Bdq Essay
The College Board Advanced Placement Examination UNITED STATES HISTORY SECTION 1 1 (Suggested writing t i m M 0 minutes) Directions: The following question requires you to construct a coherent essay that integrates your interpretation of Documents A-I and your knowledge of the period referred to in the question. High scores will be earned only by essays that both cite key pieces of evidence from the documents and draw on outside knowledge of the period.
1. It was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, rather than the ineptitude and stubbornness of President Wilson that led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.
Using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1917-1921, assess the validity of this statement.
Document A Source: ~ i l l i a m Borah, Speech in United States Senate, December 6,1918. The first proposition connected with the proposed league is that of a tribunal to settle the matters of controversy which may arise between the different natioris. Will anyone advocate that those matters which are of vital importance to our people shall be subrnitted to a tribunal created other than by our own people and give it an international army subject to its direction and control to enforce its decrees? I doubt if anyone will advocate that. . . . If you do not do so, Mr. President, what will your league amount to? . .
.
In its last analysis the proposition is force to destroy force, conflict to prevent conflict, militarism to destroy militarism, war to prevent war. In its last analysis it must be that if it has any sanction behind its judgment at all. There is where the difficulty lies. . . .
Copyright O 1991by Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. AU,rights resewed.
Document B
Source: The New Republic,May 24,1919. Liberals all over the world have hoped that a war, which was so clearly the fruit of competition and imperialist and class-bound nationalism, would end in a peace which would
1. It was the strength of the opposition forces, both liberal and conservative, rather than the ineptitude and stubbornness of President Wilson that led to the Senate defeat of the Treaty of Versailles.
Using the documents and your knowledge of the period 1917-1921, assess the validity of this statement.
Document A Source: ~ i l l i a m Borah, Speech in United States Senate, December 6,1918. The first proposition connected with the proposed league is that of a tribunal to settle the matters of controversy which may arise between the different natioris. Will anyone advocate that those matters which are of vital importance to our people shall be subrnitted to a tribunal created other than by our own people and give it an international army subject to its direction and control to enforce its decrees? I doubt if anyone will advocate that. . . . If you do not do so, Mr. President, what will your league amount to? . .
.
In its last analysis the proposition is force to destroy force, conflict to prevent conflict, militarism to destroy militarism, war to prevent war. In its last analysis it must be that if it has any sanction behind its judgment at all. There is where the difficulty lies. . . .
Copyright O 1991by Educational Testing Service, Princeton, NJ. AU,rights resewed.
Document B
Source: The New Republic,May 24,1919. Liberals all over the world have hoped that a war, which was so clearly the fruit of competition and imperialist and class-bound nationalism, would end in a peace which would