ooming the treaty. He sees Wilson as failing to understand how strong his position really was and as losing his advantage just by deciding to attend:
Wilson had won a staggering victory in compelling the Allies to accept the Fourteen Points as the basis of a peace treaty. His victory had been so overwhelming that he could not possibly expect to gain more; indeed, he could only lose.
One of the reasons Watt gives for this is that negotiations are only another form of bargaining, and bargaining when carried on between peers can cause even the most powerful to make concessions they would not otherwise make. In this sense, then, Watt believes that Wilson may have sold out his ideals in the name of being polite:
Only a dictator is immune to the afflictions of gentility and is thus able to become overwhelmingly successful in personal negotiation.
Watt notes that both Robert Lansing and Colonel House urged Wilson not to attend the conference, or at least not to take personal part in the discussions. Wilson could control th
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