His Grandfather was a buddy of TR—a progressive. The young Lodge, of course, was an internationalist, but given the elder Lodge’s bent for power politics, he probably would not have disapproved. TR would not have supported the league, but he wouldn’t have taken down the Navy as Harding and Coolidge did, and he would definitively been willing to confront Stalin.
But so far as the younger Lodge, He was the SOb who orchestrated the assasination of the Diem brothers in South Vietnam, which wrecked the whole enterprise.
HCL, Sr. was friendly with TR, but he was still a stalwart Conservative, regardless (although more of the Paleo variety by today’s standards). Junior marked the change from Conservative Republicanism to liberalism that would ultimately lead to the death of the MA GOP. Even if Brown is elected, that won’t resurrect the party. His is a victory for an anti-Democrat establishment Oppositionist coalition, but not the state party.
What did Harding do to the Navy?