I agreed with everything that Wilson said in his speech on the League of Nations. I believe the League of Nations speech he gave was one of his strongest and most convincing speeches. Wilson had many good ideas, facts and plenty of convincing evidence.
Wilson starts off talking about how joining the League of Nations would be a way to keep the world safe and at peace while still keeping the nations safe. He states this clearly by saying “This is only the first of several treaties. They are all constructed upon the same plan. The Austrian treaty follows the same lines. The treaty with Bulgaria follows the same lines. The treaty with Turkey, when it is formulated, will follow the same lines.” By saying this, Wilson makes sure that everybody knows the treaties will all be completely fair. Wilson also addressed the fact that the League of Nations is not to rise up and use its power against others but it is to keep safe every nation. He, again very clearly, states this by saying “They enter into a solemn promise to one another that they will never use their power against one another for aggression; that they never will impair the territorial integrity of a neighbor,” meaning they will not try to take over another and that they will not use violence against each other. Wilson afterwards states that if one of the nations do want to start war or break the rules of the treaty, there are up to 6 months for the circumstances to be looked at “maturely” and if then still not decided, there will be another 3 months they do not go to war. Wilson’s point in doing this was that when people are angry, they often act out of character due to the passion of anger or the heat of the moment. He provides evidence for this later in his speech by giving the example of the people he knew who would often swear when angry. He told them that when in the lines of the city, they must not swear. Therefore when they got angry, they would drive out of town to swear but often by the time they got out of town, they would not be angry anymore. Later on in the speech, Wilson brings emotion into play by speaking of the fallen soldiers who died “not to prove the might of the United States” but to bring justice. Wilson wraps it up by summarizing all of the points provided in the speech. The treaties would be completely fair and would not disadvantage anybody, including the United States. The treaty would help the US avoid war by making every nation promise to not use violence as well as providing the nations “cooling space” (as stated by Wilson) so that they could look realistically at the situation and not make bad decisions.
Like I said before, I agreed with Wilson and thought that it would be smart to be in the League of Nations. I think this way because everything he said he had evidence to support. He also had a solution to almost every problem. One of the biggest reasons I agreed with him was because of the 6 months rule. I know that when people are angry they are much more prone to lash out and people generally have bad reasoning when they are angry.
Theron, you make a lot of key points in your summary of Wilson's speech and I have to agree with you on the key points. It's obvious that Wilson's goal in delivering this speech was to prevent a future world war and bring peace. World peace is something that everyone desires; Wilson's attempt to get world peace was admirable but it wasn’t enough to achieve the ultimate status of “World Peace.” After hearing this speech by Wilson I wonder why the league of nationals failed. I think the League of Nations failed because they could not resolve conflicts within the league. The League of Nations could not stop World War II, they could not stop the arms race, and they basically could not resolve conflicts. The League of Nations was one of those ideas that seemed good on paper but in reality it just didn’t work.
ReplyDeleteTheron, You summary of Wilson's speech was spot on i think all the points you brought up fit with all the evidence you presented. I have to agree with you when you agree with Wilson's speech. Just reading it you can feel how strongly he feels about this issue. Of the many points Wilson brought up and supported I believe he said it best when he said "You will say, "Is the League an absolute guarantee against war?" No; I do not know any absolute guarantee against the errors of human judgment or the violence of human passions." because he wasn't saying this is the sure fire way to accomplish not going to war. But in his opinion it was the best way to keep out of war and to bring about "World Peace." This part of the speech really brought it all together and his other evidence made me truly believe that the League was our best bet as a nation.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Wilson’s speech completely as well. All he ever wanted was peace and he always tried to avoid war as much as he could. By creating the League of Nations, he hoped that it would “establish rules of international conduct and resolve conflicts between nations through rational and peaceful means.” Wilson definitely wasn’t doing this for fame or selfish gains. He clearly really cared about everyone, whether they were part of the United States or not. He personally visited his troops’ graves in France after the war and felt so much grief and guilt because of the wars. Anyone can say they feel grief, but people who actually care would actually show their gratitude, just as Wilson did to the soldiers. He even said himself that, "I wish that they could feel the moral obligation that rests upon us not to go back on those boys, but to see the thing through.” The soldiers didn’t fight in the war for nothing; they fought to bring peace into the world. Wilson didn’t want their efforts to go to waste, especially since it was his decision to send the troops to fight for peace. No one really wants to sacrifice themselves or lose a loved one in war, but some were kind enough to make the sacrifices for peace. Wilson’s speech was very convincing and he only meant well; it doesn’t make sense to me at all that his plan for the league didn’t go into action. “This is only the first of several treaties. They are all constructed upon the same plan. The Austrian treaty follows the same lines. The treaty with Bulgaria follows the same lines. The treaty with Turkey, when it is formulated, will follow the same lines,” like you said, shows that he would have everyone’s treaty be completely fair. No one would have more benefits or disadvantages than each other; everyone had exactly the same conditions no matter what. Wilson’s speech is definitely something that should never be forgotten in hope that the world can finally realize that we can have world peace, just as Wilson wanted for everyone.
ReplyDeleteI agree this was Wilson's most convincing speech. He really did try to have peace with everyone. But since everyone has different opinions about things the League of Nations failed. He didn't want people to think that this was going to be a settlement for Germany rather to help readjust the society. Even though the League of Nations was a fail, it was a good attempt at trying to bring the countries together.
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