PRESIDENT WILSON RETURNS TO PARIS
Paris, France (JFK+50) On March 14, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson returned to the peace conference here in Paris after a "whirlwind trip back to Washington."
The President's efforts to impact world peace would prove difficult. Winston Churchill wrote...
"The spacious philanthropy which (Wilson) exhaled upon Europe stopped quite sharply at the coasts of his country. Peace and goodwill among all nations abroad, but no truck with the Republican party at home. That was his ticket to ruin."
According to the State Department, while public opinion supported ratification of the Versailles Treaty and 32 states passed resolutions of support, there was strong opposition in the United States Senate. There the Treaty of Versailles* failed ratification.
Donald McClarey writes...
"one cannot effectively make peace abroad when involved in political turmoil at home."
*Treaty of Versailles between Germany & the Allied Powers ended WWI & was signed by Germany & 3 Allied nations. It imposed harsh territorial, military & economic conditions on Germany but did provide for a League of Nations strongly supported by President Wilson.
SOURCES
"March 14, 1919: Wilson Returns to the Paris Peace Conference," by Donald R. McClarey, March 14, 2019, The American Catholic, www.the-american-catholic.com/
"The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles," U.S. Department of State Archive.
Wilson Returns from Paris
Associated Press Photo (1919)
