Colonel House and the Paris Peace Conference

Paper Summary:

This paper charters the political career of "Colonel" Edward Mandell House and in particular his time as the trusted adviser to Woodrow Wilson. It looks at how House played an important role in the peace process at the end of World War I and how he was the American representative for the surrender of Germany, before arriving at the Paris peace conference as Wilson's personal representative. It discusses how he tried to secure a future for Germany with concessions made to the French outside of the limits of power and guidelines that he had been given to him by Wilson thus compromising Wilson's position.

From the Paper:

"Although Wilson and House were close, House remained an accomplished and ambitious political operator. He had been observing Wilson, and had concluded that Wilson's methods of doing things was not quick enough or ultimately going to solve any problems. He was also very passionate about the league of nations, and felt that Germany should not be treated to harshly, he said that "if the conditions we impose upon Germany are unjust, it will simply mean the breeding of another war." As house began to listen to all sides of the argument over the Rhineland. He took on board all sides of the argument, and was eventually able to come up with a solution that would be acceptable to all sides, and eventually decided to give permission for the French to create a Rhenish republic, at least until they were able to rebuild militarily. House tried his best to address this issue, by suggesting the now infamous "demilitarization of the Rhineland," which was to happen in three stages."

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