Museum in kansas city hosted this event and provided the video. Our guest speaker Gary Armstrong teaches American Foreign policy in programs and washington d. C. Hes a professor of Political Science in liberty, missouri. He graduated with a ph. D. From Georgetown University. Gary served as Research Assistant to francis you can jada, a political scientist, political economist and author to the former u. S. Secretary of state Madeleine Albright who was here for a private dinner earlier this year to just drop a name or two to impress you. Gary joined the William Jewell college in 1992 and now serves as inaudible director of the International Relations major. The William Jewell college body voted him professor of the year four times. Theory is also a longtime supporter of the National WorldWar One Museum and memorial and for that we are appreciative. Please give doctor Carrie Armstrong a warm welcome. applause good evening and thank you for coming. Tonight there should be a lot of interesting questions. The 100th on a first story of the senates first projection of the treaty of versailles. What a great moment to talk about americas place in the world. It was a time of growing paralyze asian, and radicalization. There had been a series of race riots and the current estimate is probably between the summer of 19 and the summer of 21 about 1000 americans were killed. But they would get the worst in race riots that i think led to the first bombing of an American City by our own air force. At the same time, there were just two weeks before the senate would take its vote, a series of bombings that led to something called the red scare. It is entirely wrongly named. The people who did the bombings were anarchists, but attorney general palmer, whose own house was bombed in one of those raids, launched a series of very vigorous raids to detain about 10, 000, and to arrest about not 3000 anarchists. The about 550 were deported. It is a time when we have race riots. We have radicals. We have the government using force. Its also a time, lest we forget, when americans were intensely polarized at the political level as well. On the day that Woodrow Wilson appeared to ask the u. S. Congress for a declaration of war in april 1917, his famous speech had to be postponed. A very important matter had to be settled first, which was who is going to have the speakership of the u. S. House of representatives . And that 1919 u. S. Elections which would throw barely won at the president s level. One of the most closely fought in all of American History. Look at what had happened in the u. S. House of representatives. You had a virtual tie. There were hours of political finagling over who would get the majority. This is the only time that the Largest Party than not get the speakership. The republicans had more seats than the democrats but they did not get the speakership. This is the last time in American History the speakership was giving because the democrats formed a small alliance with small parties. Whats really interesting is that then the house turned to the question of the president s speech and declaration of war. A lot of very interesting members of congress, voted no to the declaration of war. Including the first woman to sit in the u. S. House of representatives who had also by the way voted against war after the japanese attack against pearl harbor. She was a long life long pass fuss and couldnt accept a violation of her principal even if the United States was attacked in 1941. Also interestingly, the man who had just got the speakership of the house of representatives. The president and director of his party, and refused to vote for the declaration of war. This is a time when Great Questions are at stake. People are intensely divided and politics is going to start impacting Foreign Policy. By the way, its also great to have because just as were getting ready to debate how to and world war i a gigantic pandemic breaks out. Today the cdc estimates that about 635,000 americans lost their lives in the great influenza of 1880, 18 and. Notice that kansas city had about 1300 dead. By the way thats significantly larger than st. Louis which is better organized and better at doing with the influence of them was. In the month of october alone and hundred 95,000 americans died. Remember 50,000 americans died of rooms during world war i. And, at about the time that the senate is going to move into the most intense question about what should we do regarding the league of nations, we have the most serious medical crisis in the history of the american presidency. Woodrow wilson has a massive stroke on october the 2nd. He has been on a gigantic and nationwide tour. Towards the end of that tour, they realize there was something seriously wrong with the president. They cleared the railway line, they got back as fast as they could to washington d. C. He had been in washington d. C. Just briefly when he had the massive stroke. For six weeks, his wife maintained the charade that there was nothing wrong with the president. No one was permitted to see the president for six weeks except the first lady, his position, a handful of trusted aides, his own press secretary. Whats really interesting is that mrs. Wilson made a terrible mistake. She isolated the president won what he probably needed the most first long term recovery was consistent interaction with people. That is led to a big argument that were gonna see leader that the president s catastrophic stroke led him to a increasing rigidity in his personality, that will lead him to make fundamental errors during the debate over the versailles peace treaty. Are we talking played . War . Stroke . God bless us were this close to the four horsemen of a couple of ex. It is the first, its the first time that any president of the United States proposed sweeping reforms to the fundamental basis of International Relations. It is the first time that a american president goes abroad for diplomatic relations. President Woodrow Wilson will go abroad for basically seven months. There are people that challenge this. They dont even believe that he has the constitutional right to leave the territory of the United States. This is gonna be the moment that we have the first proposal for a permanent World Organization with something called collective security authority. That tonight is gonna be the heart of the fact that were gonna be exploring in just a minute. This is going to be the first of the United States will consider a treaty that technically, formally, requires a two and its historical isolation. By isolation, im using the definition of using Political Science. A reluctance or avoidance of military commitments to europe. So you could be in favor for example of sending missionaries to china but that doesnt make you a isolationist. You could have been in favor of annexing that would make you a imperialist. But opposed to making any security commitments to europe which could make you simultaneously a imperialist and isolationist. This will be the first time in the history of the body that the senate will invoke klobuchar, to stop the filibusters so they could actually get the business of voting down and this will be the first time of the United States and the senate will reject a peace treaty. And this is how it starts. President wilson landed back in the United States on about july the 8th, 1919, after his longtime in europe. He goes to new york. Then he goes to washington d. C. He carries the bail and, enormous copy of the treaty into the senate. In fact, he is met by henry carat lodge who asked him if youd like help carrying the gigantic treaty and Woodrow Wilson laughs and says not on your life. Ben wilson gives the speech. The stage and astonishes closed, an hour of conceiving but by the hand of god who has let us into his way. We cannot turn back. We can only go forward with lifted eyes and fresh and spirit to follow division. It was of this that we dreamed at our borough. America shall show the way. The late streamed and nowhere else. There we rejected and break the heart of the world. This from the most accomplished rhetoric shun ever to become president of the United States. And his speech was a dud. It was too high. It was too flowery. But is it true stink youre going to see more front page coverage of the speech, he may give the basics of the speech but youre gonna see down here, some really interesting openings being waged. Hey dont forget, we have the right to amend this treaty, and we may have to approve it by two thirds but we can amend it by majority vote oh and by the way the republicans are now the majority, because of the elections of 1918. You will also see that the president reads colors in the room set aside for the president of the United States at the u. S. Capital. 30 democrats want to see the president. One republican. It was the first time that very serious trouble was brewing about the state of the treaty. Now just keep ahead. Here are the votes. So 100 years ago tonight and they closed at 11 pm washington d. C. Time. I think they should stay so we go for the 100 dollars. They vote for a set of reservations, 41 yes. So there is no. The requirement for that set of votes was six to one. The vote for treaty with knows reservations was 38 yes, 55 no. It wasnt even close. That in march of 2020, after four months, they have a debate, another time, and this time the votes go up in part because the votes are absent. So this time for the nine yes. 35 now. The requirement to pass a treaty is 56, so it is failed by seven votes. And they have this thing where it throws that are absent couldnt vote. They could announce what their position would have been and thats how you wind up with this. 67 announced that had theyve been there they would have voted yes, or they did vote yes. 39 said that they were there and voted no, or they would have voted now. That is the highest of the senate ever came, the closest that the senate ever came to passing the versailles peace treaty. Now a lot of people say theres a problem. There was a group inside the senate called the irreconcilables. They said you couldnt get us to vote for this treated with all the horses of the american cavalry. Theres a lot of discussion about this. There is a lot of discussion about how many there were. Im going to be using estimates from a couple different books. Normally youre going to be getting 60 to 18. Im going to lift the 18, and then go to all kinds of fascinating senators. There is there is president Theodore Roosevelts attorney general, and William Howard tufts secretary of state. Eight irreconcilable. There is no way in the world he was going to vote for the treaty. Up there is a new senator from illinois, mccormack. A lot of people say well, thats what happened. These people somehow managed to defeat the treaty. Thats the story. And thats not the story at all. One of those irreconcilable is a complicated character. He is our very own senator james read from kansas city. Senator reed had been in the senate, and would be in the senate for 18 years. He had been the mayor of kansas city from 1900 to 1904 when the Convention City burned and they rebuilt it through fast work. He made it very clear he was a irreconcilable. I will not vote for the treaty because he was a isolationist. But there is Something Else. He was a racist. And he was very direct that he was afraid that the league of nations, with its dark skinned people, would eventually be able to outfit the white skin people, and impose a new order of racial equality at the international level. But im not using some of his more incendiary quotes because they are public quotes least with the n word. For some people of the story of james reid becomes a story of who opposed the treaty. Its provincial list bigotry. Bigotry sank the treaty. Thats not a good understanding of what happened here either. For example, in one of the best books about this. Lets look at this for a minute. A lot of people think that cosmopolitans. People with Foreign Languages, those would be the people most likely to be in favor of the treaties and actually when you study the biography, the people who are the most cosmopolitan members of the senate tended to be the most opposed to the treaty. So for example that news senator mccormack was raised by the diplomat, he used to boast that he learned to speak french before you learned to speak english. He was very involved in global affairs, but he was opposed to the treaty. This is senator knox. The republican who had been a senator tafts secretary of state. He was a irreconcilable, but here is something interesting. During the senate debate, he announced a resolution that we now call the knocks doctrine. It announced that if there were in the future any threat to the peace of europe, that the United States would regard it eight grief matter, consult with friendly governments, and consider the possibility of taking military action to deal with that. In other words, he was a irreconcilable, but not an isolationist. Now some people say, if its not the story of the irreconcilables, or protect possibly provincial bigots, then surely the story is that the American Public opinion wasnt ready for this gigantic step of a huge stride into a formal commitment to join the International Forum politics. So in his book, power with a victory, he writes its time that we kill that mid. We wouldnt have what we would now call Public Opinion polling four years. But what we normally used to gauge what Public Opinion was was to look at where newspapers were and the evidence he says is overwhelming, that there was very strong American Public opinion support for the treaty, and for adjoining the league of nations. Look at that list of newspapers except for the kansas star. Many of them including the st. Louis favored the treaty. He looks at religious organizations which were incredibly important years ago the catholics to choose. Liberal was very in favor of the treaty, we had very strong reservations about one component of the treaty. Civic groups like libertarians and the new American Legion came out in favor of the treaty and adjoining league of nations. Seven state legislatures pass regulations, including the legislatures of california and massachusetts, which happened to be the homes of the most important opponents of the treaty. And the most important brandnew single Issue Advocacy organization in the United States or something called the lead to enforce peace. It had thousands of members all over the country and they had advocated for the treaty. It was led by the former president , William Howard taft. The evidence is this treaty had the Popular Support to be approved. By the way, there were some really interesting intellectuals who are trying to make fundamental decisions about this. So there is the great feminist intellectual worker the whole house of chicago. And theres w. D. C. Deploys. Whether them very disappointed for their previous support of Woodrow Wilson. Adams because the president hadnt been a figurative supporter of constitutional amendment to give women the vote. By the way he supported franchising women, but he didnt support doing it through a constitutional amendment. And then wta be the boys who is furious with wilsons ability to articulate publicly why we need to stop the race riots or lynching. Now whats interesting is both of them thought things over, and decided they nevertheless would support Woodrow Wilson in the league. This is walter, by the 19 sixties and seventies, im told and i have read that theres hardly any serious question of the day that a american and couldnt wait until they read walter n litman and then broke with the republic. He published a major attack on the versailles peace treaty in the league of nations. Thousands of subscribers canceled their subscriptions, angered at the attack on the president. By the way, Walter Litman said 18 years later that this is one of the biggest mistakes of my life. If i could do this over again i would continue to support Woodrow Wilson and not the league. Not only is their support from the public theres also lots of aggravation within the president , among american intellectuals. But overall the possibility of progressive reform is still worth it. But here is why i think he needs help. Heres what we need to know before going ahead. I think by using the stoplight approach we can get a sense of what the balance in the senate was about this treaty, and youre going to suspect something pretty quickly. This is a tragedy. If we take the green and the yellow, then we can see that three quarters of the senate was willing to join the league and pass the treaty. The opponents were small, they were vigorous, they were energetic, but didnt have a votes to stop the treaty. The whole question of whether the treaty would go is could the green and the yellow get together . Now what im gonna do for the next litt