“Wilson bored me with his Fourteen Points; even God has Ten Commandments”
This source shows us President Clemenceau’s view on Woodrow Wilson whom was the current President of America at the time. Clemenceau stated this very cleverly as he says very discreetly that Wilson thinks himself better than God as ‘God only has ten commandments’. Clemenceau also thinks that Wilson’s points are commandments so the other major powers have to abide and serve these points.
In some cases I do agree with this as Wilson and his country did not start and fight in the war since the beginning but when he does join the war had almost come to an end with a lot of help by sending resources but Wilson should not have had that much say in the treaty of Versailles as they hadn’t lost as many men or they hadn’t had lost their wealth like the other major powers had. Lastly Wilson brought these points across so the other super powers could not get revenge which would of satisfied them.
On the other hand I don’t really agree with this as Wilson didn’t manage to force his points or ‘Commands’ at other super powers as Germany didn’t get self-determination like the East of Europe did. Secondly Clemenceau did get the majority of what he wanted as he bankrupted Germany, he got his land back, he made the Saar land a demilitarized area and he got some of the profits in which Germany made.
However you do have to question the provenance of the source as it came from a British reporter so we have to assume that is bias as the media was still being controlled by the government, so the British government might have wanted the public to think that France and America was getting all that they wanted and the British where barely getting any of their demands.
To conclude I do agree with Clemenceau’s statement as America only joined the war at the end and they came and demanded that there should be equal piece but they hadn’t experienced the first years of the war, but we still have to