Monroe Doctrine and History

• Author: Yuan Kong
• Position: Associate Professor, Institute of European Studies of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
• Pages: 69-84

69

Unit 5: Monroe Doctrine and History1

Moderator: Yuan Kong (Associate Professor, Institute of European Studies of Chinese

Academy of Social Sciences)

The first speaker in this panel is Professor Mingqian Li, who will give us a first-hand

account of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 from the perspective of Manley Hudson

which will reveal how exciting the game between the great powers. The second speaker,

Miss Yue Duo from Peking University Law School who is outstandingly issue-oriented,

analyzes the US move from the Monroe Doctrine to Wilsonianism by discussing the two

sides of Stephen Douglas’ theory of popular sovereignty: formal neutrality and unlimited

expansion. I would suggest Miss Yue Duo present more context of the debate and cite more

texts to support her arguments; and she can also fully discuss the debate between the former

United States President Abraham Lincoln and John Calhoun, as well as clarifying the

relationship between infinite expansiveness and geospatial expansion. The third speaker is

Mr. Zhuo ZengHua from the School of Law of Tsinghua University who is very informative.

The fourth speaker is Professor Jing Wang from East China University of Political Science

and Law Scientific Research Think Tank Institute of Social Sciences whose presentation

adds another perspective to the historical analysis.

Mingqian Li (Associate Professor, School of Foreign Studies of East China University

of Political Science and Law)

Topic: The American Role in the Peace Paris of 1919: Based on Hudson’s Private

Diary (1918.10-1919.8)

Hello everyone!

My remarks are primarily based on some observations from reading Manley Hudson’s

private diary on the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

I will begin with an introduction to Manley Hudson and his diary. Manley Hudson

was a member of the Legal Department of the Secretariat of the League of Nations, a legal

adviser to the International Labor Organization, a judge of the Permanent Court of

Arbitration and the Permanent Court of International Justice, chairman of the International

Law Commission, and a member of the Commission to discuss the Russian Refugee Issue.

Permanent Court of International Justice, Chairman of the International Law Commission

of the United Nations, and a member of the Russian Refugee Committee. His diary began

from October 30, 1918. On this day Manley Hudson was appointed to travel to Paris with

a United States diplomatic delegation.

When I read Manley Hudson’s diary for the first time, I felt that it involved a very

large number of people. This reflects a magnificent scale of the Peace Conference at that

time, which included some technical officials, legal affairs officials, and other national

affairs officials, in addition to the diplomatic representatives sent by each country. The

diary mentioned lots of names and institutions. For example, Manley Hudson said that he

participated in two or three committees, and sub-committees were set up under committees,

1 This Unit is translated by Yier Ji (East Chin a University of Political Science and Law) an d Xiaofu Li

(Associate Editor of FLIA Review). The translations has been modified and confirmed by the speakers.

70

such as the one on the League of Nations setup. Manley Hudson wrote in his diary that he

would have liked most to have served on this committee, but unfortunately, he was not

appointed. He was sent to committees on international rivers, international ports, and

international waters, interspersed with his service to other committees. In addition, the

diary covers a wide range of topics, with a committee and subcommittee for each topic.

One of the more interesting aspects of reading the diaries is that the private diary

records not only the author’s work but also his personal life. Who Manley Hudson met with

each day, what he discussed, and even how he learned French. In his diary, Manley Hudson

wrote down some of his observations during the Conference, including his emotional side.

For example, he had sympathy for the Germans: he described in his diary the Germans

looked sad and bitter when they signed the Treaty of Versailles, and he had some mixed

feelings about the French, believing that the French press reported Woodrow Wilson’s visit

to Paris with prejudice.

When I read the diary for the second time, then I realized that what seemed

complicated the first time around was a reference to Wilson’s Fourteen Points. Woodrow

Wilson proposed the Fourteen Points in a speech to the United States Senate on January 8,

1918, when the United States had already entered the war. Woodrow Wilson had argued in

the early days that the United States should stay away from European affairs and remain

neutral. For example, when he ran for re-election as president in 1916, his goal was to keep

the United States out of the war and away from it, and to be an ally of all countries,

including Germany. But as the war turned, when Woodrow Wilson found that Germany

tended to win, he began to think about the central issue of peace and war: Why is there war?

How can peace be made? In his view, the cause of the war was imperialism, militarism,

and the balance of power advocated by the old style of diplomacy. Wilson’s Fourteen Points

advocated a shift from the old diplomacy to new diplomacy in which there would be no

more secret pacts, no more secret alliance treaties, and everything would be open. His

thinking centered on building “a world safe for democracy”. In his view, a republic was the

best system of government for practicing democracy and safeguarding it, not an empire.

Wilson’s Fourteen Points also became the basis for Germany to seek an armistice and

accept the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. Manley Hudson’s diary revolves around these

ideas. From this perspective, Woodrow Wilson was also the founder of the Peace with the

vision that the Fourteen Points would be accepted by all sides. Against this backdrop, the

American diplomatic delegation wanted to depart as soon as possible to set the agenda for

the Peace Paris

The diary writes down the process leading to Manley Hudson’s agreement with the

Allies after he arrived in Paris. They were shocked: “Why should we accept Wilson’s

Fourteen Points as the basis for Peace when we have already won?” After continuous

communication and negotiations, the Allies finally accepted the Wilson’s Fourteen Points

principles, especially the establishment of the League of Nations, as the basis for the Peace.

It is worth noticing that the interests of the Parties were difficult to reconcile. Wilson

wanted to establish the peace order he envisioned, with order building as the focus. But

Clemenceau was different, and France’s aim was clear: to avenge the humiliation suffered

by France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. Manley Hudson repeatedly wrote in his

diary that the French were not interested in an international alliance and that their focus

was on demanding reparations and cessions from Germany. British Prime Minister Lloyd

George, who was also an integral part of the Peace, feared that France’s harsh demands on