US Membership in the League of Nations

What if the Senate ratified Woodrow Wilson's treaty calling for the US to be in the League of Nations? Would anything be different with isolationist conservatives proceeding Wilson?
 
Well, for one thing, if this happens the US may just accept Armenia as a mandate... how well would that work out with Turkey I wonder:confused:
 
I really doubt that US membership in the League would make much difference. Contrary to what many believe, the US was quite active--and effective--in European affairs in the 1920's: see Bear F. Braumoeller's "The Myth of American Isolationism." https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/10561317/webPDFs/Braumoeller2010.pdf As Braumoeller writes, "The fact that banks, not tanks, were the instruments of American influence does not lessen the degree to which influence was successfully exerted. It has, however, lessened the degree to which it has subsequently been noticed by scholars...." Moreover, as Braumoeller notes, "Throughout this period, American participation in League of Nations conferences was frequent. Before long, it had even come to be *expected*. A dispatch from the American representative sitting in on the First Session of the Preparatory Commission for the Disarmament Conference in Geneva is illustrative: the delegate had been instructed by Secretary of State Kellogg not to make any statements about a Soviet proposal for complete disarmament but finally did so because, as he put it, ‘‘continued silence on my part was becoming more conspicuous than a speech [and] I was constantly questioned informally as to America’s attitude.’’"

The US did no doubt underestimate the menace of Hitler in the 1930's but so did plenty of League members, and it is doubtful the US would have arrived at a substantially different policy if it were a League member.
 
Top