Editing Henry Cabot Lodge (section)

===World War I===
[[File:Henry Cabot Lodge c1916.jpg|thumb|right|Lodge in 1916]]
Lodge was a staunch advocate of entering [[World War I]] on the side of the [[Allies of World War I|Allied Powers]], attacking President [[Woodrow Wilson]] for poor military preparedness and accusing pacifists of undermining American patriotism.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} On April 2, 1917, the day that President Wilson [[q:Woodrow Wilson Urges Congress to Declare War on Germany|urged Congress to declare war]], Lodge and [[Alexander Bannwart]], a [[pacifist]] constituent who wanted Lodge to vote against the war, got into a fistfight in the U.S. Capitol. Bannwart was arrested<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93385729/senator-lodge-right-there-with-the-punch/|title=Senator Lodge Right There With The Punch|pages=1, [https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93385841/senator-lodge-right-there-with-the-punch/ 2]|first=Charles S.|last=Groves|work=The Boston Globe|via=Newspapers.com|date=April 2, 1917|access-date=January 25, 2022|archive-date=January 25, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220125054109/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/93385729/senator-lodge-right-there-with-the-punch/|url-status=live}}</ref> but Lodge opted not to press charges. Bannwart later sued Lodge to have the record corrected; initial news reports suggested that Bannwart hit Lodge first, but Lodge acknowledged in settling the lawsuit that he had hit Bannwart first. This is the only known instance of a U.S. Senator attacking a constituent.<ref name=boston.com>{{cite web|url=https://www.boston.com/news/history/2017/04/06/100-years-ago-the-us-entered-wwi-and-a-senator-from-massachusetts-punched-a-protester-in-the-face-over-it/|title=100 years ago, the US entered WWI—and a senator from Massachusetts punched a protester in the face over it|publisher=[[Boston.com]]|first=Nik|last=DeCosta-Klipa|date=April 6, 2017|access-date=January 27, 2022|archive-date=January 27, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127035417/https://www.boston.com/news/history/2017/04/06/100-years-ago-the-us-entered-wwi-and-a-senator-from-massachusetts-punched-a-protester-in-the-face-over-it/|url-status=live}}</ref>

After the United States entered the war, Lodge continued to attack Wilson as hopelessly idealistic, assailing Wilson's [[Fourteen Points]] as unrealistic and weak. He contended that Germany needed to be militarily and economically crushed and saddled with harsh penalties so that it could never again be a threat to the stability of Europe. However, apart from policy differences, even before the end of Wilson's first term and well before America's entry into the Great War, Lodge confided to Teddy Roosevelt, "I never expected to hate anyone in politics with the hatred I feel toward Wilson."<ref name=Berg>{{cite book|last=Berg|first=A. Scott|title=Wilson|year=2013|publisher=G.P. Putnam's Sons|location=New York, NY|isbn=978-0-399-15921--3|pages=612|url=http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780399159213,00.html|access-date=December 14, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131203011902/http://www.us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780399159213,00.html|archive-date=December 3, 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> In January 1921, Lodge led the deliberate obstruction of the confirmation of 10,000 presidential Wilson appointments to the War and Navy Departments in the US Senate on the grounds that confirmation of these so-called cabinet "favorite" appointments would embarrass the Harding Administration.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1921-01-19/ed-1/seq-1/ |title=The Washington Herald January 19, 1921 p.1 |access-date=January 19, 2021 |archive-date=April 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220415200243/https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1921-01-19/ed-1/seq-1/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

He served as chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations|Senate Foreign Relations Committee]] (1919–1924). He also served as chairman of the [[Senate Republican Conference]] from 1918 to 1924. His leadership of the Senate Republicans has led some to retrospectively call him the de facto [[Party leaders of the United States Senate|Senate Majority Leader]].<ref name="USS19aug2017">{{cite web|title=Henry Cabot Lodge Senate Leader, Presidential Foe |url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/People_Leaders_Lodge.htm |website=United States Senate |access-date=August 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819233520/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/People_Leaders_Lodge.htm|archive-date=August 19, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref> During his term in office, he and another powerful senator, [[Albert J. Beveridge]], pushed for the construction of a new navy.