1, the process of making a peace treaty and getting it approved by Congress. Wilson is the core figure in the whole process of concluding the peace treaty. During the war, Wilson put forward the "fourteen-point" principle of post-war peace in1918. Wilson is one of the four giants of the Paris Peace Conference. Participated in the formulation of the peace treaty. After the peace conference, he returned to the United States, and Wilson made unsuccessful but desperate efforts to win the approval of the peace treaty by Congress. The reason for Wilson's failure will be analyzed later. Let's take a look at the process first. 19 18 12.4 Wilson left the United States for Europe on the George Washington. 65438+February 14 Wilson and his party arrived in Paris, nearly a month before the opening of the Peace Conference (65438+ 10/2). Wilson visited Europe for three weeks before the meeting. The European people who yearned for peace and stability welcomed Wilson as the savior. Wherever Wilson went, there was a sea of people and unprecedented pomp. Wilson also lost no time in promoting "peace, justice and freedom" and his beloved "League of Nations". This is really Wilson's best moment. By the time of the peace conference, the situation was very different. Wilson was exhausted in the face of Clemenceau and Lloyd George. Wilson made a series of concessions for the League of Nations: Japan-Shandong issue; France-security treaty; British mandate rule. However, it should be pointed out that without Wilson, the peace treaty might be more harsh, and Wilson finally stuffed his beloved League of Nations Covenant into the Versailles peace treaty. I won't elaborate on this aspect, because we learned about the struggle at the peace meeting in the past. Wilson's most difficult moment was not in Europe, but in America. But Wilson didn't realize this. He decided that Congress had ratified the peace treaty. Although he knew there were objections, Wilson thought that he had made enough compromises at the peace conference table and would not give in this time. He insisted: "The Senate will ratify the peace treaty." The Senate will judge the hospitality, not Will. In fact, while Wilson was still dealing with the problems of Clemenceau, Lloyd George and others in Paris, the domestic opposition had begun to act and accumulate strength. 191811. As a result, the Republican Party won a majority in the Senate, though only two more votes. The Democratic Party is still relatively consistent, supporting Wilson. At least, they can listen to Wilson and keep in line with the outside world. Opposition is mainly concentrated in * * * and the party. The composition of the opposition is very complicated, with three factions. One school is a moderate conservative. They agreed to ratify the peace treaty. They support the League of Nations and sincerely hope that the United States can join the League of Nations, but they have some reservations. They don't agree with the amendment, thinking that such a change is too big, which may lead to renegotiation with the allies and may bankrupt the League of Nations. The problem of the Covenant of the League of Nations is not serious either, as long as reservations are made. There are 12 people in this school, and Kellogg is the representative. The second faction is irreconcilable. *** 14, 6 of whom are members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Among these six people are the most powerful senators, such as Paula, Johnson and Lafleur. Politically, they belong to the progressive school. From the beginning, they opposed the war, the peace treaty and the League of Nations. I think this is all for the profiteering of big businessmen and financiers. They are opposed to the achievements made by the United States in defending Britain, France, Italy and Japan. Oppose the security treaty signed by the United States and France, and disagree with the United States undertaking similar obligations in other parts of the world. Johnson once commented on the League of Nations: "It means ending and betraying liberalism in the new world, which is the victory of pragmatic diplomacy in the old world and the humiliating end of American idealism." This view represents the progressive theory. In foreign policy, it is sincere isolationism, although they also emphasize that isolationism is not desirable. The last faction is about 20 reservists. The leader of this school is Loki. Rocky is not an isolationist. They are fully aware that the United States has the strength to act as a world leader. He is even more expansionist than Wilson and can transcend the influence of isolationism tradition. But they are different from Wilson. They should accurately use the strength of the United States to promote the interests of the United States, and they don't want those moral lectures. Loki is in favor of participating in World War I, the post-war peace treaty with Germany, and the security treaty signed by the United States and France. But he opposed the Covenant of the League of Nations, which made the United States assume vague and unlimited obligations. What he needs is a specific and limited obligation, which is decided by the United States itself and is certainly beneficial to the United States. After Germany signed the peace treaty, Wilson returned to the United States to continue to strive for the approval of the peace treaty, but he chose not to compromise and defeated his opponent. Therefore, the United States is divided into two factions. The focus of the struggle is whether the League of Nations lets the United States control the world or the United States is controlled. There is another side to this struggle: whether the President controls foreign affairs or Congress controls foreign affairs. This in turn led to an interpretation of the Constitution. 19 19 In July, Wilson submitted a peace treaty to Congress. Publicize his purpose again. Wilson's determination to force the Senate to ratify the peace treaty caused widespread dissatisfaction in * * * and the party. Loki resolutely rejected the peace treaty. He believes that the peace treaty does not meet the requirements of * * * and the party earlier. The new clause of withdrawing from the League of Nations is inappropriate; The exclusion of domestic issues from the League of Nations did not retain American control over immigration, because it was up to the Executive Yuan to decide what was domestic and what was international. The Monroe Doctrine amendment is not satisfactory. It is worthless to defend Monroe Doctrine, because Monroe Doctrine is an American policy, not a regional understanding or an international agreement. (Since Monroe Doctrine is regarded as a regional understanding in the Covenant of the League of Nations, it does not conflict with the collective security principle of the Covenant. ) Lodge also announced that the Senate should reserve the right to interpret Monroe Doctrine for the American people. In addition, the revised peace treaty still retains article 10, which is also the target of their criticism. Loki also criticized Wilson for not intervening in Fulham and other "purely European issues" at the peace conference. Rocky also criticized Wilson for not giving in to Japan on the Shandong issue, and Japan's so-called racial equality was only in exchange for Shandong's interests. But Loki still hopes to ratify the peace treaty as soon as possible, because his attention is actually in the League of Nations, and he hopes that the United States can use the League of Nations to control the world. Rocky is in favor of signing a security treaty with France. "If there is no League of Nations and Article 10, there will be a good opportunity. What is the future now, I can't say. " This is rocky's conclusion. This is actually the principle of balance of power, not the principle of collective security put forward by Wilson. In order to limit the president's power in foreign affairs, Lodge took control of the Senate. * * * and the party only have two more votes than the Democratic Party in the Senate. Loki tried his best to avoid the inner-party division of * * and the party on the issue of the League of Nations. His demand for Root (a veteran and a party official) is: "Your basic position is to seize our control of the Senate and vote on the peace treaty." Because Wilson did not accept Root's amendment to the Covenant, Loki asked Root to strive for the necessary amendment. Loki's strategy is to rely on * * * and the Senate's inner-party unity to amend the Covenant. Lodge was worried that Paula would weaken or compete for his leadership position, so he asked Bevorich to explain to Paula the importance of inner-party unity. Paula and rocky are in agreement in defeating Wilson. On April 29, the two reached an agreement. Paula accepted Rocky's leadership and acquiesced in his revised plan. When Congress held a special session on May 19, 2009, all Republican senators and Lodge joined forces to form the Senate. So rocky can decide the composition of the Committee. In the Council on Foreign Relations, he deliberately chose hardliners, such as George Moses (New Hampshire) and Henry S New (Indiana), and excluded people like Kellogg who he thought might be inclined to the League of Nations. He wants to be foolproof and can't risk losing control. Rocky is a cold and realistic politician. He is an important person, and we will continue to talk about him in the future. Rocky is deliberately trying to bring down Wilson politically and establish the political authority of himself and the Senate, because he believes that only the Senate has the right to decide foreign affairs, which is also the view of many senators. But he didn't really want to bring down the League of Nations. Proceeding from reality, he still hopes that the United States can play a role in controlling the world in the League of Nations. There is no fundamental difference between him and Wilson, but many other problems are involved in the struggle, which complicates the problem. In addition, in addition to * * * and the party's two more votes in the Senate, another disadvantage of the Democratic Party is that its leader in the Senate is Hitchcock. Although he is bent on helping Wilson, he is no match for Lodge and others in eloquence and congressional political talent. Wilson didn't really respect his opinion. He actually became Wilson's spokesman. Therefore, the Democratic Party is obviously at a disadvantage in Congress. 1965438+April 3, 2009. Loki showed Wilson a document signed by more than 1/3 senators when Wilson returned home for a short stay. * * * 37 senators signed the bill through a round-robin vote. The document pointed out that the proposed Covenant of the League of Nations was not acceptable in form. The number of signatures is enough to veto the Covenant. But Wilson still takes this lightly. His idea is that the Senate must listen to the voice of the people, and he firmly believes that the people are on the side of the League of Nations that he advocates. This estimate is actually unfounded. When Wilson came back from the peace meeting with a peace treaty and asked Congress for approval, everything was not as simple as he thought. Rocky used delaying tactics to gain time and form an effective opposition alliance. The Foreign Affairs Committee spent two weeks reading 264 pages of the peace treaty, and then invited 60 people to attend the hearing to testify and speak. Wilson waited patiently at first, and met with members of the Foreign Affairs Committee on August 19 for three hours. The atmosphere was good, but it didn't work. Wilson turned to people. On September 3, Wilson began his lecture tour, from east to west, across the continental United States. On September 25, he traveled 8,000 miles and delivered 40 speeches. This trip killed Wilson, who returned to Washington early due to illness, and suffered from a stroke and paralysis on 10/0/2, and never got sick again. During this period, the opposition was also very active. The intransigent also made a travel speech, and Johnson, Paula and others also toured from east to west to publicize their views. Rocky decided that Wilson's speech would have no influence on the Senate. He mainly concentrated on striving for the unity of the three factions within the party. In particular, it is necessary to prevent moderates from reconciling with Wilson. Just then, in order to win over the moderates, Lodge changed his position of insisting on amending the reservation clause. It is not to change the contents of the Covenant of the League of Nations, but to propose that the United States has reservations about certain contents. At that time, Rocky proposed the reservation of 12, and the other two reservations, totaling 14. The four most important ones are: the United States reserves the right to withdraw from the League of Nations, as long as it notifies and fulfills its obligations two years in advance; The United States reserves the right to decide what is domestic affairs and how to handle its own domestic affairs, mainly referring to issues such as immigration and tariffs; The United States reserves the right to interpret Monroe Doctrine, which means that European countries should not interfere in American affairs; The United States reserves the right to decide whether to fulfill its obligations under Article X. 14 There are other reservations. For example, Loki originally opposed the Shandong issue and now agrees to the arrangement of the Shandong issue, but the United States wants to reserve the right to remain neutral in the Sino-Japanese conflict, which is actually paving the way for revising the Shandong issue. In addition, the control of foreign affairs must be returned to Congress, and American representatives to the League of Nations and other international organizations must be approved by Congress. Then there is the disarmament obligation stipulated in Article 8 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The United States should reserve the right to develop its own military forces when necessary to prevent war or aggression. All these reservations were adopted by the Foreign Affairs Committee. In this case, Wilson said that he would never compromise, especially Article 10. He believes that the absence of article 10 will ruin the possibility of the League of Nations to maintain world peace. Later historians have different opinions about Wilson's uncompromising attitude. Some people think Wilson need not be so opinionated. Britain and France can accept Loki's reservation and acquiesce that the United States will go its own way as a condition for the United States to join the League of Nations. As long as the United States enters the League of Nations, it can do whatever it wants. At that time, the French ambassador to the United States made it clear that France could accept Lodge's reservation and called on Wilson to accept Lodge's reservation. Lloyd George of Britain disapproved of Lodge's reservation in his heart, but when former British Foreign Secretary Gray issued an open letter urging Britain to accept Lodge's reservation, he remained silent like an old scoundrel. This also creates an illusion that Britain acquiesced in the reservation of the United States. Others believe that Wilson's position is correct and article 10 cannot be compromised. Wilson himself thinks so. He would rather have no League of Nations than Article 10, so his position is: all or nothing, accept it all or not (quit). 1919165438+1October 9, the Senate voted to pass the peace treaty. When the rocky reservation was attached, the Democrats and the intransigent under Wilson's control jointly defeated it. When the lodge reservation case was not attached, the lodge faction and the uncompromising faction jointly defeated it. At this point, the Treaty of Versailles has lost the possibility of ratification. 1920 On March 9, 200919, the Senate voted on the Treaty of Versailles with Lodge's reservation. The dispute over the Treaty of Versailles ended when a two-thirds majority was rejected (49:35). Wilson, as a political figure, came to a very tragic ending.
2. Reasons for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles in the United States Try to analyze the reasons for the failure of the Treaty of Versailles in the United States and comment on the reasons for Wilson's failure. First, personal reasons. Wilson knows nothing about international affairs. Apart from Britain, he knows little about other countries and international politics and has no interest. At the same time, Wilson is willful and doesn't listen to experts. He has no ability to form an effective team to carry out his foreign policy, and he doesn't trust the State Council. His first secretary of state, Brian, was chosen for political needs and never thought it was effective. Brian disagreed with him and had to resign. The second Secretary of State, Lansing, though capable, failed to win Wilson's appreciation. Wilson believes that Lansing is narrow-minded and lacks a broad understanding of international relations. During the peace conference, he turned Lansing into a follower and didn't give him a chance to speak. Lansing seriously negotiated with the opposition in various countries and at home. When he had an opinion, he told Wilson that he turned a deaf ear, wrote a letter and sank into the sea. Lansing's five years in the State Council were depressing. 1920 after leaving office, the last secretary of state was Kirby, who did almost nothing. So Wilson bypassed the State Council and used a private team to handle foreign affairs. The famous figure was Colonel House. Although Colonel House is deeply trusted by Wilson, he doesn't always agree with him. By the end of President Wilson's term, the differences between them became increasingly obvious. House was Wilson's close friend and adviser, and Wilson only trusted him, but later the relationship also froze. The reason is that Wilson disapproves of marrying his second wife. At that time, Wilson was seeking re-election. House advised him not to get married in this spotlight because his second wife was a controversial widow. But Wilson didn't listen to him. He got married and won the election. Mrs. Wilson was jealous and narrow-minded, and she hated House from now on, making things difficult for him everywhere and keeping him away from Wilson. After Wilson's illness, House couldn't see Wilson and had to write to him, but Mrs. Wilson withheld these letters and Wilson couldn't see them at all. Wilson became a lone ranger, with no effective expert in international affairs and no trustworthy person to tell him the truth. Wilson's ambassador abroad is either inappropriate or against Wilson's wishes (except Ambassador Page). Taft has an evaluation of Wilson's character: "He is stubborn, supercilious, and has an impenetrable vanity. He loves himself more than all living people." Although mean, it tells Wilson's loneliness. In addition, Wilson lacked the experience of domestic political struggle, underestimated the power of Congress, and lacked the spirit of compromise necessary for an outstanding politician. Political struggle needs compromise. Many American policies are compromises reached through repeated negotiations, and most diplomatic struggles end in compromises. But Wilson did not compromise at all. When the American delegation to the Paris Peace Conference was formed, it was suggested that Wilson invite Lodge to attend, because * * * and the Party had won a majority in Congress. This is a good opportunity to establish bipartisan cooperation. But Wilson rejected the proposal, which also made rocky bear a grudge. Originally, there was great hope that the Democratic Party would compromise with the moderates, because there was little difference between the two sides, and the moderates only wanted to keep it, and they did not intend to amend the League of Nations Covenant in terms of content and text. But Wilson didn't accept it. Both the intransigent and Rocky were afraid that the moderates would compromise with Wilson, so Rocky tried his best to win over the moderates and constantly compromised with them. In sharp contrast with Rocky, Wilson's rigid attitude is the main reason. Former President Taft once commented: "If they (referring to the Democratic Party) appointed a committee to deal with moderates, there are nine moderates now, and I think they should have controlled the situation;" But if they wait to defeat the ratification of the peace treaty, the curse of the whole country will fall on them, not on the * * * and the party. " Even Loki agreed to negotiate and compromise with the Wilson faction, because he was afraid that if the peace treaty could not be passed, he would have to bear the responsibility. Hitchcock informed Wilson of this opinion in writing, but Wilson's answer was never to compromise, which made Hitchcock very embarrassed and made Rocky and the moderates unite without hesitation. In fact, it turns out that moderates prefer to unite with Wilson rather than with Rocky. Until the eve of the vote, moderates also said that they could compromise. They proposed to postpone the vote, let Hitchcock take the initiative and put forward compromise conditions. But Wilson shattered the last chance to ratify the peace treaty. In a letter, he rejected Hitchcock's proposal and asked Democratic senators to defeat Rocky's treaty with reservations. Both moderates and Lodge factions hope that the peace treaty will be finally ratified, at least they should not be responsible for its failure. Only uncompromising people are satisfied with the final result. None of the other factions are satisfied. Lansing commented: "... he would rather sacrifice the interests of this country and the world than take a step back in the ongoing struggle in the Senate." But Wilson must take responsibility for the failure of the peace treaty. * * * and the party agree that the party has no responsibility for this, and the responsibility lies with Wilson. Harding once commented: "There is only one person in the United States who doesn't know that the peace treaty can never be approved without reservation." Rocky also said, "Wilson killed it." Only Taft thinks that although Wilson played a destructive role in the process of approving the peace treaty, he thinks that Loki is also responsible. He also condemned two people: "The whole world suffers because of their vanity, smallness and personal hatred." However, Lodge showed superb political struggle skills in the whole struggle. He always strives for compromise, strives for the unity of the opposition, strives for a two-thirds majority, and constantly provides Wilson with opportunities for compromise, but Wilson has always refused. Loki even in March 1920, the failure of the peace treaty was a foregone conclusion, and he proposed to give the peace treaty another chance to vote. This makes all those who want to achieve peace with the League of Nations think that there is new hope, except the die-hards. Loki also took the initiative to discuss with Democratic senators, revised its reservations to make them more moderate, and made it clear that as long as the allies acquiesced, there was no need to make any changes to the treaty text. This situation made half of the senators in the Democratic Party waver and prepare to vote for the reserved peace treaty. But Wilson still stood his ground. He made up his mind that even if the Senate passed the peace treaty, he would not approve it. Because it is an election year, some Democratic senators who want to compromise with Rocky only decide to agree with their own president because of the credibility of their own party. Then no one will think that Wilson is not responsible for the failure of the peace treaty. As Taft said, "He (referring to Wilson) will become such a person in history. He has many opportunities. These opportunities have not been improved, but have been ruined by his personal arrogance, selfishness, vanity and stubbornness. " So rocky's political loss is not great. Later, after the Chinese Communist Party came to power, it signed a separate peace treaty with Germany. Lodge has always advocated that the peace treaty should be separated from the League of Nations. Later, at the Washington Naval Conference, Loki attended the meeting and revised the Shandong Clause. So the tragedy belongs to Wilson. Thomas Bailey commented: "If Wilson dies after a lecture tour, the United States may join the League of Nations, and the League of Nations may be more successful." He also said: "Neither Sophocles nor Shakespeare's genius can create a tragic figure who can destroy people's hearts more than Woodrow Wilson." Second, historical reasons. Although Wilson has always pinned his hopes on the people and public opinion, in fact, public opinion has not increased his political power. When he went on a lecture tour, Loki sat firmly on the Diaoyutai, convinced that he would be of no use. As a matter of fact, not many people understand Wilson in his travels. As a new imperialist country, the United States is bound to embark on the road of expansion, but in the Wilson era, the United States has just started, and only professional politicians like Wilson and Lodge began to consider this issue, and the "American century" has not yet arrived. American politicians and even public opinion cannot accept the role of world leaders. In a sense, this is ahead of consciousness. Wilson woke up before 1924 died and said to his family, "It is right for the United States not to join the League of Nations. ..... I've been thinking about this for a long time. If the United States participates according to my request, it will certainly be a great victory for me personally, but it will not help. Because the American people don't believe it. When they realize that it is necessary to participate, it will only be useful to participate at that time. " Hayashi Katsuya once commented: "It was the Prophet Wilson who asked the American people to provide more obligations, sacrifices and idealism than they could. He was defeated at 1920. It is this prophet Wilson who lived in history, in the hopes and ambitions of mankind, and in the ideal of serving the international community that the American people still cherish. Now that mankind has been able to turn the whole earth's surface into scorched earth, one thing is certain: 19 19 Most of the views of this prophet are correct. The challenge he raised today is no more unreal and urgent than in his time. " That's what Link said. Wilson was not understood in his time. This lesson was later deeply learned by other American politicians such as Roosevelt. But how do we evaluate Wilson's "collective security"? As mentioned earlier, Wilson proposed that collective security aims at the balance of power in the old imperialist countries. As far as its principle itself is concerned, collective security is good. I don't think a better principle for handling international disputes and maintaining world peace has been found so far. Later, after World War II, Roosevelt also inherited Wilson's political legacy and promoted collective security, which is the principle of the United Nations. But unfortunately, history has never provided the necessary conditions for collective security, and even its promoters have never really provided conditions for the implementation of collective security in practice. Wilson did not allow small countries to participate in the Executive Yuan of the League of Nations, nor did he allow Germany to join the League of Nations. Even at the peace conference, small countries are not allowed to express their different opinions. The peace conference itself is a big country manipulating politics, bargaining with each other and dividing up the world. The United States is bent on imposing its will on others by relying on its own strength. At the United Nations, the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain once again engage in big country politics and exchange the interests of weak countries or small countries. This situation makes collective security a vested interest that big countries guarantee each other. This is no different from the balance of power of the old imperialism. During the cold war, it was bipolar politics, not to mention collective security. Later, Kissinger reassessed the balance of power diplomacy, and there was a major reform in American diplomacy. At present, the world seems to have unprecedented conditions for implementing collective security. This is the wish of many people, which reminds many people of Wilson. The most typical example is:1In June 1992, Russian President Yeltsin said at a joint meeting of the two houses of the US Congress: "History is giving us an opportunity to realize Wilson's dream: to make the world democratic and safe." But whether the world can truly move towards stability and peace under the principle of collective security is still unknown. At least there is no prospect of success at present, and it will take time.