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President Woodrow Wilson, left, and French President Raymond Poincare in Paris

BARBARA KLEIN: In the weeks before the conference, Wilson chose members of his negotiating team. Everyone expected him to include one or more senators. After all, the Senate would vote to approve or reject the final peace treaty. Wilson refused. Instead, he chose several close advisers to go with him to Paris.

Today, American history experts say Wilson's decision was a mistake. Failure to put senators on the negotiating team, they say, cost him valuable support later on.

In early December, President Wilson sailed to France. The voyage across the Atlantic Ocean lasted nine days. He arrived at the Port of Brest on December thirteenth. Wilson felt very happy. Thirteen, he said, was his lucky number.

DOUG JOHNSON: French citizens stood along the railroad that carried him from Brest to Paris. They cheered as his train passed. In Paris, cannons were fired to announce his arrival. And a huge crowd welcomed him there. The people shouted his name over and over again -- Wilson! Wilson! Wilson! The noise sounded like thunder. French Premier Georges Clemenceau commented on the event. He said: "I do not think there has been anything like it in the history of the world."

People cheered President Wilson partly to thank America for sending its troops to help fight against Germany. But many French citizens and other Europeans also shared Wilson's desire to establish a new world of peace. They listened with hope as he made an emotional speech about a world in which everyone would reject hatred -- a world in which everyone would join together to end war, forever.