“The Judgment of History”

Such was the antagonism of the AEF in Siberia towards Kolchak that many Russians considered Americans to be “Bolshevistic” in their attitudes.

Interestingly, Captain Montgomery Schuyler, Chief of Staff of the AEF in Siberia, formed the same opinion of his fellow-Americans as the White press, writing in a dispatch from Omsk to Lt. Gen. Barrows in Vladivostok:

…You will feel I am being hot about this matter but it is I feel sure, one which is going to bring great trouble on the United States when the judgment of history shall be recorded on the part we have played. It is very largely our fault that Bolshevism has spread as it has and I do not believe we will be found guiltless of the thousands of lives uselessly and cruelly sacrificed in wild orgies of bloodshed to establish an autocratic and despotic rule of principles which have been rejected by every generation of mankind which has dabbled with them.[41]

When the American forces guarding the Trans-Siberian railway left Vladivostok they did so with wild acclaim from the revolutionist regime. The New York Times reported:

Parades, street meetings and speechmaking marked the second day today of the city’s complete liberation from Kolchak authority. Red flags fly on every Government building, many business houses and homes.

There is a pronounced pro-American feeling evident. In front of the American headquarters the revolutionary leaders mounted steps of buildings across the street, making speeches calling the Americans real friends, who at a critical time saved the present movement. The people insist upon an allied policy of no interference internationally in political affairs.

The General Staff of the new Government at Nikolsk has telegraphed to the American commander, Major Gen. Graves, expressing its appreciation for efforts toward guaranteeing an allied policy of non-interference during the occupation of the city, also in aiding in a peaceful settlement of the local situation.[42]

In 1920, in the midst of defeat, Kolchak stated that, “the meaning and essence of this intervention remains quite obscure to me.”[43] Kolchak was captured after being betrayed by his Czech guard and was shot by the Revolutionist regime on February 7.[44] Graves, while being appalled at the reports of the punishments allegedly meted out by the White regime, excused the execution of Kolchak as being the result of justified “resentment by the people,” and as having been properly tried and convicted by a “military court.”[45]

The New York Times editorialized with pertinent analysis of the Allied intervention and the impending collapse of the White remnants:

There can be no doubt that the allied Governments must bear a large part of the blame for the collapse of this movement. As The New Europe recently observed, “the publicly proclaimed vacillations of our statesmen are worth a whole army corps to the Bolsheviki.”[46]

Robert Service comments that while the White forces sought to regroup and challenge the Red Army,

Their hopes were undermined by the decision of the United Kingdom and France to halt their intervention in the Civil War. In December 1919 the British withdrew from Archangel, the French from Odessa. Neither Trotsky nor his leading comrades made much comment because they were wary of concluding that the threat of an anti-Bolshevik crusade was over… The Reds had come close to defeat several time since the Civil War… The Civil War was a close run conflict between the Reds and the Whites.[47]

The White forces had not understood that their most lethal opponents were not merely from the revolutionary milieu of Europe and America’s underbelly, but were seated around the conference tables of corporate boards and Cabinets. Similar acts of sabotage were perpetrated against sundry other regimes to the extent that one might ask whether these were by accident or design, and whether there are not dialectical processes at work in seemingly contradictory American foreign policies?

Notes

[1] Mario Lazo, Dagger in the Heart: American Policy Failures in Cuba (New York: Twin Circle Publishing Co., 1968).

[2] Jung Chang and Jon Halliday, Mao: the Unknown Story (London: Jonathan Cape, 2005), Chapter 28, “Saved By Washington,” pp. 292-303.

[3] Anastasio Somoza and Jack Cox, Nicaragua Betrayed (Boston: Western Islands, 1980).

[4] R Sengupta, “The CIA Circus: Tibet’s Forgotten Army,” Friends of Tibet (India), February 15, 1999, http://www.friendsoftibet.org/databank/usdefence/usd7.html

[5] Strobe Talbott, “America Abroad: Defanging the Beast,” Time, February 6, 1989. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,956883-1,00.html

[6] K R Bolton, “Origins of the Cold War, How Stalin Foiled a ‘New World Order,’ Relevance for the Present,” Foreign Policy Journal, June 1, 2010

http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/

[7] Anastasio Somoza and Jack Cox, Nicaragua Betrayed, op. cit., p. 397.

[8] Typical humbug, given that Wilson was himself surrounded by “vested interests” through his confidante, Col. Edward House.

[9] Michael Sayers and Albert E Kahn, The Great Conspiracy Against Russia, (London: Collets, 1946),p. 74.

[10] George F Kennan, The Decision to Intervene (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958), p. 13.

[11] David S Fogles, America’s Secret War Against Bolshevism: US Intervention in the Russian Civil War, (University of North Carolina Press, 1995), p. 5.

[12] David S Fogles, America’s Secret War Against Bolshevism, ibid., p. 6.

[13] Antony C Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution (New York: Arlington House, 1974), p. 115.

[14] Basil H Thompson, Special Report No. 5 (Secret), British Home Office Directorate of Intelligence, Scotland Yard, London July 14, 1919; US State Dept. Decimal File, 316-22-656. Cited, by Antony C Sutton, Wall Street and the Bolshevik Revolution, ibid., p. 115.

[15] Henry Wickham Steed, Through Thirty Years 1892-1922 A personal Narrative, (New York: Doubleday Page and Co., 1924), “The Peace Conference, The Bullitt Mission,” Vol. 2, p.301

[16] Henry Wickham Steed, Through Thirty Years, ibid.

[17] Crane was a member of a 1917 Special Diplomatic Mission to Russia, and a member of the American Section of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919.

[18] Henry Wickham Steed, Through Thirty Years, op.cit.

[19] Robert Service, Trotsky: A Biography (Oxford: Pan Books, 23009), p. 210.

[20] George F Kennan, The Decision to Intervene, op. cit., p. 35.

[21] R H Bruce Lockhart, British Agent (London: G P Putnam’s Sons, 1933), Book Four, “History From the Inside,” Chapter 3.

[22] George F Kennan, The Decision to Intervene, op. cit., p. 17.

[23] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure 1918-1920 (New York: Peter Smith, 1941), “Aid to the Czechs.”

[24] George F Kennan, The Decision to Intervene, ibid., p. 52.

[25] George F Kennan, The Decision to Intervene, op. cit., p. 346.

[26] Richard B Spence, “Interrupted Journey: British Intelligence and the Arrest of Leon Trotsky April 1917,” Revolutionary Russia, No. 1, 2000.

[27] Charles Seymour (ed.), The Intimate Papers of Colonel House (New York: Houghton, Mifflin Co.), Vol. III, p.421.

[28] Robert Service, Trotsky: A Biography, op. cit., p. 220. The ‘Left Socialist Revolutionaries’ were an originally pro-Bolshevik faction that had broken away from the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries over the issue of supporting the Bolsheviks.

[29] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, op. cit., “Before the Armistice.”

[30] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, ibid.

[31] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, op. cit., “Kolchak and Recognition.”

[32] Michael Sayers and Albert E Kahn, The Great Conspiracy Against Russia, op. cit., p 69.

[33] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, op. cit., “Mobilization of Russian Troops.”

[34] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, ibid., “The Railroad Agreement.”

[35] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, ibid., “After the Armistice.”

[36] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, ibid., “Japan, The Cossacks and Anti-Americanism.”

[37] “Released Rifles Held Up by Graves,” New York Times, October 3, 1919.

[38] “Semenoff demanded arms of Americans,” New York Times, November 2, 1919.

[39] “America and Japan Agree on Siberia Plan. Tokio Modifies Policy – will now Protect Railways as First Priority, Regardless of Kolchak,” New York Times, December 27, 1919.

[40] “Americans Block Japanese Action. Prevent Attempt by Mikado’s Troops to Save Gen. Rozanov from Revolutionists,” New York Times, February 8, 1920.

[41] Capt. Montgomery Schuyler, Report of March 1, 1919, Record Group 120, Records of the American Expeditionary Forces, 383.9 Military Intelligence Report, p. 2.

[42] “Vladivostok Pro-American. Revolutionist Staff Thanks Graves for Preserving Neutrality,” New York Times, February 15, 1920.

[43] Jon Smele, Civil War in Siberia: The Anti-Bolshevik Government of Admiral Kolchak 1918-1920 (New York: University of Cambridge, 1996), p. 201

[44] “Kolchak Sought to Save Companions. 48 Officers and Civilians Refused to Leave Him When Miners Halted Train. Czech Guard Gave Him Up,” New York Times, February 22, 1920.

[45] William S Graves, America’s Siberian Adventure, op. cit., “The Gaida Revolution.”

[46] “Kolchak’s Fall,” New York Times, December 30, 1919.

[47] Robert Service, Trotsky: A Biography, op. cit., p. 244-245.