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The Personal Diplomacy of Colonel House

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 May 2017

Lester H. Woolsey*
Affiliation:
Of the Board of Editors

Extract

The Intimate Papers of Colonel House1 is one of the most interesting collections of memoirs that has appeared in the post-war period. The contacts of Colonel House, as personal representative of President Wilson, with diplomats and statesmen in the stirring years of the war was probably broader than that of almost any other person, and certainly broader than that of any other American. His papers are so full of interesting comment on men and events that they furnish source material for many essays on different aspects of the times. The purpose of this article is merely to sketch Colonel House’s connection with the main international events of the Wilson Administration up to the entrance of the United States into the war. For some reason, his narrative ends with the period of American neutrality and the entrance of the United States into the war. Colonel House’s activities in connection with the war program of the United States and the Peace Conference at Paris are not related, and the world must hold its patience for a third volume on this critical period.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1927

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References

1 The Intimate Papers of Colonel House. Arranged as a narrative by Charles Seymour.Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1926. 2 Vols. pp. xxvi, 471; x, 508. il.Index.Google Scholar

2 For a review of the diplomatic correspondence between the United States and Chile on this subject, which presents the reasons justifying Chile in her attitude toward the pact, see “ Wilson's Latin American Treaties” by Carlos Castro Ruiz, formerly Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs of Chile, in Chile, Vol. I l l , No. 13, March, 1927, p. 69.Google Scholar

3 It is interesting to observe that House suggested and Wilson agreed that in case he were defeated and Hughes elected, both Marshall and Lansing should resign, and Wilson should appoint Hughes Secretary of State and then resign himself, making Hughes President of the United States immediately instead of after an interim of four months between election and inauguration.