The Decision To Intervene, Kennan - B

                                          This book is Part II of 'Soviet-American Relations 1917-1920' and the follow-up to  'Russia Leaves The War', reviewed here in May.   Chaos, confusion, paranoia and delusion dominate this tale of Allied intervention in the vast reaches of Russia, barely under the  control of Moscow and linked by telegraph wire.  After Brest-Litovsk, the Allies faced the full fury of the Germans on the western front and sought any relief possible.  One source of help that the Allies focused on were the 1.6 million former prisoners of the Central powers, now displaced persons in Russia.   In particular, the Czechs and Slovaks wanted to fight the Germans, as they were unwilling participants in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and desirous of achieving freedom for a new country.  Getting the 'Czech Legion' onto the Trans-Siberian Railway out to Vladivostok, where they could be transported to Europe became the pipe dream of the Allied Command and eventually, a poorly thought out strategy.  The Soviets agreed; then Trotsky said they needed to be disarmed. That led to the Czechs rebelling and fighting their way from the Ukraine to Vladivostok.  At one point, they had control of 2500 miles of the railroad. A reluctant Wilson eventually succumbed to Anglo-French pressure and ordered Americans to land at Vladivostok and help the Czechs hook up with their forces stranded at Irkutsk.  By the time the Americans landed, the Czechs had broken through, and more importantly, had decided to fight with the Whites in the Russian Civil War.  The Soviets shipped out the ambassadors of the Allies through Archangel.  The consular staffs had a more difficult time getting from Moscow to Finland.  In the midst of their evacuation, an attempt on Lenin's life led to a Red terror.   US- Soviet relations had gotten off on the wrong foot. Ambassadors would not be exchanged again until 1933.