League of What?

League of What?

Woodrow Wilson won national, perhaps even international praise for his brief but successfully involvement in World War I. Before the end of the war, President Wilson presented his “Fourteen Points”. Although the overall agreement of the Allied and Associated Powers was that Germany was to accept responsibility as the cause of the war, Wilson believed that if the Germans were punished too harshly, a future war would be inevitable. His proposition of the creation of a League of Nations was intended to insure protection against an aggressor such as Germany in the future: one Nation supporting the other. As a result of the Treaty, Germany lost its Imperialistic powers in Africa, 10% of its national territory, a majority of its iron and steel, had its army reduced to a mere 100,000 troops, weapon import/export prohibited, and various items of warfare disallowed. Wilson presented his “Fourteen Points” to the Allies but his fourteenth point, the establishment of a League of Nations, was not immediately accepted. Wilson proposed: "A general association of nations must be formed under specific covenants for the purpose of affording mutual guarantees of political independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike." Although Wilson was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to establish and promote the League of Nations, the United States never joined the Treaty because of the heavy opposition by an influential Republican Senator from Massachusetts named Henry Cabot Lodge.

On August 12, 1919, Lodge delivered a speech to Congress that many historians claim played a major role in Congress’s choice to disagree with the League of Nations. In his speech, Lodge talks about his love for the United States and how his love for America should be a unique type of love that is not shared by a love to another affiliation. He repeatedly tries to present a certain argument: “I have always loved one flag and I cannot share that devotion [with] a mongrel banner created for a League”. Putting the United States “first” and refusing to accept another association to belong to shows that Lodge and perhaps even the entire Republican party was opposed to major involvement in Europe.

“Internationalism, illustrated by the Bolshevik and by the men to whom all countries are alike provided they can make money out of them, is to me repulsive. National I must remain, and in that way I like all other Americans can render the amplest service to the world. The Unites States is the world’s best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very existence”.

Senator Lodge presents a valid argument to the President saying that America has a plethora of issues within its own borders and dedicating such an effort to deal with the