Why Wilson’s Peace Plan
Failed
In Flanders Fields
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
By John McCrea
Americans on the Frontlines
Paris Peace Talks: The Big Four

Prime Minister of Great Britain, David Lloyd George
(#1 Power)
 French Premier Georges Clemenceau (revenge)
 US President Woodrow Wilson (idealism)
 Italian Premier Vittorio
Orlando (territory)
 Germany and Russia
excluded
Wilson’s 14 Points
Wilson's Mistakes




Bi-Elections of 1918: partisan
politics, Republicans gain
control House first time since
1910
American Peace Delegation:
no Senators or prominent Republicans
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge not taken
Wilson accused of Grandstanding
Treaty of Versailles


War Guilt Clause (Art. 231) Germany solely
responsible for starting war and destruction
Reparations to be paid by Germany = $56 billion
Treaty of Versailles



Germany was stripped of colonies
Germany lost Saar Basin (returned by plebiscite
1935), Posen, parts of Schleswig and Silesia and
Alsace-Lorraine
German
disarmament
New nations & problems created



Italy's 200,000
persons nonItalians
German
speaking
populations in
Poland &
Czechoslovakia
Polish Corridor
New nations & problems created



Russian loss of
territory
Japan given
Shantung, China
British & French
Mandates in
Middle East
Did not deal with


did not address issues that caused the war
reduction in arms

trade barriers
League of Nations

Wilson’s idea to resolve world conflict
without war
US Ratification Process
Opposition to the Treaty of
Versailles




Unpopular with German, Irish, & Jewish Americans
Republican feud with Wilson, esp. Henry Cabot Lodge
Reservationists
Irreconcilables = diehard
isolationists including

Hiram W. Johnson (CA)
William E. Borah (IL)

Robert La Folette (WI)

Wilson's 3-week national
speaking tour

29 cities
 Pueblo CO, collapsed
Wilson's 3-week national
speaking tour


Returned to Washington, suffered a stroke
 paralyzed left side
 incapacitated 6 months
Edith Wilson acting President
Senate Vote




45 revisions proposed
limit US obligations to
the League of Nations
Wilson opposed any
changes (He kept us out
of peace!)
Final vote -- treaty
rejected, failing by 7
votes 49-35
Wilson’s Legacy



Wilson received
Nobel Peace Prize in
1920
died embittered in
1924
his predictions of
future problems for
Europe would come
true