Wilson's illness and Republican control of Congress let figures such as Borah, Lodge, and Johnson delay peace measures until their party could claim credit. The separate American peace with Germany had already damaged cooperation over Versailles, leaving naval limitation dependent on a narrow residue of wartime collaboration. Governments still wanted relief from construction costs so they could fund domestic promises, but that economic motive did not make agreement easy. Even in the United States, ratification nearly followed Versailles into failure. The Washington treaty survived by a narrow political margin rather than through an inevitable response to shipbuilding expense.
Chapter · 26:16-33:00
The fragile politics behind naval limitation
American partisan politics and governments' desire to redirect shipbuilding money show why the historical Washington treaty was possible but far from inevitable.