Lodge, Henry Cabot

I

born July 5, 1902, Nahant, Mass., U.S.

died Feb. 27, 1985, Beverly, Mass.

U.S. politician and diplomat.

The grandson of Sen. Henry C. Lodge, he served in the U.S. Senate (1937–44, 1947–52) and as U.S. representative to the UN (1953–60). In 1960 he was the Republican vice presidential candidate under Richard Nixon. During the 1960s he served as U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam and as ambassador to West Germany. In 1969 he was the chief U.S. negotiator at the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam. He later served as special envoy to the Vatican.

II

born May 12, 1850, Boston, Mass., U.S.

died Nov. 9, 1924, Cambridge, Mass.

U.S. politician.

He was the recipient of the first Ph.D. in political science awarded by Harvard University. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1887 to 1893 and in the Senate from 1893 to 1924. He supported U.S. entry into World War I but opposed participation in the League of Nations; as chairman of the Senate's foreign relations committee he delayed action on the adoption of the Treaty of Versailles with its covenant establishing the League. He proposed amendments (the Lodge reservations) that would require Senate approval before the U.S. would accept certain League decisions. Pres. Woodrow Wilson refused to accept the amendments, and the Senate rejected the treaty.

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▪ United States senator [1850-1924]

born May 12, 1850, Boston, Mass., U.S.

died Nov. 9, 1924, Cambridge, Mass.

 Republican U.S. senator for more than 31 years (1893–1924); he led the successful congressional opposition to his country's participation in the League of Nations (Nations, League of) following World War I.

      Lodge received in 1876 the first Ph.D. in political science to be granted by Harvard University. He remained at Harvard for the next three years as instructor in American history and retained an active interest in this field throughout his life, editing scholarly journals and writing or editing works on major figures and events in the nation's history. He launched his political career in the state legislature (1880–81) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1887–93) and then was elected to the U.S. Senate.

      With the entrance of the United States into World War I (1917), he called for united support of the war effort. Initially he endorsed an international peacekeeping mechanism in an address before the League to Enforce Peace (May 1916), but, when a world organization with compulsory arbitration was advocated by President Woodrow Wilson (Wilson, Woodrow), Lodge felt that the nation's sovereignty was at stake and that it would be fatal to bind the nation to international commitments that the United States would not or could not keep. When in 1919 the Republicans gained control of the Senate, Lodge became chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He was thus in a position to mastermind the strategy of opposition to adoption of the Treaty of Versailles, including the League of Nations covenant. He adopted a dual course of action: first, delaying tactics to allow enthusiasm for the League to wane; second, introducing a series of amendments (the Lodge reservations) that would require the approval of Congress before the United States would be bound by certain League decisions. Thus, Lodge became the main leader of the U.S. isolationists. Wilson refused to accept the Lodge reservations, feeling that they would destroy the basic intent of the League. The treaty was defeated in the Senate, and the onus of rejection fell on the Wilsonians.

      The landslide election of Republican Warren G. Harding in 1920 was considered a vindication of the Lodge position, and with enhanced prestige he went on to serve as one of four U.S. delegates to the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armaments (1921).

Additional Reading

John A. Garraty, Henry Cabot Lodge, a Biography (1953, reissued 1968), presents the standard views. William C. Widenor, Henry Cabot Lodge and the Search for an American Foreign Policy (1980), contends that Lodge's actions were based on consistent beliefs about appropriate American foreign policy.

▪ United States senator [1902-85]

born July 5, 1902, Nahant, Mass., U.S.

died Feb. 27, 1985, Beverly, Mass.

 U.S. senator and diplomat who ran unsuccessfully for the vice presidency of the United States in 1960.

      He was the grandson of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge (1850–1924) and a member of a politically dedicated family that included six U.S. senators and a governor of Massachusetts. Lodge began his career in politics, after several years as a journalist, with two terms as a Republican in the Massachusetts legislature (1933–36), followed by service in the U.S. Senate (1937–44, 1947–52). He lost his Senate seat in 1952 to Representative John F. Kennedy. In that year he had been active in promoting the presidential candidacy of Dwight D. Eisenhower, who subsequently appointed Lodge permanent U.S. representative to the United Nations.

      In July 1960 he was nominated for the vice presidency on the unsuccessful Republican ticket headed by Richard M. Nixon. Lodge served as U.S. ambassador to South Vietnam (1963–64, 1965–67) and ambassador to West Germany (1968–69), and he was chief negotiator at the talks in Paris on peace in Vietnam (1969). He then served as special envoy to the Vatican (1970–77). Lodge's writings include Cult of Weakness (1932), The Storm Has Many Eyes (1973), and As It Was (1976).

Additional Reading

William J. Miller, Henry Cabot Lodge (1967), is an authorized biography.

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