Sharing the Burden by Charlie Laderman;

Author:Charlie Laderman;
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: OUP Premium
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 5.2 British cartoon responding to rumors that Woodrow Wilson had rejected a mandate for Constantinople during the Paris peace conference. “The Great Renunciation,” Punch, May 28, 1919.

The first of Wilson’s Fourteen Points had stated that “diplomacy shall proceed always frankly and in the public view.” It was therefore ironic that the privacy in which the president conducted his peacemaking left his countrymen perplexed as to the nature of the commitments the country was preparing to undertake. Nevertheless, rumors abounded in the US press that Americans would be asked to assume mandates. Before the advent of scientific public opinion polling, the Literary Digest’s survey of newspaper and journal editorial opinion offered the clearest indication of popular sentiments. It reported that commentators were left asking: “What, really, is meant by Armenia?” and “Would our responsibilities be limited to Constantinople and Armenia or extended over Syria as well and perhaps additional regions?” This did not prevent them debating the merits of potential mandates. The editor of the Helena (Mont.) Independent wanted the United States to have nothing to do with “two caterwauling neighbors like Turkey and Armenia” and demanded that the Allies “act as the wet-nurses of the incorrigibles: We want none of them.” Other publications objected to departing from the traditional policy of “no entangling alliances” and stressed the financial and military burden a mandate would entail. Yet others argued that Americans should take the mandate to showcase their altruism. A number of pundits suggested Americans were best equipped to assume the mandates, considering they already exercised a similar role for numerous nations in the Western Hemisphere and the Philippines. Christian humanitarian ideals animated many responses. The Chicago Evening Post claimed it was natural for a “country whose coin bears the legend ‘In God We Trust’ to play the part of the good Samaritan” by aiding Armenia. Appeals to America’s idealism and historic world mission mingled with a desire to limit international responsibilities and refrain from burdensome overseas commitments. Surveying the political scene, the Wheeling, West Virginia Register summed up the public mood: “Leaders of thought in all parts of the United States recognize the decision to be taken on this subject is the most difficult [the president] will have to make,” but there “is on this side of the water a general indefiniteness of opinion and no confirmed attitude.” It was into this confused atmosphere that Wilson sailed home from Paris on June 28.84

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