„Anuarul Institutului de Istorie «George Bariţiu» din Cluj-Napoca”, tom LVIII, 2019, p. 171–181 THE GREAT ILLUSION:WHY THE PARIS PEACE TREATIES OF 1919 WERE DOOMED TO FAILURE Paul E. Michelson  Abstract. The study aims to explain why the Peace Settlement of 1919 was doomed before it was even created and why it was further undermined, on one hand, by its own failure to include in the League of Nations, as keystone of post World War order, the ”troublemakers” Germany and Russia, on the other hand, by Wilson’s failure to bring the US in the League’s fold. As the 1919 Peace of Paris created four groups (winners of the war and benefactors; losers and revisionists; opportunists; isolationists), it could not lead to true international harmony or balance of power. Based on impressive vintage and current sources, quoting especially Raymond J. Sontag’s considerations exposed in his European Diplomatic History 1871–1932, the study shares a rather pessimistic view, debating concepts belonging to ethics and philosophy of history, highlighting unresolvable paradoxes, antitheses and dilemmas. But even in cases when history does not serve as a real magistra vitae, historians are nevertheless compelled to view it realistically, never giving up hope in ideals and aspirations for morality. Keywords: Paris Peace Treaties of 1919, failure, Romania, League of Nations, Woodrow Wilson, Constantin Kirițescu, Raymond J. Sontag INTRODUCTION 1 The American historian Oron J. Hale once described the period preceding World War I, 1900–1914, as the era of „The Great Illusion” 2 . This description applies equally well to the post World War I epoch which was based on the Wilsonian illusion that the Great War had been a war to end all wars. In fact, within two decades Europe and then the whole world was plunged once more into conflict, one that, incredibly, dwarfed the excesses of World War I, and then continued into four more decades of „cold war” teetering on the brink of nuclear disaster. Elsewhere, I have described the opportunities and problems of the post- World War I era as the pursuit of „the New Normal” 3 . My purpose here is to  Profesor universitar doctor, Huntington University (SUA); e-mail: pmichelson@huntington.edu. 1 Adapted from a paper presented at the Institutul de Istorie „George Barițiu” and Centrul de Studii Transilvane of the Academia Română, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, October 23, 2018. 2 Oron J. Hale, The Great Illusion, 1900–1914 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1971). 3 See Paul E. Michelson, „Greater Romania and the Post-World War New Normal”, in Victor Voicu, ed., Lucrările conferinței internaționale România și evenimentele istorice din perioadă 1914–1920. Desăvârșirea Marii Uniri și întregirea României, București, Edit. Academiei Române, 2018, p. 83–124.