The attitude of the United States was not dictated by self-interest alone, or by party politics. There was, and still is, a strong conviction in the minds of a large element among the American people that the covenant of Versailles will not prove to be a safeguard against war, but may, indeed, lead to intensified rivalries and bitterness. Many Americans, and many Europeans also, feel that the terms of peace which were arranged at Paris contain many unwise, unjust, and even impracticable provisions. They believe that a League of Nations, charged with the duty of enforcing these provisions, is bound to encounter difficulties of a serious character.
General References
F. C. Hicks, The New World Order, especially pp. 3-91 (The Peace Treaty, including the Covenant, is printed in the appendix);
W. H. Taft, G. W. Wickersham, and others, The Covenanter: An American Exposition of the Covenant of the League of Nations, passim;
S. P. Duggan, The League of Nations, p. 1-17; 96-111;
J. A. Hobson, Towards International Government, pp. 11-57;
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, The Place of the United States in a World Organization for the Maintenance of Peace (July, 1921), pp. 1-29;
G. G. Wilson, The First Year of the League of Nations, pp. 1-55;
R. B. Fosdick, George Rublee, J. T. Shotwell, Léon Bourgeois, and others, The League of Nations Starts, pp. 1-28;
L. Oppenheim, The League of Nations, pp. 28-48;