August 27, 1928 marks the date of birth of the Kellogg-Briand Pact. The Pact was signed and ratified by the 15 states: the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, the Free State from Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Poland and South Africa (Randall Lesaffer). The Pact, also called the Pact of Paris, for which the city in which it was signed agreed to abandon the war. All signatory countries also agreed to resolve all disputes by peaceful means. The Kellogg-Briand Pact was an agreement to eliminate war as an instrument of national policy (Encyclopedia Britannica). The Pact owes its name to its authors Frank Kellogg, Coolidge's Secretary of State and his French counterpart Aristide Briand (What Was the Meaning of the Kellogg-Briand Pact). The American press almost failed to recognize Briand's message. His treaty proposal of June 20, 1927 passed through the American administration (Bureau of Historians). On December 28, 1927, Kellogg responded to Briand's proposal with a counterproposal. The counter-proposal expanded the French initiative and invited all the great powers to commit to “a declaration renouncing war as an instrument of national policy” (Randall Lesaffer). The pact entered into force on July 24, 1929. On that date, the following countries signed the pact: Afghanistan, Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, China, Cuba, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, Guatemala, Hungary. , Iceland, Latvia, Liberia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Romania, Soviet Union, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Siam, Spain, Sweden and Turkey. After that, eight more countries joined the pact... middle of paper ... around the terms of the agreement, as the pact never fully explained what it meant by "self-defense." The dominant powers, United States, France, Great Britain, etc., wanted to remain at peace. They did not recognize conflicts and believed they would be resolved peacefully. Yet as more and more conflicts began to occur, tensions between nations increased and eventually this sparked World War II. The treaty was the high point of the peace movement. After its ratification by the Senate as well as other states, President Hoover announced that the treaty was now in force. He said: “I venture to predict that the influence of the Treaty of Renunciation of War will be felt in a large proportion of all future international acts” (historycentral.com). Ultimately, the Kellogg-Briand pact did little to prevent the catastrophe or any other problems that followed..