Admiral Coontz served as advisor to the American delegation of the Washington Naval Conference of 1921-2.  Convened by President Warren G. Harding, this was a gathering of nations that held significant interests in the Pacific and East Asia, though Soviet Russia was not invited.  It resulted in several treaties that set limits on the size of navies, though in later decades it would be seen as enabling Japan’s military build-up.  The United States and Great Britain were allowed the largest tonnage limits, but the U.S. Congress was in a mood to economize and would not fund the Navy to the limits allowed.   Coontz argued that this rendered the conference’s treaties meaningless.