The 1902 Coal Strike

It was described as a goodwill tour.

Wilson demanded an apology from Germany and stayed his neutral course as long as possible, but Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare, however, was an intolerable affront to America's dignity and honor. On April 2, 1917, Wilson finally asked Congress for a formal declaration of war.

Wilson proved to be a surprisingly effective war president. Recognizing what he did not know, he delegated military decisions to professional soldiers.
The boost given to the Allies by American money, supplies, and manpower tipped the scales against the Germans, who sued for peace and laid down their arms with the Armistice of November 11, 1918.

On the Eastern Front, Russia compounded the problem. Lenin ordered to publish the Tsar's secret treaties, agreements on how possessions of Germany were to be divided. To many it was evidence that the war not only wasn’t about democracy, but about the expansion of the imperial ambitions of the Allied countries.

To contrarrest this impression, President Wilson created his Fourteen Points, a program for a world without imperialism or secret treaties,  outlining his vision for ending World War 1 in a way that would prevent such a conflagration from occurring again. 

Half of the Fourteen Points were related to specific issues between the combatant countries, the other half were a vision for peace.

In his message to the Congress on December 3, 1912, Taft expressed his decision to "substitute dollars for bullets". That meant to use the U.S. economic influence to force Latin American countries (Central America and the Caribbean) to make agreements which benefited the U.S.