18. Myth: The American Expeditionary Force to Siberia Was Sent to Just Protect Interests and Property.
Fact: American troops fought in Russia after World War I… and stayed for a while.
In the late summer of 1918, two separate American forces were sent to Russia by Woodrow Wilson, allegedly to protect American interests and property which had been sent to the Russians during World War I. The American Expeditionary Force to Siberia consisted of nearly 8,000 men and the second detachment of troops was about 5,000 men of the Polar Bear Expedition. Both forces engaged with troops of the Red Army during Russia’s Civil War and both were sent in response to requests for support from Great Britain and France, who supplied troops of their own. American troops were dispatched to Vladivostok and Archangelsk.
The fighting in the Russian Civil War continued into 1919, following the end of the First World War, and during the Spanish Flu epidemic which followed. Protests over the American presence in Russia and the reports of several acts of defiance and even outright mutiny prompted Wilson to order the Americans to withdraw. In the summer of 1919, the Polar Bear expedition was withdrawn, after suffering over 200 dead. The American Expeditionary Force lost 189 men to combat and illness on their mission. The last of the AEF left Russia in the spring of 1920. The two expeditions did much to increase hostility by the Soviets towards the United States, and President Harding later called the missions a mistake.