text:  a great many people how we got involved and if there was ever any president who did not want to get involved in a in a war like this it was Woodrow Wilson who was then president of the United States Woodrow Wilson came into office saying I know nothing about foreign policy it would be an irony of history if I had to deal with foreign affairs he appointed as his first secretary of state William Jennings Bryan who was a near pacifist and he was appointed not because of any foreign policy