The central role that the United States had played briefly on the global
diplomatic scene faded quickly. The Senate's rejection of the Treaty of
Versailles and its clause establishing the League of Nations foreshadowed
the prolonged period of isolation that followed. While polls had shown that
much of the public favored the League, Republican senator Henry Cabot
Lodge delayed the process of ratification in summer 1919 until opponents
of the League could rouse popular feeling against it. President Wilson tried
to win over the public, but was paralyzed by a stroke during a train tour
across the country. Back in Washington, he rejected changes in the treaty
clauses pertaining to the League that might have overcome opposition in
the Senate. In the end, the Senate rejected the entire treaty on November
19, 1919. Disillusionment with the war, fed by artists and writers in the
1920s who criticized the loss of American innocence and the pointlessness
of machine-age slaughter, added to the rush to turn inward and to abandon
Wilson's internationalism. American economic strength, however, continued
to play a dominant global role, even during the 1920s.
World History
