France entered the Paris Peace Conference in a vindictive mood. Its primary motivations were fear and insecurity. Kagan and Kagan said the French in 1919 and thereafter "continued to be fixated on the German problem, the fact that with its greater rate of population growth and industrial capacity, Germany must inevitably eclipse France's military power, given time" (14).
Although both Lloyd George and Wilson frustrated the French demand that western Germany be dismembered, both of them were as determined as the French to make Germany bear responsibility, morally and financially, for the consequences of the war. Lloyd George catered to British public opinion during the khaki elections of late 1918 by campaigning under the slogan that Britain would squeeze Germany like a lemon until you can hear the pips squeak" (Klingaman xi). Birdsall said Lloyd George "committed himself to the impossible task of satisfying the electorate by promise of [recovering through German reparations payments] full war costs" (39).
The most tragic failure at Versaill
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