The effects of The Treaty of Paris on The United States Essay

The effects of The Treaty of Paris on The United States - Essay Example the Conference have been usually labeled as failure because the treaties signed during the Paris negotiations did fail to secure peace in Europe in the long-term (MacMillan & Holbrooke 2001). The reasons for the failure were at least twofold: (1) the range of problems the negotiating parties had to deal with at that difficult time were too complicated and often defied effective solutions; (2) although several nations participating in the conference benefited more than others under the conditions of the peace treaties the amount of disagreement and controversy involved in each negotiated issue was huge, particularly in such critically important aspect as treating Germany. Although the common goal of the leaders involved in the Paris negotiations was apparently to restore peace and stability in Europe, the Conference immediately exposed serious disagreement between the Allies concerning how to treat Germany. The views were highly contradictory with the Big Three leaders balancing between the long-term political benefits for their countries, almost always varying and often conflicting interests of their partners, and the public opinions of their nations (Henig 1995). As a result, majority of the participants failed to full achieve their goals, and the effects of the Treaty on each nation were vastly different. The seriousness of President Wilson’s intentions during the Conference was evident: he became the first American President to ever visit Europe while in office (McMillan 2001: 3) while the US mission in Paris included almost 1300 members at its peak (Gelfand, 1963). Wilson came up with the famous Fourteen Points program that was supposed to become the foundation for a peace program. The Fourteen Points included the following items: However, the Fourteen Points of President Wilson reflected his excessively idealistic and pacifist views on the political situation in Europe. Perhaps that is the key reason for largely unsuccessful effort of the American mission