When President Wilson asked the Senate to declare war on Germany, it was on the grounds of his foreign policy of "moral diplomacy". He believed that it was "the war to end all wars", and would ultimately result in lasting peace between all of the nations of the world. While from a modern perspective, it's clear that World War I did not end warfare for good, Wilson's morally-based legacy still influences foreign relations today, mostly through his establishment of The Inquiry.
The Inquiry, created in 1917, was a group of around 150 scholars, librarians, historians, and political scientists who were dedicated to establishing methods to ensure lasting peace and security for foreign diplomatic issues. The group was led by Wilson's advisor Edward "Colonel" House, who had helped Wilson to win the presidential election in 1912.
The Inquiry played a large role in the Paris Conference: twenty-one of its members accompanied Wilson to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles. There, they proposed several recommendations to deal with the various parties involved in the conference, with the goal of achieving a permanent peace for all of them.
The first main part of their recommendation regarded the territory of Alsace-Lorraine, which had been annexed by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War in the late 19th century. Believing the territory to rightfully belong to France, the Inquiry advised that the territory be returned to France. It also recommended that the Rhineland, or the area on the German side of the German-French border be demilitarized.
The Inquiry also proposed a plan for how to deal with the Baltic states that had broken away from the Russian empire. Should the Russian Revolution result in a new, democratic state, then they recommended the reunification between Russian and the states, believing that it would best benefit the Baltic economy. However, should the Bolsheviks remain in control of Russia, then The Inquiry determined that their independence should be maintained until a more beneficial time to reconsolidate with Russia. Truthfully, these recommendations did not hold much weight at the conference, as Russia had already surrendered many of those territories in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, and wasn't even at the Paris Conference.
(The Inquiry made a few other recommendations regarding Southern European and more minor countries and areas, but their plans for France and the Baltic were the claims they argued most strongly.)
In all, the propositions that The Inquiry made at the Paris Conference were not as influential as Wilson had intended. Few of them were actually implemented, and the group disbanded shortly after the Paris Peace Conference.
The main success of The Inquiry exists in its legacy. Several members of the group went on to found the Council on Foreign Relations, an organization that has had members such as Dwight Eisenhower, Bill Clinton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and other prominent governmental figures. The group provided the impetus for ideas such as the post-WWII Marshall Plan and NATO. While The Inquiry never achieved the level of success that Wilson had hoped for during World War I, it was the beginning of an organization that has navigated American foreign relations in some of the biggest crises through the late 20th and early 21st century, and has no doubt left its mark on our country's politics.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations#Mission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Inquiry
https://catalog.archives.gov/id/10511440
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Peace_Conference,_1919
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourteen_Points#Reaction_in_America
This was really interesting and I liked that you included very specific details about plans the Inquiry had and how the Inquiry led to different organizations. A group that was similar to the Inquiry was its successor, the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, which drafted the Covenant for the League of Nations and participated in the peace conference.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/related-records/rg-256
I thought this was a really interesting post and added more to our knowledge of Wilson. I find it interesting that most of the ideas that he proposed at the Peace of Paris were not well accepted by the rest of the countries represented at the conference. I thought it was especially interesting how the Russian Revolution played such a key part in this and influenced many countries during this time.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was interesting how Wilsons ideas that he brought forth to the European nations were not being accepted by the nations, and then not accepted by his own country.
ReplyDeleteI never knew about the Inquiry, so this post was a very insightful look into Wilson's wartime presidency. I think that the Inquiry was an interesting idea by Wilson, an it's clear he wanted to create a long-lasting peace in the world. Though their recommendations were not taken to heart by the European powers, it's cool to think about a future where they were. If we had an Inquiry today, what would our world look like, and what would the Inquiry look like? This post raises a lot of interesting discussion topics.
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