 During the peace conference the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties was established to examine the background of the war . The Commission reasoned that the " war was premeditated by the Central Powers ... and was the result of acts deliberately committed [ by them ] to make it unavoidable " , concluding that Germany and Austria @-@ Hungary had " deliberately worked to defeat all the many conciliatory proposals made by the Entente Powers and their repeated efforts to avoid war . " This conclusion was duly incorporated into the Treaty of Versailles , led by Clemenceau and Lloyd George who were both insistent on the inclusion of an unequivocal statement of Germany 's total liability . This left Wilson at odds with the other leaders of the conference . Instead , he proposed a repetition of a note sent by United States Secretary of State Robert Lansing to the German Government on 5 November 1918 , stating that the " Allied Governments ... understand that compensation will be made by Germany for all damage done to the civilian population of the Allies and their property by the aggression of Germany ... " 
