Wilson was President of the United States during the first world war. On April 2nd 1917 he told Congress that "the world must be made safe for democracy", calling for America to enter the conflict. His intervention proved decisive, as American troops and industrial output tipped a long, bloody stalemate in the Allies' favour.
His vision for a new world order was embodied in a League of Nations that would provide for collective security and lower trade barriers, but it collapsed amid political squabbling at home. The League came into being but was a dead letter without America as a member. In foreign policy, American liberalism would come to be characterised by a struggle between Wilsonian thinking—interventionist, idealistic—and a more isolationist impulse.
Wilson's idealistic rhetoric provoked a backlash from suffragettes, who argued that his commitment to democracy abroad did not extend to half the population at home. Protesters outside the White House called him "Kaiser Wilson" and burned copies of his speeches. When jailed, they went on hunger strike. Wilson finally buckled when it became clear that women were powering the industrial war effort while men fought overseas. By 1920 enough states had ratified the 19th Amendment to add it to the constitution, granting women the vote.
During the first world war Wilson jailed anti-war activists and labour organisers. In 1919 and 1920 his attorney-general, A. Mitchell Palmer, conducted raids to round up thousands of suspected socialists in America's first "red scare".
In those days he was wiser than he is now -- he used to frequently take my advice.