National Photo Company/Library of Congress Senator William Borah of Idaho, left, and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts, center, formed the primary opposition to the Treaty of Versailles supported by President Woodrow Wilson.
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On March 19, 1920, the United States Senate rejected for the second time the Treaty of Versailles, by a vote of 49-35, falling seven votes short of a two-thirds majority needed for approval.
The Treaty of Versailles was a formal peace treaty between the World War I Allies and Germany. The leaders of the “Big Four” Allies (Britain, France, Italy and the United States) met in Paris in early 1919 to draft the treaty. President Woodrow Wilson presented his Fourteen Points, a series of measures intended to ensure future peace. The points included the formation of an international organization known as the League of Nations (similar to the modern United Nations), which was adopted in the treaty.
Representatives of each country signed the treaty in June 1919. For the United States to accept its conditions, however, it had to be ratified by Congress. The Senate majority leader, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican from Massachusetts, opposed the treaty, specifically the section regarding the League of Nations. He argued that the United States would give up too much power under the League of Nations, so he drafted 14 reservations — to match President Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Mr. Lodge’s proposal reduced the control the league would have over the United States. There was also a faction of the Senate known as the “irreconcilables,” led by William Borah, who opposed the Treaty of Versailles with or without the reservations.
On Nov. 19, 1919, the Senate voted on the treaty, first on a version with the 14 Lodge reservations. President Wilson ordered his supporters to vote against that version and, with the irreconcilables also voting against it, it fell short of a two-thirds majority by a 55-39 vote. A second vote on a version without the reservations ended in a similar 53-38 vote, this time with the Cabot Republicans and the irreconcilables forming the opposition.
The vote of March 19, 1920, held on a version with reservations, was the final vote on the treaty. The March 20 New York Times reported, “After the session ended senators of both parties united in declaring that in their opinion the treaty was now dead to stay dead.”
In place of the Treaty of Versailles, in 1921 Congress passed a resolution, known as the Knox–Porter Resolution, to formally end the war with Germany. The United States would never join the League of Nations, which was just one of several problems the organization would have in building power and credibility. The League of Nations failed in its goal to maintain peace, as World War II broke out just 20 years after its founding.
Connect to Today:
The United States had a central role in the development of the United Nations, the successor to the League of Nations. The relationship between the United States and the U.N. has undergone many transitions over the years. After President George W. Bush administration’s “fraught relationship” with the organization, President Obama pledged to “begin a new era of engagement with the world.”
In 2009, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Susan E. Rice, said, “The United States will lead in the 21st century — not with hubris, not by hectoring — but through patient diplomacy and steadfast resolve to strengthen our common security by investing in our common humanity.”
In your opinion, what role should the United States play as a member of the United Nations in the 21st century? To what extent, if any, should the U.N. influence American policy? Do you think working too closely with the U.N. poses a threat to United States power? Why or why not?
