Why did Henry Cabot lodge have problems with the treat of Versailles?

Answer 1

President Wilson, a Democrat, was engaged in a power struggle with a Republican controlled Senate. The conflict centered around a balance of power issue -- Wilson had negotiated the treaty without the customary presence of senators, and he neglected to discuss and negotiate the terms of the treaty with the Senate Foreign Relations committee before making it public. By cutting the senators out of the treaty making process, Wilson was attempting to do an end run around the Senate's authority over treaties and this angered many senators.

The Republicans also had major substantive and ideological issues with the proposed treaty. Some of these issues arose out the bitter, personal rivalry between the head of the Foreign Relations Committee, Henry Cabot Lodge and Wilson. These men had opposing views of international relations with Lodge being a realist and Wilson an idealist. Lodge and other Republican Senators believed the treaty should call for the unconditional surrender of Germany and it did not, they felt that many provisions as written were unenforceable, and they opposed the treaty provisions which authorized US participation in Wilson's pet project, the League of Nations. In particular, Lodge felt participation in the League would compromise US sovereignty by requiring the US to enter into international conflicts when it was not in the national interest of the US to do so. Lodge's committee sent the treaty to the floor of the Senate for a vote with 14 amendments, but recommended against its passage. On November 19, 1919, for the first time in US history, the Senate rejected a peace treaty.

Answer 2

Senator Lodge proposed 14 reservations aimed at limiting any kind of real commitment to mutual security with regards to the Treaty

Answer 3

why did Henry Cabot lodge to the treaty?