Frank Kellog served as ambassador for a little over a year. Then, in February 1925, Coolidge nominated him to be Secretary of State. In that office, Kellogg achieved several high-profile accomplishments, one of which is the Kellogg-Briand Pact, a treaty signed in 1928.
The treaty, which was the result of several years of negotiated diplomacy, had its strengths and weaknesses.
One advantage of the treaty was that the negotiators concluded it outside the framework of the League of Nations, so when that organization slowly declined, the treaty remained in effect. Another advantage was that it was a clear statement against military aggression and for diplomacy.
Its systemic weakness, however, was that it was the product of a somewhat naive desire for peace. Its lack of realism led to its being little more than an expression of a noble sentiment.
The factors which threatened peace between the two world wars were often economic. The Kellogg-Briand Pact failed to address those questions at all.
Yet, despite its weaknesses, the treaty served the purpose of identifying and networking those diplomats who had a sincere desire to preserve peace. In this context, it helped to promote post-war reconciliation among the belligerents, as historian Erich Eyck writes:
Der Kellogg-Pakt, zu dessen feierlicher Unterzeichnung Stresemann am 27. August nach Paris fuhr, war hervorgegangen aus Verhandlungen zwischen Frank Kellogg, dem Staatssektretär der Vereinigten Staaten, und Briand in den Jahren 1927 und 1928.
The idea for the Pact arose from two sources. First, French foreign ministr Aristide Briand suggested a two-party, bilateral non-aggression treaty between the United States and France. Second, Chicago Lawyer Salmon Oliver Levinson was in communication with President Coolidge and Frank Kellogg; Levinson suggested that a multilateral treaty would be better than a bilateral one.
In the event, Gustav Stresemann would become a key figure in the creation of the treaty. Stresemann had been the chancellor of Germany and served as its foreign minister during the years in which the treaty was negotiated, as Erich Eyck reports:
Einen Vorschlag Briands, durch einen französisch-amerikanischen Vertrag den Krieg zwischen diesen beiden Ländern auszuschließen, hatte Kellogg, beeinflußt durch die von dem Chicagoer Rechtsanwalt Levinson ins Leben gerufene Bewegung für „Ächtung des Krieges“ (Outlawry of War), zu dem Gegenvorschlag eines alle Großmächte umfassenden Vertrages ausgestaltet, in welchem sie auf den Krieg als Werkzeug staatlicher Politik verzichten.
The fact that the talks which finalized the treaty brought Stresemann into a closer working relationship with Kellogg synergized with other Coolidge-era diplomatic initiatives, all of which worked to maintain peace during the 1920s.
