Liberalism: Power, Economic Crisis, Reform, War 101League would be an organization of all states working together to maintain
peace and join together against other countries acting aggressively or threat-
ening war. The Europeans were skeptical of the idea, as they had tradition-
ally relied on their own military power and creating alliances with other
countries to fight off their rivals. The debate, and resulting fight, over the
League would demonstrate both Wilson’s vision of American power but also
its global limits. While not enthused about the idea of a collective arrange-
ment to guide international relations, the Europeans reluctantly accepted it,
assuming that they would use it as it suited their needs. Wilson’s problems
were not at Versailles, really, but at home. Treaties must be ratified by two-
thirds of the U.S. Senate, and there was plenty of opposition there.
Many senators, indeed many Americans, already held negative views of
America’s role in the Great War and wanted to stay out of such global disputes
in the future, and some were beginning to use the term isolationism to describe
their position. They feared that the U.S. would get dragged into wars in which
it had no interests because the League of Nations voted for them. It was an
issue of sovereignty—the ability of a country to make its own decisions inde-
pendent of other nations or institutions. For many Americans, especially
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, the League was likely to limit
the nation’s ability to act independently and would send U.S. boys into wars
abroad, as in 1917. Some were concerned that the League might take action
against the U.S. for its own behavior in other areas. The U.S. government,
they believed, should make its own decisions, without outside participation,
regarding foreign policy. Indeed, Wilson even had an article included in the
League of Nations founding document exempting American actions in Latin
America from even being considered due to the long-standing power the U.S.
had asserted in the Monroe Doctrine. Some had much less political, and
noble, motives. Senator James Reed of Missouri added a racist argument
against the League. “Think of submitting questions involving the very life of
the United States to a tribunal on which a nigger from Liberia, a nigger from
Honduras, and a nigger from India... each have a vote equal to that of the
great United States,” he said publicly on the floor of the Senate. Facing such
opposition, Wilson still refused to compromise. “The Senate must take its
medicine,” he said, and approve the League. Wilson’s prescription, however,
was not heeded, and the Senate voted down participation in the League of
Nations several times. Wilson’s own creation could not survive in his home