He was opposed, however, by over 2/3rds of the Senate, prohibiting The United States from joining the League of Nations.
"We shall have to fight another war again in 25 years time."
-David George Lloyd, British Statesman
The United States Government was opposed to the Treaty of Versailles because they believed that to achieve world peace there was a need for Europe’s economy to stabilize and Germany was a part of that. When the German people couldn’t pay for damages, the other countries went into Germany and took precious resources, essentially ruining their economy.
This hatred and anger made it easy for the Nazi party to gain the peoples favor, for they vowed to unite Germany, and they gave the people someone to hate, the Jewish community. After the country began to prosper, Hitler lost many of his followers.
Then the depression hit. After everything that the neighboring countries had done to Germany, their economy finally collapsed. This, among other factors made Hitler gain support, and eventually invade Poland.
The American people were not fans of Germany when the Nazis had taken over, especially because the U.S. and Europe were anti-war. However, the United States remained Neutral when Nazi Germany committed crimes against humanity.
The American Government showed its revulsion at Kristallnacht, which was the Imprisonment and relocation of many Jewish people. Although we did not agree with Germany, we did not do anything to stop it. This was not the case when in December of 1941 Germany declared war on the U.S.
All of these things led up to the death of 60 million people. The Treaty of Versailles was obviously not the best option for the future of the world. There are still hostilities between countries because of this. The fact that one document could have this much effect over what would happen is astounding. It begs the question what would have happened if we wouldn’t have derailed Germany, and how many lives would have been saved?∎
Kristallnacht 1938
