The Fourteen Points Address
Delivered to a joint session of the U.S. Congress on January 8, 1918, outlining principles for world peace following World War I, including self-determination and the League of Nations.
Full Transcript
We entered this war because violations of right had occurred which touched us to the quick and made the life of our own people impossible unless they were corrected and the world secured once for all against their recurrence.
What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, determine its own institutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other peoples of the world as against force and selfish aggression.
The program of the world’s peace, therefore, is our program: open covenants of peace, openly arrived at; freedom of the seas; removal of economic barriers; reduction of national armaments; and a general association of nations.
Defining Key Excerpts
"The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our program; and that program, the only possible program, as we see it, is this."
"A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants."
Bring this Speech to your Wall
Get this historic speech professionally typeset, printed on structured canvas, and delivered in a solid wood frame.