THE FROZEN WAR

for why are we just going over there we don't know you're going to Siberia so that's all we knew well I was 21 years old so I said well bring on Siberia I was in an adventurous mood I was wearing American Uniform and I thought well I'm in the Army sure I want to go who wouldn't he [Music] [Applause] to send troops to fight the Bolsheviks would be to create a state of War into which the United States could not enter without a formal declaration by Congress so I could not send a man to Russia even if I wanted to which I do not cable indicate state department has heard that Soviet lead is acting under direction of German general staff regard suggestion of German controled Soviet government as absurd and impossible if Washington credits this contention why are we wasting time representing us here in Moscow the French and English are undoubtedly trying to get the Allied Forces committed to some ACT which will result in the establishment of a new Eastern Front the Soviet government believes America can prevent hostile intervention and if Japan advances it means America has con Ed this dispatch contains the policy of the United States and Russia you are to follow it watch your step you'll be walking on eggs loaded with dynamite God bless you and goodbye before the war ended in the west the Bolsheviks had made peace with Germany then the Allies landed in Russia one by one Japan was first and backed local adventurers like the kasac kov the Allies also supported leaders like the former Admiral kchek who hoped to unite anti-bolshevik and defeat the Reds at his side was a Czech Legion former saris soldiers controlling the single track Railway linking European and Far Eastern Russia [Music] when the war ended in Europe in November 1918 American and other Allied troops remained in North Russia and Siberia Russia was torn by catastrophic Revolution and Civil War many anti-bolshevik banking on Allied report against the new Moscow government sought to topple the [Music] Bolsheviks the original agreement was the lad of us stock would be the Port of Entry America and Japan would send the bulk of the forces to Siberia that in no case would either one of these nations exceed 10,000 men that the other Allied nations would have a representative group like the British and the French and the Canadians you see with the me [Music] you see nothing was prepared for this we didn't even have a place take a bath for 3 months after we got over there for instance the Cod I got had a date in it when the contract was l in some place in New Jersey I think New York or New Jersey and that date was after we went over there so you see the equipment they had was that late coming it was an unknown thing I I never been in a foreign Port the hills and the buildings on them you know what I mean and you look over there with a kind of a sense of [Music] a the word cosmop Olan does apply there was according to reports a millionaire it could have been two million I don't know refugees from the lad of O about the time we were they all slept or wasn't I but anyway it was more than crowded it was just well it was where is water go one is turn it loose it goes someplace that's where the refugees went in the daytime there's a lot of people night time they clear out pretty much cuz they don't want to get shot and [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] KN the kics or kazaks as they come are peculiar to Russia they're Russians with their Horsemen COV was AIC but AIC not under the command of a guy like kov I think was an entirely different man but they had a murderer at their [Music] head a few men deployed over a great area it's pretty thin every American Soldier over there if there was any kind of a concerted action planned could have been killed in one day they' wanted to kill them all overnight they could have and this is just what would have happened if uh we had a general over there General gra he went over there and Wilson told him that uh he was to go by his orders and he did and the Allied Forces particularly the British they tried to get Graves to enter into certain things you know what I mean of a military nature what's a man going to do with less than 10,000 troops why he would have lasted about 10 minutes see so Graves was over there for a different purpose and he wouldn't listen to any of these Allied commanders grav would not go for this and further implicate this whole [Applause] country graves in vladist found himself in the middle of a baffling Civil War a merry gound ringed with Russian partisans interventionist minded allies and anti-bolshevik American diplomats President Wilson had instructed Graves not to interfere in Russian internal affairs we didn't go over there to fight no we didn't go over there to fight we went over there to protect American property we went over there to be helpful to the people had a lot of German prisoners there it was housed in one of these Bal locomotive places to protect a lot of property it was on the docks over there in crates it never been opened a few automobiles included to see that these rifles one thing another stuff on the docks there were not confiscated by rebels or Bandits or anyone and get into the wrong hands because with a Revolution going on it was kind of bad stuff to have laying around [Music] the first friction came with the Americans and the Japanese Japan probably didn't enter World War I until she knew who was going to win the Japanese military machine was a very arrogant group and u they couldn't have been any more arrogant than they were you know they found according to reports that everyone that seemed to be prevalent and everyone kind of agreed on there's about 70,000 extra Japanese on the soil they didn't go through Basta they went up the coast someplace they put them in small boats and put them on the land [Music] they were sending a Red Cross train with supplies for arm oh it must have been about 3500 miles from vasta it was said that some of these cars contained ammunition and rifles for kche we found out later that maybe they knew the train that followed our train was blown up [Music] now when I was too har in was going out our train was not up close to the station Japanese soldiers come down there and wouldn't let any of us off the train not even go down the steps and stand up and here coming up to our cars were victims of tyus and Cera one man had come up there to our car he he was so near dead he couldn't talk he want to know if we had anything to eat they took this bread can and they got about half of a palmful of crumbs to give him he didn't even have enough strength to put the crumbs in his mouth and then he fell down dead [Applause] f [Music] [Applause] you can smash the top and smash up the seat twist it out of shape till both ends meet smash the body and rip out a gear Smash Up the front and smash up the rear Bend up the fender and rip off the tires break up the lamps and cut out the wires throw in the clutch to the Dickens with the juice and the little old F will go to be seduced the little old F that rambled right along and the little old for it ramble right along now cut that out you naughty teas is a left hand drive and a right hand squeeze patch it up with a piece of string chewing gum or any old thing when the power gets thick just hit it with a brick and the little Ford will ramble right [Music] along cof had some of these cars seof had some of them they just went out and they move into Village along the railroad train their guns on them and they say well you people live here in this Village we want you to do certain things and if you don't do it we're going to blow the hell out of you and in some cases they did the checks they were way down toward L of USA thousands of them and the intention of the greatest percentage of them was to get out of that country by going clear to the east coast of the lad of O and uh get back to Czechoslovakia and then fire on the Allied [Music] side nobody knew what they were doing over there it had never been explained to them who was there to explain it the engineers would get the trains going and they jump out and let the whole train go to hell and when I they go to hell this is a good way to do it just engineering fireman jump out there goes the train conditions of Revolution you know they don't stay where they started they just spread out all over everything [Music] see we are not at war with the bulles of course we are fighting them at archangel but it is not war part I think of the American expedition over there mer and AR Angel was to tell the people of the world that if Germany even wins on the Western Front they might find opposing forces coming in their back door how would you ever take an expedition across that country why this is impossible but there would be some people in the world who would believe this which makes for a lot of scuttle Buck the government of the United States has never recognized the bolik authorities and does not consider that its effort to safeguard supplies at Archangel or to help the check and sarian have created a state of War where the B Shi [Music] [Applause] the we sympathize with you the now we're dry like you I know why Cleopatra put that snake against her skin she lost her mind completely when she lost [Music] at home the war weary Americans faced issues like demobilization strikes and prohibition while around Archangel in North Russia the Americans left under British command penetrated deep into Russia one American officer was actually ordered to join his command at Archangel and the order said via vladist those 6,000 mil and a hostile Army Army separated these two Russian ports there was no conscious liazon between the American company in the Far East and that of the far north each performing burlesque Antics in fantastic sideshows [Applause] the the now we like you I've got the oara prohibition blue [Music] [Applause] [Music] from oh [Music] oh [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] Cil General Harris was out in the field Caldwell was stuck in vat ofo and whether they was in accordance with each other all the time I don't know but with a conflicting element that undoubtedly existed between the state department and the war department they never seem to be able to get anything out of [Music] there C check it seemed funny to me in the sense that an Nadal of the Navy had an army [Music] what are we doing here who could they ask tell me even until today who could they ask nobody knew and if they they didn't know they wasn't in a position to answer this was kind of like having a blind date with a situation in the world and I don't think anybody over there knew when it comes right down to it communication was not that [Music] good who are the buik a bik is majority a menic is minority the American Press in World War I always pictured the uh uh traitor in this country is throwing a monkey wrench in the Machinery to stop war production as being a bolik but bulvik didn't necessarily mean that in Russia it couldn't because you ask guy over there if he's a [ __ ] B sure he is what else is it at the moment I'm crowding crowding very much a uh scene after scene on account of the similarity of it but uh myself un like anybody else you only get a short length of time to observe these things you don't understand it there's nobody you could ask especially we Americans who couldn't speak the language but we know from physical activities of people and the manner in which they speak as to how scared they are and what they're worried about and if they were scared about it well maybe we should be scared about it and maybe we shouldn't but here we're still just a handful of men among a lot of strangers that have nothing to do what's going on and uh if uh a horde comes in there and starts to clubbing and shooting or whatever they their knives and one thing and other they wouldn't respect the American Uniform any more than they respect the rags that most of these people War [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] on the outskirts of arms they were digging in that means they're digging a hole in the ground halfway down then they take the sod that they take off the top and they use that as building blocks for about 2 or 3 ft above the ground then they cover it with a roof of some kind could be tin cans shrubs weeds grow you know so they were digging in for the winter cuz they knew there's no place there then and they would ref these things is going to be worse when cold weather sets in so they were all digging in you should have seen the city of places like this [Music] who is fighting these men are hungry and revolution has drive them some place and they're going to eat anyway if there's anything in the neighborhood if there's anything on the farm they're going to get it right and uh if you don't give it to them for their money why they would take it anyway and if you got in their way they would your life wouldn't be nothing cuz they they didn't have any guns well they had guns but not much ammunition they're not organized but you can kill a man pretty easy with a club if you don't know he's he's going to hit [Music] you along the side there were paths like a path might exist alongside a river and and uh these paths was one continual trotting of people carrying stuff uh some of them even pulling carts or wagons CU they didn't have any horses and or any other thing would help lighten the the load on the individual just lasted for days and days and days and days as you wanted on refugees are there any other people under conditions of revolutions is there anybody else except refugees there are [Music] none when the new year 1920 rolled over the snow buried Villages and Frozen Hills of Siberia it found there anything but peace on Earth and Good Will to men kak had failed the beginning of the end of his white Russian government had come on November 15 with the fall of its capital at Omsk Russian officers and American officers were at odds Russians and Chinese were kept apart by an American Guard the Japanese were burning Villages kov their henchman was still getting away with murder Russian soldiers were deserting to the Reds in flocks close upon the kak debacle the war department ordered all American troops withdrawn from Siberia I was in command of the United States troops sent to Siberia and I must admit I do not know what the United States was trying to accomplish by military intervention I had often stressed in my reports the fact that the United States could not Escape responsibility for these conditions because the atrocities committed against the people would not have been possible if the Allied troops had not been in [Music] Siberia some might have liked us more if we had intervened less some might have disliked us less if we had intervened more but having concluded that we intended to intervene no more nor no less than we actually did nobody had any use for us at all [Music] [Music] I have had to wait for over 50 years to tell this story to somebody anything that does not have a future to it what the hell good is it to anybody