woodrow wilson suffered a major defeat when the senate refused to ratify the versailles treaty.
woodrow wilson suffered a major defeat when the senate refused to ratify the versailles treaty.
which president suffered a major defeat when the senate refused to ratify the versailles treaty?
woodrow wilson
woodrow wilson had great plans for this room when he became president in 1913. the first democratic president in sixteen years, he intended to use the president's room as a working office to confer with congressional democrats, who controlled both houses for the first time in eighteen years. at first, wilson was a frequent caller, but he visited the capitol less often as support for his legislative agenda faltered and his relations with congress deteriorated. republicans, who regained the senate majority in 1918 resented wilson's failure to confer with the senate before negotiating the treaty ending world war i, as did many members of wilson's own party, and the president suffered a humiliating defeat when the senate rejected the versailles treaty on november 19, 1919, and again on march 19, 1920.
president's room
in "mein leben", it was argued that "the deadly effect of the terms of the treaty of versailles" justified rearmament in the 1930s, and used the "sacrifice" of the anglo-german naval agreement of 1935 to prove germany was not pursuing aggressive policies. in "mein leben", it was stated the treaty of versailles was "completely unrealistic" had it had "shackled" the german people by enforced "... subjugation, including confiscation of national territory, occupation and military control, disregard for a people's sovereignty and corresponding humiliation ...", and as such it was the versailles treaty and the versailles treaty alone that was responsible for the third reich. it was claimed that raeder as "apolitical" officer who had just been doing his duty to the fatherland borne no legal or moral guilt for anything that had happened under the third reich, and that the real responsibility for nazi crimes rested with the governments of the united kingdom, france and the united states who had imposed the treaty of versailles on germany. it was claimed that the allies had "good reason" to forbid using resistance against versailles as a defense at nuremberg because nazi germany was a "direct consequence of the situation created by the victorious enemy powers in 1918". along the same lines, it was charged that the nuremberg trial of 1945–46 was meant by the allies to cover up the "decisive part" played by the versailles treaty in causing nazi germany and the war crimes committed by the allies "... by damning the whole german nation as an international outlaw" and it was "... the german people as a whole who were to be indicted as the sole criminals, guilty of waging a malevolent war of aggression". as such, the nuremberg trials were presented as having nothing to do with justice, but instead were a political show trial. the commando order, the cash payments from the "konto" 5 slush fund and raeder's calls for war with the united states were not mentioned in "mein leben". instead it was claimed raeder was opposed to war with the united states and had always worked to protect neutral shipping during the war with the committee having raeder say: "we had to consider neutrals to avoid any possible unfortunate incidents" at sea. the invasion of norway was presented as a measure to protect norway's neutrality from britain, and raeder claimed to have been a "political prisoner" at spandau. finally, raeder was presented as a victim of hitler with the committee having raeder say "it was the tragedy of my life that our future took a completely different path". dönitz also headed the call for the "united front". besides for the z plan, which dönitz called a huge mistake, dönitz's memoirs presented raeder in a favorable light, leading the british historian peter padfield to remark "it is an open question which of the two grand admirals produced the more deliberately dishonest volume".
erich raeder resignation and later