I can believe Wilson was completely ignorant about the ethnic & religious strife in Eastern Europe; as Americans we had little interaction with that part of the world. While Hitler had his share of aggression, initially he did start by re-creating a “German” state (with Austria and the Sudetenland, neither of which were taken by force). After that, it was more violent grabs for territory.
Czechoslovakia had similar problems to Austria-Hungary, but at least on a smaller scale in terms of numbers of ethnic groups and religions (compared to Yugoslavia, for instance - which had more of both and even different alphabets). I thought the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia in the 1990s showed an absence of animosity not seen in places like Yugoslavia and the USSR (Armenia vs. Azerbaijan, for instance). Czechoslovakia today is two countries; the rest of Austria-Hungary is ten more.
Fascinating history; thanks for the insights.
True story: I was living in Prague at the time of the break-up. An Englishman asked me with great consternation if I thought Wensceslas Square would be the scene of car bombings and snipings as in the former Yugoslavia. I had a good laugh and told him that neither Czechs nor Slovaks liked the union. The break-up would be more like a "Velvet Divorce" in which both sides said, Good riddance! And both Slovakia and the Czech Republic are doing pretty well these days on their own, thank goodness.