Post by hollister on Feb 26, 2008 18:33:00 GMT -7
U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe will present a commemorative reproduction of President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points to Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Radoslaw Sikorski, on Wednesday, February 27, 2008. The year 2008 marks the 90th anniversary of Wilson’s historic speech, in which he specified that an independent Polish state be reestablished after World War I in the area of its historical lands.
Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peace-making efforts.
"I am proud that an American President, Woodrow Wilson, before World War I even ended, advocated a free and independent Poland. It was the right thing to do. The United States appreciates the many sites in Poland named in memory of President Wilson," said U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe. “It’s an honor for me to present this gift to Poland on behalf of the American people.”
President Wilson typed the points on his own typewriter and then delivered them in a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress in January, 1918. President Wilson proposed an ambitious plan for lasting peace in Europe after World War I. The speech was delivered more than ten months before the Armistice with Germany ended World War I; the Fourteen Points subsequently became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and documented in the Treaty of Versailles.
The 13th point, which urged the restoration of Poland as a free and independent nation 125 years after it was erased from the maps of Europe, reads:
“An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.”
Wilson was awarded the 1919 Nobel Peace Prize for his peace-making efforts.
"I am proud that an American President, Woodrow Wilson, before World War I even ended, advocated a free and independent Poland. It was the right thing to do. The United States appreciates the many sites in Poland named in memory of President Wilson," said U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe. “It’s an honor for me to present this gift to Poland on behalf of the American people.”
President Wilson typed the points on his own typewriter and then delivered them in a speech to a joint session of the United States Congress in January, 1918. President Wilson proposed an ambitious plan for lasting peace in Europe after World War I. The speech was delivered more than ten months before the Armistice with Germany ended World War I; the Fourteen Points subsequently became the basis for the terms of the German surrender, as negotiated at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 and documented in the Treaty of Versailles.
The 13th point, which urged the restoration of Poland as a free and independent nation 125 years after it was erased from the maps of Europe, reads:
“An independent Polish state should be erected which should include the territories inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, which should be assured a free and secure access to the sea, and whose political and economic independence and territorial integrity should be guaranteed by international covenant.”