failure of the treaty of versailles
...d the absence of the US would be vital to the League’s efficiency in its purpose. When President Wilson returns home with the treaty, he confronts much opposition. He has a hard time convincing the Senate to approve the Treaty. The Senate never gives in because of many flaws that the Treaty has. Some people including Herbert Hoover believed it was too harsh. Others, as described in The New Republic, May 24, 1999 (Document B), didn’t think the treaty really did any good because it shifted the set of colonial rulers to another set, instead of eliminating the imperialism. Document B states that the Treaty of Versailles will do nothing to fix the problems that initiated the war. The main opposition to the treaty in the US was the debate over the League of Nations. This problem cannot be more precisely described as it is by William Borah’s speech in United States Senate on December, 6 1918 (Document A). He clarifies and makes known that we cannot simply give our power to a foreign authority and be their slave. Conservative senators, headed by Henry Cabot Lodge, were suspicious of the provision for joint economic and military action against aggression, even though it was voluntary. They wanted the same constitution right of Congress to declare war also included in the treaty. In addition, a few opponents from Congress believed that the League of Nations threatened the US foreign policy of staying clear of European affairs, the Monroe Doctrine. For all the above opposition the Senate doesn’t and will not accept the Treaty. Woodrow Wilson’s clarifies in his speech, Appeal to the Country, October 3, 1920, (Document G), that the senate has killed democratic hopes. He mentions that so many good things can result from this treaty but yet the Senate doesn’t even give it a chance. He quotes “The founders of the Government thought of America as the light of the world as created to lead the world in the assertion of the rights of peoples and the rights of free nations…This light the opponents of the League would quench”(document G). But like I’ve mentioned before, the senate was at fault for the defeat of the Treaty, but just as equally in fault was Wilson. One thing is for sure, if Wilson had been more willing to accept a compromise on the League, it is quite likely that the Senate would have approved the treaty. However, he was exhausted from his efforts at Versailles, and as a result, became more cold, aloof, and rigid than ever, and he refused to agree with any compromises. This is one of the many reasons why Wilson is also to blame for the rejection of the treaty. It is comically depicted in the Tribune Media Services (Document E) that Wilson is pushing for a bad marriage, in other words the “US to foreign entanglements.” The bride is unattractive and the groom doesn’t look happy. The Senate is breaking a window to save the American Public and our constitution. This depiction shows that it was a bad idea to even think about joining the League of Nations because it is not to America’s convenience. Wilson’s exhaustion caused him to have a severe stroke in October of 1919, making him invalid for the rest of his life. Wilson could have smothered the concerns of Senators such as Lodge if he had chosen the membership of the American delegation more carefully. When the treaty came up for vote in the Senate in November of 1919, Lodge introduced a number of amendments, the most important of which qualified the terms under which the US would enter the League of Nations. Lodge and a large group of senators feared that US membership in the League would force the US to form its foreign policy in accord with other members of the League. Although the Senate rejected the amendments, it also failed to ratify the treaty. The idiocy and stubbornness of Wilson is emphasized in “The League of Nations,” by WEB Du Bois, in Crisi...