Woodrow Wilson with his Fourteen Points wanted to be the architect of the post-war peace process. Wilson was a Southerner. He grew up in the South after the Civil War. He knew from his experiences what emotions were left over after a war. He realized that revenge on the part of the winner of the war resulted in strong negative reactions, even hatred, on the part of the loser. He hoped to avoid that after WW I. The League of Nations was an essential part of that effort. However, the Senate, motivated by personal dislike of Wilson and isolationist pressures, refused to authorize participation in the League. (Hakim, p. 256-8)
The Senate Republicans were led by Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator from Massachusetts, who was chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was an avowed isolationist. Lodge was a gentleman and a scholar, but he was also a politician, who disliked Woodrow Wilson. (Allen, Chapt. II) Wilson’s refusal to compromise with Lodge and his supporters with respect to the League resulted in the defeat of the Treaty of Versailles by the Senate. America was ready to retreat to its water-bound borders.
“A League of Notions”, written and sung by Al Stewart– https://youtu.be/WlfVNu2FFzE ; the title plays on and refers to the formation and earliest acts of the League of Nations at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference in Versailles. Several historical figures are mentioned, including US President Woodrow Wilson, British Prime Minister Lloyd George, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau and T. E. Lawrence (here referred to as “Lawrence of Arabia”). The lyrics bemoan the difficulties of establishing new territorial boundaries for Russia, Germany, Poland, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Persia and Iraq. Churchill’s “hiccup” is mentioned, as are Wilson’s Fourteen Points and Clemenceau’s snarky remark to Lloyd George that “God Himself had only ten.”
I’m here sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
Spread out in a hall of Versailles
And every single nationality and principality
have come for a piece of the pieI’m sitting in the wreck of Europe
With a map of Europe
And the lines and the borders are gone
We’ve got to do this jigsaw puzzle
It’s an awful muddle
But somehow we’ve got to go onLawrence of Arabia is waiting in the wings
He’s got some Arab sheikhs and kings
And we’re in debt to them somehow
Lawrence of Arabia has got this perfect vision
Gonna sell him down the river
There’s no time for him nowI think I’m gonna take a piece of Russia
And a piece of Germany
And give them to Poland again
I’ll put together Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia
And hope that is how they’ll remainThen I’ll take a bit of Turkey
Then a lot of Turkey
This is all quite a heady affair
There’s Persia and Iraq to pick up
And there’s Churchill’s hiccup
And Woodrow Wilson waves his fourteen points around
And says “The time to act is now
Won’t get this opportunity again”
Woodrow Wilson has his fourteen points
But Clemenceau turns to Lloyd George
And says “You know that
God himself had only ten”Today I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)Voices in the corridors of power
Candles burning hour by hour
Still you know that to the victors go the spoils
Such a great responsibility to make it fair
And there must be some reparations now
And don’t forget the oilToday I’m carried by a league of notions
(It’s a league of notions)
By a league of notions
I don’t think I quite understand
(I don’t think I understand)
I only know from this commotion
(From this commotion)
There’s a chance that we could turn
The world in the palm of our hands
(We can turn the world in the palm of our hands)Pax vobiscum
Wo-Oh, Pax vobiscum