The world must be made safe for democracy

1. Words used by President Woodrow Wilson in 1917 to justify his call for a declaration of war on Germany. The words implied that Germany's militarism threatened democracy everywhere.

Example Sentences

Wilson stated that the United States had entered the war because “the world must be made safe for democracy”—an admirable goal, but very different from the motives that had plunged Europe into war three years earlier.

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Wilson is still revered by many as a progressive, internationalist statesman who led America into the first world war with a statement seen as foundational for a century of US foreign policy: “The world must be made safe for democracy.”

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“The world must be made safe for democracy,” Wilson said in his declaration of war to Congress.

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If “the world must be made safe for democracy,” then maybe you have to fiddle with the democratic process just enough to make sure we the people don’t make bad choices?

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And by declaring that “the world must be made safe for democracy” in 1917, Wilson articulated how the American people, from World War I to Iraq, would prefer to imagine their military incursions abroad: as high-minded acts of pure altruism, imbued with benevolence and devoid of mercenary self-interest.

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