if the alternative possibility is considered to furnish the better
explanation.

It is, however, natural, considering what occurred at Paris, to search
out the reason or reasons for the President's evident unwillingness to
listen to advice when he did not solicit it, and for his failure to take
all the American Commissioners into his confidence. But to attempt to
dissect the mentality and to analyze the intellectual processes of
Woodrow Wilson is not my purpose. It would only invite discussion and
controversy as to the truth of the premises and the accuracy of the
deductions reached. The facts will be presented and to an extent the
impressions made upon me at the time will be reviewed, but impressions
of that character which are not the result of comparison with subsequent
events and of mature deliberation are not always justified. They may
later prove to be partially or wholly wrong. They have the value,
nevertheless, of explaining in many cases why I did or did not do
certain things, and of disclosing the state of mind that in a measure
determined my conduct which without this recital of contemporaneous
impressions might mystify one familiar with what afterwards took place.
The notes, letters, and memoranda which are quoted in the succeeding
pages, as well as the opinions and beliefs held at the time (of which,
in accordance with a practice of years, I kept a record supplementing my
daily journal of events), should be weighed and measured by the
situation which existed when they were written and not alone in the
light of the complete review of the proceedings. In forming an opinion
as to my differences with the President it should be the reader's
endeavor to place himself in my position at the time and not judge them
solely by the results of the negotiations at Paris. It comes to this:
Was I justified then? Am I justified now? If those questions are
answered impartially and without prejudice, there is nothing further