Sunday, August 29, 2010

WALTER LIPPMANN & THE BECKSTER

Walter Lippmann is among Glenn Beck's gang of evil progressives and I recall that Beck accused Lippman of writing the Versaille Treaty. The truth seems to be that Lippman did have a role in leading Woodrow Wilson (another evil progressive) to write the Fourteen Points and the concept of the League of Nations. Here are some sources I found:
Through his writings in that liberal weekly and through direct consultation, he influenced Pres. Woodrow Wilson, who is said to have drawn on Lippmann's ideas for the post-World War I settlement plan (Fourteen Points) and for the concept of the League of Nations.
SOURCE: Lippmann, Walter. (2010). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 29, 2010, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9048454

He helped draft President Wilson's Fourteen Points in January 1918 -- but he was greatly disillusioned by the Treaty of Versailles and he frequently criticized its
provisions.
SOURCE: "Walter Lippmann Reconsidered" by Michael Curtis, Society
Volume 28, Number 2, 23-31, PDF here.

Insiders at the Foreign Office and some leading representatives of the new Social Democratic elite felt confidant that a moderate interpretation of the Fourteen Points had, indeed, served as the basis for the Paris armistice negotiations. It had been written by the young Walter Lippmann, then serving the American government as an ardent admirer of Wilson's liberal war aims program.
From "Germany's Peace Aims:Domestic and International Constraints" by Klaus Schwabe, in The Treaty of Versailles: a reassessment after 75 years, Volume 1919, page 42.

Wilson established a wartime 'Inquiry' body, in effect a secret investigation into world affairs with the aim of producing a programme for world peace. Boasting some 125 researchers, Lippmann acted as its co-ordinator. Its final report, The War Aims and Peace Terms It Suggests, sent to Congress on 22 December 1917, formed the basis for Wilson's subsequent Fourteen Points declaration of January 1918.

Disappointed with the results of the peace thrashed out at the Paris Peace Conference, which he attended as a U.S. delegate, and appalled at the severity of the treatment meted out to Germany, Lippmann distanced himself from Wilson during the summer of 1919. In consequence Lippmann used the New Republic to urge public opposition to the Versailles treaty and to U.S. participation in the proposed League of Nations.
SOURCE: Who's Who in the First World War, Lippmann entry.

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