In one of her television performances, the journalist and media manager Margarita Simonyan brought an aggressive quote from the alleged authorship of the 28th US president. We checked whether Wilson pronounced these words.

December 1, 2021 Guest of the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov”, editor -in -chief of RT channel Margarita Simonyan She said: “Thomas Jefferson, a pale young man with a gaze burning, who wrote an independence declaration with which, in fact, America, as a nation began, began, wonderful words ... In addition to the declaration of independence, he also said such words, less known:“ If there is one trait that is in the blood and flesh of every American, this is that we will never conquerors. ” Since Thomas Jefferson said this, America led hundreds of conquering wars and wars in different parts of the world. And after not much time in a historical context after Thomas Jefferson, another American president, Woodlo Wilson, said the opposite. He said: “If the powers closed the doors to us, we will hack these doors. If our financiers received privileges in some country, the state should use all its military power in order to defend these privileges, even if we have to break the sovereignty of these powers.” What, in fact, America has been doing it since then. ”

Simonyan words have spread resources such as "Tsargrad", "Politics Today", Ireactor, "Russian online" and a number of other sites.

The first thing that can be striking when checking the authenticity of Wilson's words is the complete absence of a quote in Russian-speaking online sources until December 2021, at least in the wording of Simonyan or close to it. However, there is an publication in which you can really read something similar and which the editor -in -chief RT almost certainly got acquainted with. It's about the bestseller of Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznik "Unpressed History of the United States"which came out in 2012 as an addition to the documentary of the same name mini-series. In the introduction to the book you can find the above Jefferson's words, And quote from Major General Samedley Batler: “War is simply a racket,” which Simonyan will mention further. But at the beginning of the first chapter It is said: “In 1907, Wilson, then the President of Princeton University, said:“ The doors of the powers, locked now, must be hacked ... The privileges received by the financiers should be guarded by representatives of the [our] state, even if the sovereignty of those countries that are not inclined to meet us are disturbed. ”

In general, a similar quote is present in the original publication (more precisely, in one of the publications). But the translation of its more complete option, which can Meet In many political science work: “Since trade ignores national borders, and the manufacturer insists that the whole world is a market, the flag of his country must follow him and the doors of the nations that are closed to him must be knocked out ... concessions received by financiers should be protected by state ministers, even if the sovereignty of countries that do not want it are disturbed. It is necessary to purchase a colony or base them so that not a single useful corner of the world is overlooked or remains unused. ”

As you can see, Wilson still set out something similar, but there are two more or less significant points.

1. At the time of pronouncing the phrase in 1907, Thomas Woodrow Wilson was not the president of the United States or even a politician, but to scientists and part -time rector of Princeton University, who read Lecture At Columbia University. Thus, this thought could not be served as the point of view of the head of the power. Therefore, the translation “We will hack these doors” is incorrect - the original says “The doors must be knocked out”, and this is advice to their own authorities, and not a threat to strangers.

Similar inaccuracy is allowed with a quote by Thomas Jefferson, who used the words given by Simonyan in his personal letter, not a public statement, and did it in 1791, also not being the US president. In addition, he did not write "we will never be conquerors," but "we must have nothing to do with conquests."

2. Wilson did not say: “The state must use all its military power in order to defend these privileges,” he mentioned only the actions of state ministers. And although he is a little further speaks About the economic confrontation as the “seed of war”, the quote considered by us does not become less distorted from this.

Thus, the quote of Thomas Woodlo Wilson was supplemented by the words about the use of military power, which are not even in the Russian translation of the book of Stone and the Forge. Another problem is that neither Wilson nor Jefferson at the time of the appearance of the states were the heads of state.