The U.S. entry into World War I broke with the United States\u2019 longstanding practice of keeping out of Europe\u2019s political affairs. President Woodrow Wilson saw that shift as an opportunity to try to restructure world politics to make future conflict less likely. He went to Paris in December 1918 to negotiate the war\u2019s end. There he negotiated the Treaty of Versailles, which embraced his vision to create a League of Nations that would work to preserve peace. Wilson did not have similar success, however, at home. In November 1919 and again in March 1920, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles, and with it, the League of Nations. The league began operating in 1920, but the absence of the United States handicapped its work. Declining to join the league also made it easier for the United States to ignore growing world crises over the next two decades, a decision it would come to regret. SHAFR historians ranked the Senate rejection of the Treaty of Versailles as the fifth-worst U.S. foreign policy decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The U.S. entry into World War I broke with the United States\u2019 longstanding practice of keeping out of Europe\u2019s political affairs. President Woodrow Wilson saw that shift as an opportunity to try to restructure world politics to make future conflict less likely. He went to Paris in December 1918 to negotiate the war\u2019s end. There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1339,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cloudinary_featured_overwrite":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worst-decisions"],"acf":{"add_section":[{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"World War I","add_section_content":"Wilson long resisted calls for the United States to join World War I. At its start, he insisted that \u201cthe United States must be neutral in fact as well as in name.\u201d That did not mean, however, that he favored doing nothing. He hoped to mediate an end to the fighting, a role the belligerents rejected. In January 1917, he addressed the Senate, the first president to have done so since George Washington. Wilson called for \u201cpeace without victory\u201d and the creation of a \u201cLeague for Peace.\u201d\r\n\r\nThe idea of creating a multinational organization to prevent war had been gaining popularity in the United States. In 1910, a year after stepping down as president, Theodore Roosevelt called for creating \u201ca League of Peace\u201d to keep the peace among its members and \u201cprevent, by force if necessary, its being broken by others.\u201d Five years later, a League to Enforce Peace was established with former President William Howard Taft as its head.","add_image":3519,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Fourteen Points","add_section_content":"The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917. Nine months later, Wilson gave his Fourteen Points speech to declare what the country was fighting for. His remarks covered many proposals familiar to Americans: freedom of navigation on the high seas, more opportunities for trade, an end to colonies, and self-determination for all nations. Point fourteen, though, was Wilson\u2019s passion. It called for a \u201cgeneral association of nations\u201d to guarantee \u201cpolitical independence and territorial integrity to great and small states alike\u201d: the League of Nations.\r\n\r\nThe armistice ending World War I took effect on November 11, 1918. Convinced that only his personal involvement could produce the league, Wilson decided to travel to Paris to negotiate the war\u2019s settlement. His advisors urged him to stay home. They noted that no president had left the country during his presidency. They feared difficult negotiations that might damage his reputation. And days before the armistice went into effect, Republicans had taken control of Congress in the midterm elections, putting Democrats on the defensive. Wilson went anyway.","add_image":3517,"image_position":"right","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Paris Peace Conference","add_section_content":"Massive crowds thrilled by the idealism of the Fourteen Points greeted Wilson upon his arrival in Europe in December 1919. His British, French, and Italian counterparts in Paris, however, felt differently. They disdained his idealist ambitions as unworkable and a threat to their national interests. They had agreed to negotiate on the basis of the Fourteen Points only because Wilson had threatened to strike a separate peace with Germany if they refused.\r\n\r\nThe negotiations were difficult. Wilson compromised on many of the Fourteen Points, but he doggedly pushed for the league. When the Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919, its first twenty-six articles formed \u201cthe Covenant of the League of Nations.\u201d The core provision was Article 10: \u201cThe Members of the League undertake to\u00a0respect and preserve as against external aggression the territorial integrity and existing political independence of all Members of the League.\u201d","add_image":3513,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Skeptical Senators","add_section_content":"Wilson\u2019s task now became persuading the Senate to embrace the treaty and the league. But many senators were skeptical. He had returned to the United States in late February 1919 for three weeks and briefed senators on the status of the negotiations. He hoped to win them over to his vision. Instead, his answers to their questions left many of them unsettled. One Republican senator complained: \u201cI feel as if I had been wandering with Alice in Wonderland and had tea with the Mad Hatter.\u201d\r\n\r\nLittle had changed in Senate attitudes by the time Wilson returned to the United States in early July. On July 10, he went to Capitol Hill to personally deliver a copy of the Treaty of Versailles. In an address to the full Senate, he described the proposed League of Nations in messianic terms: \u201cThe stage is set, the destiny disclosed. It has come about by no plan of our conceiving, but by the hand of God who led us into the way.\u201d When asked how he would respond if senators sought to revise the treaty, as was their constitutional right, Wilson replied: \u201cI shall consent to nothing. The Senate must take its medicine.\u201d","add_image":2917,"image_position":"bottom","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"Henry Cabot Lodge","add_section_content":"Wilson\u2019s leading opponent was Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, the Senate majority leader and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The two men detested each other. Lodge had signaled his concerns with the league during Wilson\u2019s February return to Washington by getting thirty-nine senators to sign a statement raising doubts about the Paris negotiations.\r\n\r\nThe critical issue facing the Senate was less whether the United States should join the League of Nations and more the terms on which it should become a member. A dozen so-called irreconcilable senators opposed the league in principle because it would entangle the United States in the affairs of other countries.\u00a0Lodge, however, had supported Roosevelt\u2019s call for a League of Peace. His main concern was Article 10, which he said would deny the United States a free hand to conduct its foreign policy and drag it into conflicts not of its own making. He put the question to Americans bluntly: \u201cAre you willing to put your soldiers and your sailors at the disposition of other nations?\u201d","add_image":2912,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"I never expected to hate anyone in politics with the hatred I feel toward Wilson.","quote_footer":"Senator Henry Cabot Lodge","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"quote","add_section_title":"Henry Cabot Lodge","add_section_content":"Wilson\u2019s leading opponent was Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, the Senate majority leader and chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The two men detested each other. Lodge had signaled his concerns with the league during Wilson\u2019s February return to Washington by getting thirty-nine senators to sign a statement raising doubts about the Paris negotiations.\r\n\r\nThe critical issue facing the Senate was less whether the United States should join the League of Nations and more the terms on which it should become a member. A dozen so-called irreconcilable senators opposed the league in principle because it would entangle the United States in the affairs of other countries.\u00a0Lodge, however, had supported Roosevelt\u2019s call for a League of Peace. His main concern was Article 10, which he said would deny the United States a free hand to conduct its foreign policy and drag it into conflicts not of its own making. He put the question to Americans bluntly: \u201cAre you willing to put your soldiers and your sailors at the disposition of other nations?\u201d","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"I never expected to hate anyone in politics with the hatred I feel toward Wilson.","quote_footer":"Senator Henry Cabot Lodge","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"No Compromises","add_section_content":"Lodge proposed attaching Fourteen Reservations to the Treaty of Versailles to address his concerns with the covenant. Among other things, the reservations stated that the league would have no say over U.S. domestic law and that Congress would retain its power to declare war. Whether Lodge offered his reservations in good faith or as a way to torpedo the treaty, Wilson rejected all changes to the treaty. He insisted the reservations would handicap the league and require more international negotiations. He stuck to his position even after Britain and France indicated they would accept Lodge\u2019s reservations.\r\n\r\nWilson instead took his case to the nation. He did so despite suffering a minor stroke in mid-July. Over three weeks in September 1919, he traveled more than eight thousand miles and gave forty speeches to rally support for the league. After speaking in\u00a0Pueblo, Colorado, on September 25, severe headaches and nausea forced him to return to Washington. A week later he suffered a major stroke, the effects of which he kept hidden from members of Congress and the American public.","add_image":2194,"image_position":"right","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Senate Votes","add_section_content":"The Treaty of Versailles came to a vote in the Senate on November 19, 1919. Senators voted first on the treaty with Lodge\u2019s reservations attached. The motion failed, 39 to 55, with both Wilson\u2019s supporters and irreconcilable senators opposed. Senators then rejected the treaty without reservations by virtually the same margin, this time with those favoring the reservations joining the irreconcilables in opposition. The breakdown of the two votes showed that the treaty likely would have gained the required level of Senate support for passage if Wilson had been willing to compromise with his critics.\r\n\r\nFour months later, the Senate again considered the treaty with reservations. Although Wilson demanded that his supporters vote no, some broke ranks. The vote was 49 to 35 in favor, 7 votes shy of the two-thirds needed for Senate passage. Confronted with yet another defeat, Wilson vowed to make the 1920 election a \u201csolemn referendum\u201d on the league. But the moment had passed. U.S. participation in the League of Nations was dead. In 1921, the Senate approved a treaty with Germany that accepted the Treaty of Versailles, minus the Covenant of the League of Nations.","add_image":2199,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"It\u2019s dead. Every morning I put flowers on its grave.","quote_footer":"Woodrow Wilson after the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"quote","add_section_title":"The Legacy of the Senate\u2019s Rejection of the Treaty of Versailles","add_section_content":"The League of Nations came into existence on January 10, 1920. The Senate\u2019s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles meant that the League never counted among its members the country that was emerging as the world\u2019s economic superpower. The League may have always been destined to fail because of its organizational flaws and because the harsh peace struck in Paris sowed the seeds for a future war. But without the United States the League clearly operated less effectively than it might have. Standing apart from the League also made it easier for the United States to turn inward over the next two decades and to view growing world crises as someone else\u2019s problem. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans concluded that Wilson had been right\u2014fueling support for what became the United Nations.\r\n\r\nWhat Historians Say<\/strong>","add_image":1375,"image_position":"right","background":true,"quote_content":"It\u2019s dead. Every morning I put flowers on its grave.","quote_footer":"Woodrow Wilson after the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""},{"quote_section":"imagecontent","add_section_title":"The Legacy of the Senate\u2019s Rejection of the Treaty of Versailles","add_section_content":"The League of Nations came into existence on January 10, 1920. The Senate\u2019s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles meant that the league never counted among its members the country that was emerging as the world\u2019s economic superpower. The league may have always been destined to fail because of its organizational flaws and because the harsh peace struck in Paris sowed the seeds for a future war, but without the United States the league clearly operated less effectively than it might have. Standing apart from the league also made it easier for the United States to turn inward over the next two decades and to view growing world crises as someone else\u2019s problem. After Pearl Harbor, many Americans concluded that Wilson had been right\u2014fueling support for what became the United Nations.","add_image":"","image_position":"null","background":false,"quote_content":"","quote_footer":"","video_title":"","video_link":null,"youtube_link":""}],"add_testimonials":[{"author_name":"Andrew Pace","add_testimonial_content":"The Senate's rejection of the Treaty of Versailles isolated the United States for nearly a generation and greatly weakened the League of Nations.","add_university_department":"Professor of History, University of Southern Mississippi","add_image":2206},{"author_name":"Charles Laubach","add_testimonial_content":"The Senate rejection of the Treaty of Versailles began the trend of U.S. disengagement in global affairs in the interwar years. It prevented the League of Nations from becoming a viable body for settling international disputes, which contributed to the outbreak of World War II.","add_university_department":"Professor of History, The Ohio State University","add_image":2209},{"author_name":"Nick Sarantakes","add_testimonial_content":"With great power comes great responsibility, but petty partisanship triumphed over the interests of the nation when the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles. The result was that after the United States walked away from its role in world affairs, it was filled by others that were either weak (UK, France) or dangerous (Germany, USSR).","add_university_department":"Professor, U.S. Naval War College ","add_image":2210},{"author_name":"David C. Atkinson","add_testimonial_content":"The rejection of the Treaty of Versailles diminished a potential force for peace and order in the early twentieth century, removing the only realistic bulwark to German and Soviet revanchism while leaving intact the punitive structures of the Paris Conference.","add_university_department":"Associate Professor of History and Social Studies and Director of the History Honors Program, Purdue University","add_image":2211},{"author_name":"Jared Pack","add_testimonial_content":"The failure to ratify the Treaty of Versailles was an unfathomable abdication of global leadership. It ultimately handicapped the League of Nations and failed to prevent the coming of World War II.","add_university_department":"Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of History, York University","add_image":1380}],"learn_more_title":"Learn More","add_learn_more_content":"Primary documents, books, articles, and more on the Senate\u2019s rejection of the Treaty of Versailles.","add_sources":[{"add_sources_title":"Primary Documents","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Theodore Roosevelt, \u201cInternational Peace,\u201d May 5, 1910","url":"https:\/\/www.nobelprize.org\/prizes\/peace\/1906\/roosevelt\/lecture\/","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the speech Roosevelt gave accepting the Nobel Peace Prize and calling for the creation of \u201ca League of Peace.\u201d","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cMessage on Neutrality,\u201d August 19, 1914","url":"https:\/\/millercenter.org\/the-presidency\/presidential-speeches\/august-19-1914-message-neutrality","target":""},"source_content":"The text of Wilson\u2019s message in the early days of World War I calling on Americans to \u201cbe neutral in fact as well as in name.\u201d ","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cAddress to the Senate of the United States: \u2018A World League for Peace,\u2019\u201d January 22, 1917","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-senate-the-united-states-world-league-for-peace","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the speech Wilson gave announcing his support for creating an international organization to keep the peace.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cAddress to a Joint Session of Congress on the Conditions of Peace [The Fourteen Points],\u201d January 8, 1918","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-joint-session-congress-the-conditions-peace-the-fourteen-points","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the speech Wilson gave laying out his vision for a postwar world that included the creation of an international body to preserve the peace.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Henry Cabot Lodge, \u201cConstitution of the League of Nations,\u201d February 28, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/artandhistory\/history\/resources\/pdf\/LodgeLeagueofNations.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"The text of a speech Lodge gave months before the Treaty of Versailles was signed outlining his opposition to Wilson\u2019s proposed League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"The Covenant of the League of Nations","url":"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/imt\/parti.asp","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles that established the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cAddress to the Senate on the Versailles Peace Treaty,\u201d July 10, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-senate-the-versailles-peace-treaty","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the speech Wilson gave urging the Senate to consent to the Treaty of Versailles and U.S. membership in the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Henry Cabot Lodge, \u201cSpeech Criticizing the Treaty of Versailles,\u201d August 12, 1919","url":"https:\/\/dp.la\/primary-source-sets\/treaty-of-versailles-and-the-end-of-world-war-i\/sources\/1891","target":""},"source_content":"The text of a speech Lodge gave warning his Senate colleagues about what he saw as the shortcomings of the Treaty of Versailles.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cRemarks to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate,\u201d August 19, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/remarks-the-committee-foreign-relations-united-states-senate","target":""},"source_content":"Wilson\u2019s statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee urging approval of the Treaty of Versailles.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Henry Cabot Lodge, \u201cLeague of Nations,\u201d August 26, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.loc.gov\/item\/2004650542","target":""},"source_content":"An audio recording of Lodge explaining his opposition to the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Woodrow Wilson, \u201cAddress at the City Hall Auditorium in Pueblo, Colorado,\u201d September 25, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.presidency.ucsb.edu\/documents\/address-the-city-hall-auditorium-pueblo-colorado","target":""},"source_content":"The text of the final speech Wilson gave defending U.S. membership in the League of Nations before suffering a massive stroke.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"William E. Borah, \u201cThe League of Nations,\u201d November 19, 1919","url":"https:\/\/www.senate.gov\/artandhistory\/history\/resources\/pdf\/BorahLeague.pdf","target":""},"source_content":"The text of a speech Borah gave explaining why he opposed U.S. membership in the League of Nations even if the Senate attached reservations to the Treaty of Versailles.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Books","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Lloyd E. Ambrosius, Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective","url":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/books\/woodrow-wilson-and-the-american-diplomatic-tradition\/E565DEC8B781E178B48ABB07539CE799","target":""},"source_content":"Ambrosius examines the challenges Wilson faced in reconciling his idealistic vision of internationalism with domestic political realities in the United States.","source_image":1390},{"source_link_title":{"title":"John Milton Cooper Jr., Breaking the Heart of the World: Woodrow Wilson and the Fight for the League of Nations","url":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/us\/universitypress\/subjects\/history\/twentieth-century-american-history\/breaking-heart-world-woodrow-wilson-and-fight-league-nations?format=PB&isbn=9780521147651","target":""},"source_content":"Cooper examines Wilson's battle both overseas and at home to bring his vision of the League of Nations to life. ","source_image":2746},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Robert E. Hannigan, The Great War and American Foreign Policy, 1914-1924","url":"https:\/\/www.pennpress.org\/9780812248593\/the-great-war-and-american-foreign-policy-1914-24\/","target":""},"source_content":"Hannigan argues that the United States didn\u2019t enter World War I out of idealism, but to support a British-led world order, believing it would elevate America to global power status.","source_image":1394},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Henry Cabot Lodge, The Senate and the League of Nations.","url":"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Senate-League-Nations-Henry-Cabot\/dp\/B000MZ8NJI","target":""},"source_content":"The chief architect of the Senate rejection of the Treaty of Versailles details why and how he opposed U.S. membership in the League of Nations.","source_image":2827},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Michael Neiberg, Treaty of Versailles: A Very Short Introduction","url":"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/the-treaty-of-versailles-9780190644987?cc=us&lang=en&type=8","target":""},"source_content":"Neiberg assesses the broad political currents leading up to the Versailles Conference as well as the vast consequences the treaty it produced had on Europe and the world. ","source_image":2747},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Christopher McKnight Nichols, Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age","url":"https:\/\/nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hup.harvard.edu%2Fbooks%2F9780674503878&data=05%7C02%7COBerry%40cfr.org%7C9a7c2d3d16aa43b1c64f08de32497840%7C146cc3db32f24b3c815625bcc3553464%7C0%7C0%7C639003488307508267%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Qir32YqLJQx237rEJH4qXrjliF5CbGreOWIcfPdVIi4%3D&reserved=0","target":""},"source_content":"Nichols traces competing visions of American isolationism and internationalism in the first few decades of the twentieth century as the United States grappled with its role as a rising world power. ","source_image":2745}]},{"add_sources_title":"Articles","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Bill of Rights Institute, \u201cThe Treaty of Versailles\u201d","url":"https:\/\/billofrightsinstitute.org\/essays\/the-treaty-of-versailles","target":""},"source_content":"An assessment of Wilson\u2019s vision for restructuring world politics and why he ultimately failed to persuade the Senate to follow his lead.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Thomas W. Bottelier, \u201cThe Versailles Treaty Fight\u201d","url":"https:\/\/origins.osu.edu\/milestones\/treaty-of-versailles-us-ratification-fight","target":""},"source_content":"Bottelier places the fight over U.S. membership in the League of Nations in the broader context of U.S. foreign policy.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Rusty Eder, \u201cWilson\u2019s Failure? The Treaty of Versailles\u201d","url":"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/blog\/wilsons-failure-the-treaty-of-versailles\/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=bU6rrCPmJbWA_K7lhY.nK8FwYkCvG5BJfdrCGjEuVKU-1762269702-1.0.1.1-eY8tHv6FjwciDCZTIosPMqQJIYZVXNDKycUGM.C8w7M","target":""},"source_content":"Eder recounts Wilson\u2019s failed bid to persuade the Senate to endorse U.S. participation in the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"History Skills, \u201cWhy Didn\u2019t America Join the League of Nations?\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.historyskills.com\/classroom\/year-10\/america-league-of-nations\/?srsltid=AfmBOoo1CfjLoaRSWfFc6IZ3CYqyw5_A6ElVh31VyeEAr5C_Cob_ABWe","target":""},"source_content":"A review of the Senate debate over the League of Nations.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Documentaries and Short Videos","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, \u201cGreat Senate Debates: League of Nations\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3TAswhH3D7Q","target":""},"source_content":"A sixteen-minute look at the Senate debate over the Treaty of Versailles and U.S. membership in the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"History for Humans, \u201cPresident Wilson, The League of Nations, and Treaty of Versailles\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ajX0wsneBlg","target":""},"source_content":"A twelve-minute exploration of Wilson\u2019s failed effort to have the United States join the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"Origins OSU, \u201cThe Versailles Treaty Fight\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5lUxedNhiTo&t=7s","target":""},"source_content":"An eleven-minute look at Wilson\u2019s effort to convince the Senate to approve the Treaty of Versailles.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Lectures and Podcasts","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"American History Hit, \u201cWoodrow Wilson & the End of WWI: The League of Nations\u201d","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/episode\/2BQ0qLkPM4HIETNOfoOqML","target":""},"source_content":"Historian Charlie Laderman explains the negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles and the Senate\u2019s rejection of U.S. membership in the League of Nations.","source_image":""},{"source_link_title":{"title":"National WWI Museum and Memorial, \u201cDiscussions at Versailles: John Maxwell Hamilton, Micheal Neilberg and Erez Manela\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=lD9ly5qywUE","target":""},"source_content":"Three historians discuss the complex legacy of the Treaty of Versailles, including its impact on post\u2013World War I geopolitics, American philanthropy, and the rise of anti-colonial movements.","source_image":""}]},{"add_sources_title":"Timeline","single_source":[{"source_link_title":{"title":"JohnDClare.net, \u201cLeague of Nations Fight\u2014A Chronology\u201d","url":"https:\/\/www.johndclare.net\/league_of_nations3_sandiego1919League2.html","target":""},"source_content":"","source_image":""}]}],"add_bottom_title":"","add_bottom_image":"","add_background_image":"","add_bottom_button":"","add_year":"1919"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/build.mini.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/06\/Treaty_of_Versailles.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3520,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/3520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfr.org\/ten-best-ten-worst-us-foreign-policy-decisions\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}