How did Wilson's refusal to compromise doom the Treaty of Versailles?

President
Woodrow Wilson made several errors that doomed the Treaty of Versailles and the League of
Nations covenant. These were the two primary agreements made at the end
of(1914€“1918).

First, he made some bad decisions at the end of the war. He
alienated Republicans by asking voters to support only Democrats in the 1918 election. Second,
he spent a long six months in Paris at the peace conference, and he lost touch with developments
back home. Also, he did not include any Republicans on his peace delegation.

In Paris, Wilson placed too much emphasis on the importance of the League of Nations.
He had formidable opponents back in the United States. Former president Teddy Roosevelt opposed
him. Henry Cabot Lodge, Roosevelt's friend, was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. Lodge and others argued that the League could drag the country into a war and that
only the Senate had the power to declare war.

When Wilson returned home, he
was needlessly confrontational with Republicans. His personal enmity with Lodge doomed any
chance of a compromise. There were sixteen "irreconcilables"mostly Republicansin the
Senate, who opposed Wilson. Trying to go around the Senate, the president embarked on a speaking
tour of the nation. His health failed and he collapsed. He never fully recovered, and his
impaired health made him even more reluctant to compromise. The United States never did sign the
Versailles Treaty or join the League of Nations. Wilson's grand plans for a new, post-war world
order ended in abject failure.