We do not know what occurred behind those closed doors, but we can imagine it, and Wilson probably fought weeks and months for his programme.

He could have broken off proceedings and left! He certainly could have done so, but would the chaos have been any less; would it have been any better for the world if the only one who was not solely imbued with the lust of conquest had thrown down his arms?
But Clemenceau, too, the direct opposite of Wilson, was not quite open in his dealings.

Undoubtedly this old man, who now at the close of his life was able to satisfy his hatred of the Germans of 1870, gloried in the triumph; but, apart from that, if he had tried to conclude a "Wilson peace," all the private citizens of France, great and small, would have risen against him, for they had been told for the last five years: _Que les boches payeront tout_.
What he did, he enjoyed doing; but he was forced to do it or France would have dismissed him.
And Italy?
From Milan to Naples is heard the subterraneous rumbling of approaching revolution; the only means the Government have adopted to check the upheaval is to drown the revolution in a sea of national interests.

I believe that in 1917, when the general discontent was much less and finances were much better, the Italian Government might much more probably have accepted Wilson's standpoint than after final victory.

Then they could not do it.