Woodrow Wilson, born in Virginia in 1856 and raised in Georgia and South Carolina, was the 28th president of the United States. He enacted significant reform laws during his two terms. Surprisingly, he was a political novice who had held only one public office before becoming president, but fortunately possessed considerable political skills. He was a brilliant and effective speaker, but he had difficulty working well with other government officials because he did not handle disagreements well. Wilson developed a progressive reform program and asserted his international leadership in building a new world order. In 1917, he proclaimed the United States' entry into World War I as a crusade to make the world "safe for democracy" (following George W. Bush, who used the phrase in his war on terrorism). In 1912, Wilson used his reputation as a politician. progressive with strong southern roots to run for president as a Democrat. He won this election with 435 electoral votes, defeating Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive) and William H. Taft (Republican). He then ran for office. The 1916 U.S. presidential election took place while Europe was involved in World War I. Woodrow Wilson campaigned for re-election by pledging to maintain neutrality in the Great War in Europe, while Charles Evans Hughes (the Republican candidate) called for a preparedness program. . Since Wilson had successfully pressured the Germans to suspend unrestricted submarine warfare, it was difficult for Hughes to attack Wilson's campaign. Wilson decided that only a league of nations capable of confronting potential threats with the strength of its united military would help maintain world peace. He attempted to act as a peacemaker in December 1916, when he asked the Central Powers and the Allies to announce their terms for ending the war. In a speech to the Senate in January 1917, he called for "peace without victory." But in this call for peace, he did not include Germany. Wilson believed that Germany had wrongly invaded Belgium (which was neutral) and used its submarines illegally. This did not please the Germans, who were now beginning to believe that U.S. neutrality was not helping them. For this reason, the Germans declared on January 31, 1917 that their submarines would freely attack any ship opposing their interests. This meant that no American ship would be safe. During this period, American citizens strongly supported the Allies, but at the same time did not want to go to war..