Hey, you know, it was about imperialism. How was the US ever going to have imperialism without joining the biggest imperialist cockfight in history? Imagine a world wherein the US tries to tell South American nations that they’re doing democracy wrong and that socialism is not supposed to be a valid outcome of free elections if they could all turn it around by saying “Oh yeah? Where were you during WWI?”. Can you imagine what a fool Wilson would look like if he did Yellow Peril and racial segregation without a good ol’ dose of White Man’s Burden, made in Britain?