the most powerful people of the time, President Wilson. All the great writers of the 20s and 30s make no mention of the great pandemic of 1918. No historians make mention of the great pandemic except Alfred Crosby. Most historians mention President Wilson having a small stroke prior to the peace treaty instead of influenza and a major stroke later which totally incapacitated him. Look in any history book and you will not see any mention of the 1918 pandemic and the 550,000 deaths of American civilians and military (a conservative estimate) due to influenza.  Compare this number with the combined battle deaths of U.S. Armed Forces in WWI, WWII, the Korean and Vietnam Conflicts of 423,000. The worldwide estimate of deaths due to this pandemic are a conservative 20 million. (6)

It was not a small stroke that brought about a bad peace treaty in 1919; it was the great pandemic of influenza between 1918 and 1919.  The only comforting result is Wilson’s inability to carry out his plan for the complete domination of American life through a strong, all powerful federal government.

References:

(1) The Great Influenza by John M. Barry, Penguin Books 2005, pp. 120 - 129
(2) ibid, p 383

(3) ibid, pp. 384, 385

(4) ibid, pp. 385, 386

(5) America’s Forgotten Pandemic by Alfred W. Crosby,     Cambridge University Press,......New York 2003,   p194

(6) Ibid, pp. 206, 207