Thesis on "League of Nations"

Thesis 16 pages (5328 words) Sources: 8 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

America's Decision To Stay Out Of The League Of Nations

An overwhelming majority of the American people is in favor of the League of Nations. -- President Woodrow Wilson's comments concerning his support of the League of Nations, 1918

God pity the ideals of this Republic if they shall have no defenders save the gathered scum of nations organized into a conglomerate international police force. I am opposed to any league of nations. With me, it is not a question of amendments of any kind. If my country is to be sold I am not interested in the details of the bill of sale. The League of Nations makes it necessary for America to give back to George V what it took away from George III. -- Senator William Borah (R-Idaho)'s comments concerning his opposition to the League of Nations, 1919

Introduction

The epigraphs above are reflective of the diametrically opposed political views that emerged following the proposal of the League of Nations at part of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I. Following the end of the "War to End All Wars," an international forum that was capable of addressing the inevitable political and economic differences that will always take place between nations certainly seemed like a good idea but many modern observers may not realize the enormous controversy that resulted from this seemingly benign proposal. To this end, this paper examines the reasons the United States decided not to enter into the League of Nations while their British counterparts did join. This paper explains that the decision of the U.S. To stay out of the League was largely a political one based on the composition of the U.S. government and the adversarial nature of its political parties. In the U.S. The major legislative making body of the U.S. Congress did not have the same political affiliations or agenda as the president and even many of his supporters, while in Britain, the Prime Minister as the head of the Majority party in Parliament enjoyed more support for the United Kingdom's membership in the League. In support of this argument, this paper examines the peer-reviewed and scholarly literature concerning the respective positions that emerged on both sides of the Atlantic concerning the reasons in support and those opposed to U.S. And British membership in the League of Nations, followed by a summary of the research and important findings in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Background and Overview

Not surprisingly, the establishment of the world's first society of nations has attracted a great deal of attention over the past century and a number of historians have provided a useful overview of the organization itself as well as its historic origins. According to Walters (1952), at the end of World War I, a number of leading European statesmen such as Lord Robert Cecil, Jan Smuts, and Leon Bourgeois supported the creation of society of nations in a form similar to what would become the League of Nations (2). On the U.S. side, President Woodrow Wilson also advocated such an organization and included a proposal for such a league into his famous Fourteen Points that were to shape the Western world in the years to come. The U.S. president, in fact, would emerge was the leading figure in the establishment of the League of Nations during his negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference preparatory to the League's establishment in 1919 (Walters 3). The foundation for the establishment of the League of Nations (hereafter "the League" or alternatively, "the League of Nations") was the Covenant that was part of the Treaty of Versailles and the other peace treaties. The Covenant was comprised of 26 articles as follows:

1. Articles 1 through 7 of the Covenant dealt with the organization itself and made provisions for an assembly that would consist of all member states as well as a council that would be comprised of the so-called "great powers" (i.e., the UK, France, Italy, and Japan, but later Germany and the Soviet Union as well) and of four other, nonpermanent members together with a secretariat. The League's council and assembly alike would be authorized to discuss "any matter within the sphere of action of the League or affecting the peace of the world" (quoted in League at 4); however, unanimous decisions were required in both bodies.

2. Articles 8 and 9 acknowledged the requirement for military disarmament and established military commissions for this purpose.

3. Article 10 of the Covenant was an effort to assure the territorial integrity and political independence of member states against future aggression.

4. Articles 11 through 17 provided for the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice, for arbitration and conciliation, and for sanctions against aggressors (Walters 4).

A meeting of the League in 1936 at its headquarters in Geneva is shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. A meeting of the League of Nations at Geneva, 1936.

Source: Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site (2009) at http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro / images/nac_leaguenations_20920.jpg.

The original membership of the League consisted of countries that formed the Allied Powers of World War I (with the notable exception of the United States, an exception which is discussed further below) and a majority of the neutral nations. Some of the nations to subsequently accede to the League included, in order of their accession, Bulgaria (1920), Austria (1920), Hungary (1922), Germany (1926), Mexico (1931), Turkey (1932), and the Soviet Union (1934) (Walters 4-5). The addition of Germany and the U.S.S.R. In this order was not by chance. According to Johnsen (1943), "This fateful decision of the United States, which deprived the League from the beginning of a very great moral and material influence, was accompanied by an equally fatal decision in Paris in 1919 which kept Germany and the Soviet Union out of League membership and on probation till 1926 and 1934 respectively" (43). Based on the efforts of Sir Eric Drummond, the first secretary-general of the League, an international secretariat was established with Geneva, Switzerland being selected as the headquarters for the League (Walters 5).

By 1940, though, following increasing criticism reminiscent of those being leveled against the United Nations today concerning the League's overall ineffectiveness, the League secretariat reduced to and a portion of its technical services were relocated to new facilities in the United States and Canada (Walters 5). Despite these reductions in capabilities and staffing, the allied International Labor Organization remained active and was ultimately affiliated with the League's successor in the United Nations (Walters 5-6). By 1946, the League of Nations disbanded altogether with any remaining staff and property being transferred to the United Nations (Walters 6). According to this historian, "The League's chief success lay in providing the first pattern of permanent international organization, a pattern on which much of the United Nations was modeled. Its failures were due as much to the indifference of the great powers, which preferred to reserve important matters for their own decisions, as to weaknesses of organization" (Walters 6).

The concept of an international organization that was capable of resolving conflicts between countries without resorting to military interventions was not new when the League of Nations was created, and observers at the time emphasized that such an organization would likely exist far into the future no matter how the League itself played out. For instance, in 1932, Latane observed that, "The League of Nations is as yet an imperfect agency and its future development cannot be foreseen. But the advantages of the League method of handling matters of common interest is so obvious and, within necessary limits, has been so successful, that it is hardly conceivable that the nations of the world will ever be able for any length of time to dispense with some such organization" (v).

The proper venue for such an organization, though, and its respective powers and responsibilities caused an enormous amount of controversy on both sides of the Atlantic and emotions ran high during the debates that following its proposition, and the issues involved were many. According to Neu (2003), "Ever since the dramatic fight over American membership in the League of Nations in 1919 and 1920, historians have sought to explain the outcome and significance of the struggle" (733). The outcome of the president's long and ultimately unsuccessful efforts to have the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations provisions it contained ratified have become well-known, but less understood has been the long-term significance of this failure (Neu 733). According to McManus, "The League of Nations was a pet project of President Woodrow Wilson. A devoted internationalist, Wilson initially called for 'a general association of nations' among the 'Fourteen Points' unveiled in a January 1918 address to Congress. At Wilson's insistence, the Covenant for the League of Nations was later incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles, presented to Germany by the Allied powers after the armistice" (32). President Wilson's intransigence, though, is consistently cited as one of the reasons for the initiative's failure in the United… READ MORE

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