Wilson and World War 1

I wasn't too sure what to expect from reading 'We Saved the World': WWI and America's Rise as a Superpower in Der Spiegel but it wasn't the following (emphasis mine):

The other side consisted of idealists; it was an approach which would later be named after Wilson himself. “Wilsonian foreign policy” is premised on the notion, established in the Puritan days of the founding fathers, that the United States should emulate the Biblical city on the hill, a role model for all other nations. ... Wilson managed to win over a majority in Congress with his fiery speech. Senator Ben Tillman described it as “the most startling and noblest utterance that has fallen from human lips since the Declaration of Independence.” The New York Times called it a “moral transformation” of American policy. The Germans, who had not been opposed to the idea of peace talks until then, responded nine days later with the resumption of unlimited submarine warfare.

I've read a fair bit on the events leading up to the start of the war as well as of the peace talks at Versailles which marked its conclusion. Am I missing an angle here wherein Wilson may have accidentally prolonged the "Great War" by a year or so due to idealism rather than a "realist" view of foreign policy, perhaps also resulting in a less sustainable treaty at its end (which may then have led to the next war)?

This seems like something worth further exploration. Anyone got pointers to any more information on this? Or is this just a red herring perhaps resulting, in part, from Der Spiegel being a German publication?