Russian Sideshow: America's Undeclared War, 1918-1920

In July 1918, as the carnage of World War I continued, President Woodrow Wilson deployed US troops to join other Allied forces in civil war-ravaged Russia. Ostensibly a mission to guard tsarist military supplies and the Trans-Siberian railway, the true purpose of the Allied intervention was to help topple the nascent Bolshevik government. Dispatched to some of the most remote regions of the Russian wilderness - from the frigid port city of Archangel to Lake Baikal to Vladivostok - the US troops encountered fierce resistance from Red Army units, partisans and peasants. Using previously classified official records and the letters and diaries of Americans who served there, the author describes the suffering of the hundreds of American soldiers who fought and died in sub-zero conditions, both in combat and from disease. This book describes in detail the experiences of the American doughboys who fought in this little-known campaign - a tragically misguided military action that established a legacy of distrust that defined US-Soviet relations for the next seven decades.