One bit of U.S. history that often gets neglected and which I know little about is the period between 1918-1920 when we had 8,000 soldiers in Siberia attempting to (as Robert Farley put it) strangle the Bolshevik Revolution in its cradle. We were in Siberia along with the British, French, and Japanese. A separate group of about 5,000 Americans also served concurrently in the Polar Bear Expedition in a separate, but similar effort. Both seemed to be poorly organized with unclear goals and insufficient resources resulting in a lot of soldiers struggling in the cold to no lasting effect.
William Carey has a blog entitled “In Siberia” that takes a look at the American Expeditionary Force Siberia based on the journals of his great-grandfather George C. Voegeli who took part in the effort. More confirmation to me that this Internet dealie is pretty cool.
Which description leaves out a couple of expeditions, I think, plus a naval blockade in 1918 that had the blessing of the rest of Russia’s erstwhile allies. Add to it eleven separate invasions of Mexico, various military incursions throughout the Caribbean and central America, and a permanent force in Nicaragua. And that’s without even beginning to note his record on race, make that racism, which was the worst in history, bar none; far, far worse than even the slaveholding Presidents. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say Wilson was single-handedly responsible for the reinstitution of racial segregation in the United States; it’s none at all to say that because of him most African-Americans in the first half of the 20th century were as badly treated as they had been under slavery. The man is, hands down, the most over-rated President, even with all the partisan dust still being blown around that guy with “Wilson” as his middle name.
He’s on my top five worst Presidents list, and not even for most of those reasons (I knew about his attitudes about race, already). Just more fuel for the fire.