Note 302 — Chapter XXXI · THE UNITED STATES AND THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS

The covenant was made an integral part of the peace treaty, largely at President Wilson’s insistence, for two reasons: First, because it was believed that this would be a surer way of obtaining the assent of all the great nations to the provisions of the covenant; second, because many of the terms of the treaty (for example, those relating to boundaries and mandates) were framed on the assumption that a League of Nations would be in existence to carry them into effect. Taken together, the treaty and the covenant make the longest international document ever framed, a printed book of 87,000 words—about half the size of this text-book. Nearly a thousand diplomats, experts, and clerks spent more than three months in drafting it.