About This Lesson
Soon after taking office, President Woodrow Wilson and his first Secretary of State, William Jennings Bryan, rejected the Dollar Diplomacy that had guided U.S. relations with Latin America during the administration of William Taft. In ways consistent with his domestic Progressive reform goals and his faith in the superiority of American democracy, Wilson resolved that the United States would only recognize Latin American governments founded upon law and order, "not upon arbitrary or irregular force."
