On April 3, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson suddenly collapses during the Paris Peace Conference.
He has contracted the deadly Spanish Flu.
It nearly derails the peace talks.
Does this change the outcome of the Peace Treaty?
Did the Great Influenza Pandemic somehow indirectly set the stage for World War Two?
Next on Marking History.
This is an historic marker for our 28th President of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson.
The marker is located here in Augusta, Georgia in front of his boyhood home.
Young Wilson's earliest memories were of the Civil War,
seeing Union soldiers march into town
and watching his mother tend to wounded Confederate soldiers in a local hospital.
The horrors of the Civil War would define him as a peace advocate in years to come.
When World War I broke out in Europe, President Wilson's primary goal
was to maintain American neutrality and to help broker peace between the warring parties.
On May 1st, 1915, the luxury liner, SS Lusitania set sail from New York City
on the way to Liverpool, England.
Six days later a German submarine torpedoed the British passenger ship.
1,198 lost their lives. Much of America called for war, but Wilson remained steadfast.
In November 1916, Wilson secured a second term as US President
with the campaign slogan - “He Kept Us Out of War.”
Inauguration was March 5, 1917.
Only 70 days later, things changed dramatically.
On April 2, 1917, President Wilson called upon Congress to declare war.
Why had Wilson converted from peace advocate to war president?
One reason was the fact that German U-boats continued to sink American merchant ships in neutral waters.
The defining moment came when the American public learned about a secret German proposal,
written in code, to ally with Mexico if the United States entered the war.
The public outcry against Germany
finally persuaded the President to abandon America's neutrality.
President Wilson and the nation mobilized to support the war effort,
building an effective military and employing the newest technological innovations.
To help with the war effort, Wilson established the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,
which decades later became NASA.
On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, of 1918
the boom of artillery guns abruptly stopped across Europe,
signaling the end of the Great War.
At the same time, the Great Pandemic Influenza of 1918
was just beginning to emerge worldwide.
And The President of the United States was not to be spared.
In April 1919, Wilson traveled to the Paris Peace Conference talks on ending the Great War.
Soon after arriving, the president of the United States collapsed.
Wilson became ill with a fever.
Fits of violent coughing left him nearly unable to breathe.
Wilson's condition deteriorated so quickly that his personal physician, Dr. Cary Grayson, thought he had been poisoned.
But it wasn't poison. It was the dreaded Spanish Flu!
President Wilson was so ill that the peace talks were nearly derailed.
Grayson wrote that the night Wilson became ill “was one of the worst through which I have ever passed.
I was able to control the spasms of coughing but his condition looked very serious.”
Wilson's entourage was worried not just about his illness, but also about the talks falling apart
because of what the illness was doing to his behavior.
Wilson wasn't the same man.
He tired easily and quickly lost focus and patience.
He seemed paranoid, worried about being spied upon by housemaids.
He acted like a man with residual neurological problems stemming from a recent bout of Spanish flu.
The talks went on,
with Wilson relying on deputies before he could return to the talks himself.
During the Peace negotiations, it is not surprising
that the French Prime Minister, Georges Clemenceau, was resolute on revenge.
Having personally witnessed two German attacks on French soil in the last 40 years,
he was adamant that Germany never attacks France again.
His chief goal was to weaken Germany militarily, strategically, and economically.
Ultimately, a weakened President Wilson yielded to several French demands
that he had previously said were non-negotiable.
The Treaty of Versailles had many harsh effects on Germany.
Germany was required to pay the Allies $33 billion in reparations for war damages.
When the Great Depression struck in 1929,
it became more difficult for the government to pay the reparations.
This created further problems in Germany, which eventually led to the failure of the Weimar Republic
and the rise of the Nazi Party to power.
So questions now come to mind.
Would the vindictive peace terms have been softened if President Wilson had been healthy?
Did the Spanish Flu set the stage for World War Two?
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If history can be taught with stories, it can never be forgotten.