Edward M. House
Edward Mandell House (July 26, 1858 – March 28, 1938) was an American diplomat, and an adviser to President Woodrow Wilson.
He was known as Colonel House, although his rank was honorary and he had performed no military service.
He was a highly influential back-stage politician in Texas before becoming a key supporter of the presidential bid of Wilson in 1912 by managing his campaign, beginning in July 1911.
Having a self-effacing manner, he did not hold office but was an "executive agent", Wilson's chief adviser on European politics and diplomacy during World War I (1914–1918).
He became a government official as one of the five American commissioners to the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.[4]
In 1919, Wilson broke with House and many other top advisers, believing they had deceived him at Paris.
Paris conference
House helped Wilson outline his Fourteen Points and worked with the president on the drafting of the Treaty of Versailles and the Covenant of the League of Nations.
House served on the League of Nations Commission on Mandates with
Lord Milner and Lord Robert Cecil of Great Britain,
Henri Simon[21] of France,
Viscount Chinda of Japan,
Guglielmo Marconi of Italy, and
George Louis Beer as adviser.
On May 30, 1919, House participated in a meeting in Paris which laid the groundwork for establishment of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a private organization based in New York.
Throughout 1919, House urged Wilson to work with Senator Henry Cabot Lodge to achieve ratification of the Versailles Treaty, but Wilson refused to deal with Lodge or any other senior Republican.
The conference revealed serious policy disagreements and personality conflicts between Wilson and House.
Wilson became less tolerant and broke with his closest advisers, one after another.
Later, he dismissed House's son-in-law, Gordon Auchincloss, from the American peace commission when it became known the young man was making derogatory comments about him.[22]
In February 1919, House took his place on the Council of Ten, where he negotiated compromises unacceptable to Wilson.
The following month, Wilson returned to Paris.
He decided that House had taken too many liberties in negotiations, and relegated him to the sidelines.
After they returned to the US later that year, the two men never saw or spoke to each other again.[22]
Shortly after returning to Washington, Wilson suffered a debilitating stroke, the extent of which was concealed from the public and the press.
Other than his doctors, direct access to the president was now limited too and controlled by Wilson's wife and Chief of Staff.
Though House continued to send memos and reports to the president during this time, Wilson's wife made sure he did not see any of them.[23]