museum and memorial symposium. >> good morning. am not and it is my pleasure to welcome you, thank you for coming out to what i think is going to be an extraordinary couple of days as we came together and learning at this -- of speaking together and learning at this symposium. we are delighted to work with so many partners to create another exceptional opportunity for us. i hope it will take the time to spend time in the galleries. the special exhibition piece with 19 -- from 1919 fits with this piece. preparing for the opening of a new exhibition, the vietnam war, 1945-1975. that opens next weekend, so this is a teaser. we invite those of you who are able to come back to memorial day weekend of year to come back and take in an exceptional exhibition that also provides the link sent helps people understand the enduring impact of the war and world war i. and how it contributed to the vietnam war. there iskes us is that a continuum and growing interest in world war i and its enduring impact. i am pleased to report that october is the largest october in the history of the last 13 years in the history of our attendance atnd the museum. october the largest attendance in our history for the month of october. that's great that we are coming out of the centennial period with our visitor ship growing. but it indicates, i think, what a deep point of interest content -- that continues to be around this catastrophe in the 20th century. we are also pleased to report that last year we served in excess of 14 million students through a partnership that we have with scholastic, supported by the bank of america and the u.s. world war i centennial commission. students across the country were able to use our resources, and did use our resources to the excess of 14 million students. we look forward to the future as we come out of this commemorative period. we are anticipating exciting enhancements to our main gallery over the next number of years and we are training a special collecting initiative that focuses on the stories of women, minorities, and indigenous peoples from places across the globe from which people served in world war i. to the much look forward opportunity to be able to tell those stories more completely here at the national world war i museum and more hail. inwe join with lora welcoming you to looking forward to this exciting symposium. i want to acknowledge the supporters that we have, the sponsors for the symposium. by event is made possible the generous support of the u.s. world war i centennial commission and the world war i historical association, the charles bacon fund failed -- held here at the museum in the memorial, bill and laura frick and many donors to the national world war i museum and memorial. i want to express my appreciation to the speakers, who have traveled here and prepared to present what i think is going to be a striking conversation and content. i also want to express my appreciation to the education team, and all of the staff here at the national world war i museum for what they are doing and what they have done to create this event. please join me in thanking our sponsors and teams who have supported this symposium. [applause] >> lastly, to lora vogt, the curator who provides our overall leadership. would you please welcome her. [applause] lora: thank you, welcome, whether you are here on site or to yourus online national world war i museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri, where it has been since 1926. it's because kansas city inns -- theyns came together and wanted to create a memorial for those who lived through and died in this war. it was because of all of you can continue to support this mission that we are here for an outstanding conversation about 1919 and paste. it is these partnerships -- and peace. it is these partnerships and relationships around the world and our region, we are clout -- lucky to be close to the united states army command and general staff college. where our first speaker is joining us from. dr. john kuehn is a professor of military history and retired from the united states navy while at the army war college. give him a lot of love, i'm not sure that he always feels it. he retired from the u.s. navy in 2004 at the rank of commander after 23 years of serving as a flight officer, flying landon carrier-based aircraft. he has authored agents of innovation: military history of japan, from the age of the samurai to the 21st century napoleonic warfare: the operational art of the great short historythe of the rise and fall of the general board of the navy. he has also co-authored eyewitness pacific theater, he was awarded a prize of the data from the society of military history in 2011. he is one of our most popular speakers on our youtube channel, and clearly the naval war college has come around because chairave offered him the of naval history in the nation for this next year. we are so pleased we were able to catch him while he was still in the town this year. we look forward to seeing you back, hopefully soon. but we are looking forward to seeing you on stage in about 30 seconds or less. ladies and gentlemen, dr. john kuehn will be addressing u.s. naval activities in post-world war i europe. please join me in welcoming him back. [applause] dr. kuehn: thank you so much, and thank you to the world war i museum sponsors that are here. i just found out that i can cut off the signal on my arm. thank you all for coming, what i have for you i think is a good sort of discussion of the battle of midway. it's a wrong venue. that will have to wait. to talk about u.s. naval operations, i am the token army commandu.s. and general staff college, a little fish in a big pond up there. but also the only guppy. it is a challenge teaching up there. my colleagues are here to help spur me on and to help with this presentation. the first thing i want to do is take a look at the span. the topic is from the therapist of the black sea -- from the barrett to the black sea. my first disclaimer is that i got into this research and getting this talk ready and i bid all far more than i could chew, which is a habit with me. talk to mee done a the time requirements with questions on any of the various components of these naval operations. they are very wide-ranging. they are very complicated and involve all of the elements of power, not just naval power. there is a lot of stuff. to solve that problem, i'm going to be episodic. we are not going to cover all the operations. i'm going to cut down on discussing who is working for who, there's a lot of changing names in command which are taking place and quite frankly it's a long diagram. i will try to avoid too much of that. i will just try to hit the high spots. that's my first disclaimer, the are nots that again, we going into an immense amount of detail. perhaps in the questions we can get some of the detail. when you look at these three pictures, which will show up again, except for the far one, you can see the range of operations in the far north. that's archangel over there on your left my right. in the middle is the adriatic ocean, in area i have familiarity with. 1995 and allre in the places that i'm studying and looking at naval operations in the adriatic, we had some flashbacks. and on the far side is one of .he great books on this it's not binding this perfecter but it is -- professor, but it written for a popular audience about the american black sea fleet, which is an unknown fact most americans. on major thing that's going as background for all of this, which is creating urgency and is thisdifficulties thing called demobilization. north, i'll probably use soviet terminology as much as i use american terminology for the american naval forces in northern waters. i will call at the northern fleet, but that's the name of the soviet/russian fleet. in later years in the cold war. the atlantic and going home is in the background. ships are bringing troops, equipment, and people back to the united states. the naval forces will be tied up in that. also naval horses returning home, redeploying, all of these ships that have been deployed in 1917 and bringing them back how. there will be a fascinating facet of that, and i have been through it, any sailor who has ever been in the navy and on ships has been through it where you are getting ready to go home and at the last minute they say you are going to have to stay a couple more weeks. so you stay a couple more weeks, and it's actually a couple more months. that happens to a lot of the ships, they will get rerouted. primarily wenean, are going to be in the eastern .editerranean and the adriatic again, episodic, there are operations throughout the mediterranean and the atlantic. the black sea, we will close with the black sea. this is to give you a feel of the bottom line, which is that uneasy statement, it will just peter out just as the peterseters out -- peace out. the united states is fortunate to pick a really interesting guide to command the u.s. navy forces in europe. ship,l not command from a he will command from a land-based nation, he will leverage technology to do that and he will form. interesting modern staff. ,hat's admiral william sims he's a reformer and a contemporary of all of these other guys i'm talking about. when the armistice is signed on november 11, 1918, he is the commander of global forces in europe. he will be the operational commander and he will be replaced by a number of admirals. but i'm not going to plow through all of that. see some of his ships will go into the baltics, through the channel, around the mediterranean, and into the black sea. sims is one of those served, hes not yet will say your guidance is not clear, i don't understand what you want, he will push back on administration and on others and on the allies. that's another key feature for this entire environment which is taking place on november 11 and going into the 1920's. the united states is different. , thisan associated power is particularly true of these naval operations. the united states will be the guy in the middle. we are going to portray ourselves as the honest broker. that's going to lead to a challenging set of circumstances for these naval officers trying to conduct these operations. what sims says about demobilization. i will read it to those whose eyesight is not the best. it is believed that the term demobilization as it applies to this command, that is, the force in european waters, is not clearly understood. in other words, he is basically saying like in the bride, i don't think you know without word means -- you know what that word means. you need to come up with a clear definition, because you keep telling us to demobilize, but you turn our ships around and you die divert -- divert our ships to the black sea. i don't think you understand what you're talking about. that is his comment on the topic of demobilization. isapril 1919, demobilization proceeding smoothly. a lot of people don't understand how much the infrastructure has a shore in europe at the end of world war i. ofre are tens of millions dollars of properties and infrastructure and equipment that exists which has to be loaded on ships and taken back to the united states, or sold. the bulk of it will be liquidated and sold off. beh of the real estate will sold back primarily to the government of france. but when you read the correspondence going back and forth between the guys on the scene and the commanders of the bases and the naval officers deploying the mag when the balloon is popped and the war ends, they are telling the french this is how much it is worth and they are offering is 10%. and we have this equipment and we cannot bring it back and the french that we have to take it. it is a back and forth. the happens is that most of debt is forgiven, eventually, the united states will forgive much of the debt by the time of the great depression comes along. there is an entire paper that could be done that looks closely at this whole effort to liquidate all of this naval infrastructure that exists. there is another problem, this need to use naval infrastructure to assist in the relief efforts in europe. europe is starving at the end of world war i. everybody is unsure -- on short rations, even in the winter. and there's a flu pandemic. there is a need for medicine, care, and so while establishing naval infrastructure, we are using it to move food, medicine, and release -- relief. let's go to our first geographic i deliberately chose george kent's title of the famous book on america's thesion to intervene in bolshevik resolution -- revolution. we know there are two areas that america helped, so as a review, when the germans assigned the treaty with the bolshevik government in moscow, with trotsky and lennon and their associates, the allied powers had been pushing in more materials through the major , but they cannot push it through the black sea because the streets are closed. of dollarse millions and tons of war munitions that are piled up in these places. and the fear is that the germans will capture the munitions and use them against the allies. so the americans will intervene in the far east and in north russia through the bering sea and the white see to secure this material. it's a fairly narrow mission, land and guard the wharfs. that's the job. but what happens is politics. the french and the british, anti-communist, they support the whites, the americans will be the neutral party saying we are -- tore to i communist, fight communists, we are doing this narrow mission. andwe get relief going on taking place. so we get this standard scenario with the american way of war, which is mission creep. same time, people are screaming in washington and the comfort of their offices to try to bring everything home, while just across the street at foggy bottom they are saying stay, do this and this. most naval officers are going to become naval diplomats. the north,pport in 55 hundred american troops to archangel in the navy will be involved primarily in supporting these troops. whenwas back in the day the training for enlisted folks and officers was to know how to land and serve as provisional infantry and expeditionary operations. that's an additional four structure that the americans will have at hand. there's archangel in the summer of 1919. i would like you to take a look thehis map, archangel at mouth of the river, this is a major conduit through which military operations, evacuations of people fleeing the bolsheviks will take place. the is on the far north of peninsula and it's a difficult place to operate out of. it's not a warm water environment, very shallow, draft ships don't do well here. and the big problem is that the whites will control this area for this time after the piece begins in 1918. and the americans, the british, and the french will get involved. the americans will be asked to place themselves under british command and on the naval side they will refuse. there was a we are independent and we don't work for you. we may cooperate with you on a case-by-case basis. that is the guidance given to this man, rear admiral newton mccauley, he's a stander naval guy. he learns how to be on service ships but he has something most naval officers do not have, he speaks russian. he's a russophile. areikes tolstoy, and there things about the czarist regimes that he myers and russian culture and history. he's the right guy at the right place and the right time. the great naval historian who is the expert on this period and who i am channeling today, william still, says that his orders were vague, unrealistic, and at times, contradictory. that's in line with everything i'm saying, that's the case. he also has a big heart. admiral mccully has a big heart. he starts to exceed his authority almost immediately and one of the things he is told not to do is to bring russian refugees out of north russia. that is not within your mission. so he adopts six russian orphans . he says i can bring them because they are my children. he's not married yet, he eventually marries a russian woman, surprise surprise. that's not the woman he married, that's the governess, but there he is the kids. but you will notice that there are seven, i don't know what happened to the other child, don't ask, i don't know. so that's admiral mccully. he is initially reporting to admiral sims. give me a way of 10 minutes out, so that if i'm lagging i can speed things up and get us to the end. 1980, he'sin october there before the armistice, but when it takes place he is ordered to evacuate the u.s. ambassador to the united kingdom. shorts olympia, for a time was this flagship, when she gets up there he says the ship is unsuitable, her communication suite is outdated and she does not have what i need to do my operations. she is very limited and where she can go and what she can do. so the uss esther loads up on the olympia to take the ambassador home via the u.k.. the olympia is going to be interesting, the uss olympia will become the flagship at , it will be an icon and are where's waldo sort of deal as she moves around in naval operations. she will go through all of these theaters before she finally returns to the united states. the united states is using obsolete cruisers to try to get the job done. she will end up in the adriatic and the black sea. her wartime in color scheme by the way, looking very warship like instead of the white painting we use for the olympia. needs some time and drydock. weill have these, just so can say here are some things that happened without going into too much detail. but one of the things you will find is that the americans use whatever is there. ccully's flagship is going to be a converted yacht, the uss is really an anti-bolshevik and is in sympathy with the british and the french and their schemes to get britain and france to more directly support the white finns in theire campaigns against the bolsheviks. see hisut, we will relations with the british as i don't work for you. the british will say put yourself at the senior officer, and he will say i work for woodrow wilson, no. you can coordinate with me, but we will deal with each other's as equals. these american admirals are mostly senior to their british and french counterparts and that really grates on the british and french admirals. we eventually get cruisers that these aree, protected and lights cruisers, you can carry a battalion on one of these. they are useful to ferry trips around. but what the troops are mostly doing is guarding stuff. that's primarily what they are doing. or they are landing somewhere to protect someone delivering food, or evacuating people. that's the prime mission for people evacuation, are american citizens, like the u.s. ambassador. there's another cruiser, the des moines, the sacramento, mccauley -- mccully will sometimes make the ships's flagship, they will show up and then turn around and leave, which is a theme that will go on because the demobilization dynamic. let's talk about the ships that are most useful, because wireless communications are still pretty much in their infancy, we are not talking voice radio, we are talking morse code, the transmitters tend to be very weak. the ships that would most useful are the ones that will be created to hunt submarines in the north atlantic. and the u.s.rs navy hates this kind of ship. they think it's not the ship that a naval officer needs to be on. but they are shallow draft and in the northern theater they are the most useful ships. they can go up the river and do the missions assigned regarding things, bringing people out, and stuff like that without getting stuck in the mud. they are easy to support, they are not high maintenance like the olympia is. their propulsion systems are fairly robust. and these will be the warhorses of the northern fleet in the northern waters. will use them as much as communications mechanisms as he will to do some standard missions of ferrying people around and doing landing parties. you might think of these guys in the sense of the river patrolling vietnam. ofy are doing that sort cruise like stuff up there. tradition of warfare in the american naval history which is very understudied and these guys are part of it. as for the sailors, here is their attitude. this is from a sailor on the des moines, they have a landing party near archangel and they have to dig trenches and stand guard duty and tried to do infantry. and kind of do infantry stuff, inyou have naval sailors trenches and russia. sounds wonderful, doesn't it? knew that we were called, we were a long way from home. meaningot care who won, whites or reds, and the officers felt the same way. that sounds familiar, doesn't it? all right. foreshadowing.f the royal navy and the french go into the baltic. to endeavor to assist in turning out the terms of the armistice. what did that mean? maintain the luck aid. wherever the germans are that they are not supposed to be, -- maintain the blockade. wherever the germans are that they are not supposed to be, whether it is in the baltic, germanou need to secure warships and u-boats, stuff like that, that is what that means, all right? a lot of operations will involve famine relief. we will say this over and over again. wherever there are ports, the u.s. navy will be there. and again, who is the priority? american citizens. american citizens. you would not think that there were that many american citizens in that part of the world, but there were. they went in with a very, very vague mission. almostlly, they end up coming to blows with the germans . they are not sure if the germans them.ing to open up on remember, germany is collapsing in a state of revolution. the bush of exert trying to start up worldwide revolution at the same time. are trying toiks start up worldwide revolution at the same time. have a baltic we squadron and their principal missions are famine relief, to feed all of the starving people, presents.e presence. what is presence? that is, we are not sure what you're supposed to do. but we want you there in case we figure out what we want you to do. [laughter] orf. kuehn: when we have big small navy ships that other people stations, so they can go safe. baltic toed from the the adriatic. bepped the channel, skipped operations -- skipped the mining operations, which are not completely gone. you will hear about the discovery of a mine or maybe a ship that is a mine. the key dynamic in the adriatic was italy's entrance into world war i. italy had made promises to the british and the french with the in 1915 to enter the war. according to italy, one of those protocols is the reestablishment of the roman empire. it's not that simple. to reestablish that presence down the adriatic into greece from 2000 years before. yugoslavia does not exist. it will be on the other side of in thattain there territory. it's beautiful territory in terms of ports, access, strategic control. the adriatic,trol you control the adriatic. you can control the east coast of the adriatic. filling the power vacuum. -- the power vacuum caused by the collapse of the astronaut -- austro-hungarian empire. she felt like she was entitled to all those things. all of the way down those coasts on the adriatic, they will probably go, man, the geography is beyond me. help withi will get this. there is the guy in the middle. to make sure the piece is stable and the people do not start killing each other. it's really like u.n. chapter six or chapter seven operations. peacekeeping. and sailors with guns. always a scary thing. always a scary thing. it's an interesting what happenedof with guys like me in the the 1990's. they are of course, doing this year. let's go back. on the map. austro-hungarian port. the u-boat sailed out of there. in the north, this is a very highly desired, contested piece of real estate. split inn to a croatia. , the bay is down there. the americans are given a zone. and the danger of the american naval base -- it's actually here. the peloponnesian wars. yes. history is funny. the americans will get is to take position of battleships and the goal is to keep them out of the hands of the italians until they can be properly turned over. so the americans well occupied both of these battleships with american sailors. they are trying to keep them out of the hands of the italians. the italians are going to get the ships. but they don't want to take .ossession of them they want to turn the guns on the yugoslavian and dictate what parts of yugoslavia are now italian. the guy in demand will be this andrews. admiral if you want to know how the yugoslavian's regard andrews, they make him an honorary -- citizen. when i did these operations, they never made me an honorary citizen of split. maybe i should write to the mayor and say, you really need to make me an honorary citizen. i did the same thing he did. the goal from the americans is to be neutral. we americans are not neutral. -- the americans are not neutral. ok. cool. we know who the alliances. this is the battleship. ok. i will read it for those of you who do not want to squint. every single army or naval officer who comes to the coast gradually has the conviction the italians have no just claim to any part of it. the italians are using little green men to try to capture the adriatic. the italian army is nothing to do any of this. these are independent italian citizens. we have the famous italian several thousand people from italy into what is modern-day croatia and they are occupying citizens -- cities. so the united states is in the middle between the group that istal with the yugoslavian zen right away, the use lobby and's -- thehe august lesbians yugoslavian's go, the americans are our friends. americans are our friends. being friends to balkan nationalists in bosnia-herzegovina, croatia, those areas, it begins with these guys. the americans will force the italians to back down. they will deploy over two dozen ships to the adriatic. aide de camp on horseback because of the vulnerability of wireless communications. mark bristol -- they get the orders to go to the adriatic. goes to the adriatic. the other thing is this, right? starving people. food. that will be another major mission. thebanner relief from agency headed by this bright young american. remember, the blockade is still in effect. but the americans are still new to the party. even though we are supporting the blockade still in place, even though austria-hungary at treaty, the peace italians are still enforcing it, so the united states will be helping to break the blockade. chooseld the italians ?tarvation they will be the ones who will trade away sovereignty for food. that's another strategy. occurs november 18. forces arestates trying to get them to back off and allow the yugoslavian militias to take possession of its. and there will be little green men who are coming down. they say, you know what? we are going to go to war? they convinced the militia to pull back and and eventually they are declared an open city or a free city. it is that compromise. u.s.his will involve the navy, because they are in the navy district. 1921, the united states feels that things are stable enough in the adriatic. the french and british tended to support the americans. they are often out voting the italian high commissioner. you will still see naval forces point adriatic after that helping to flow food in and sometimes refugees out. east and the the black sea. madeecision was actually by the chief of naval operations to push this guy, admiral mark constantinople into istanbul. this will be interesting. go by plane, train, and automobile, literally, and destroyer into istanbul. be likeorders will everyone else's orders. protect american interests. the united states never declared war on turkey. he soon figures out a big advantage over the british and the french. the problem is, the ottoman empire, there are two sets. turkey is really in civil war. with thethese things collapse of the ottoman empire, including the ongoing armenian genocide. bristol is getting a plum environment. his wife helen is a full partner in his diplomatic operations out of europe. he will be much like sam's. i want to give you the background on him. he is a fascinating guy. as the highn turkey commissioner for the united direct representative of the state department, so he will be working for the secretary of state as well as as the operational commander. title will be the commander of the u.s. forces in the black sea and near east. remember, back then, they called the middle east the near east. to -- bristol will not go to the united states. he will go to china and do the same thing as a four-star admiral in command. if you ever want to understand what's happening at the ground watch the sand pebbles. it will give you a good idea of what they are doing. it's very confusing. what are we doing? protecting american interests. what does that mean? it's very, very important. collapsing empires. -- united states and turkey i wrote about this. famine happens everywhere, folks. bristol.dad to refugee evacuations are a big deal. white russians, greeks, armenians. they are all over the place. eat food while bringing people out. and of course, there's the collapse of the white russian military effort and that will cause americans to get involved with their ships and sailors. here is the deal. istanbul.ws up in and he gets there. we will take a look at the ramshackle fleets. and basically, he is the ambassador. his guidance is to protect american interests. protect the open door. the naval officers may not have theres well educated, but was one thing they were very well educated on and that was the own door. that meant access to american goods and allowing goods from these other markets and nations to make their way out of these nations to the united states markets. all right? the way he sees that is stability. the way to get stability, very quickly sidestepped the situation. bristol lays the groundwork for a turkish-american relationship that has endured until just a couple years ago -- or friendship. he is regarded in turkish textbooks as the american lafayette, bristol is. because the nationalist turks have such high esteem for them. that will lead to problems with historians who say he is a turk lover and armenian hater. we will get into that. support of american interests. it is the open door to support the nationalist's. and here are the missions. i want to use the terminology. humanitarian affairs. help refugees. does not evacuate anybody except american citizens. you are not allowed to evacuate .nybody but american citizens the problem is communications. how long does it take to get back to washington and were still and istanbul? bristol and his temple? days, sometimes weeks. these are places around the black sea. out under thele threat of them being killed. again, primarily americans, but as usual, they will take more than americans. the other big issue, i have already talked about, communications enhancement because of unreliable wireless telegraphy. remember, the entire communications infrastructure, such as it was was collapsed and has not been rebuilt. here is the map. istanbul right here. sevastopol, i guess i, y'all to -- odessa, yalta. these are some of the major places u.s. ships and sailors are going to to conduct operations. the timeline, october 30. they capitulate, but not to the united states's. -- united states. gets sailorsavy into the constantinople and they raised the american flag in istanbul. shipt becomes officially a on the register of the united states navy. january, back in istanbul and by march he is deep into humanitarian assistance. into hoover and sand soon, as well as trying to pull a american citizens that if they want to come out because of the collapse in these territories of whites aresia as the starting to collapse in the face of bolshevik offenses. permanently assigned battleships -- the permanent is on thattanbul part of the seacoast that is next to the foreign country -- quarter. three yachts, two monitors. monitors. yes. monitors. someone should do a monograph. merrimack? and the yes. they are probably using these ships in the local area and communications. all right? 1919, we have to go back to the italians. want to establish the roman empire. the roman empire owned asia. gallacia, the roman asia and so the italians have turkey and the crisis is to get those guys out, and the guys that really want them out are the greeks. the greeks are saying, no, not the roman empire. and the greek army and the italians and the greeks almost go to war with each other and he was in the middle? there?l -- what they making sure citizens do not get shot and killed, making sure the italians in greeks do not shoot each other. the british and the french will do that, but you have to work deal with these other issues that we think need to be done to turkey. so that's that. we're getting toward the end. bristol had to pull out those efforts for americans. they are still doing these operations. of blacknot officially sea fleet -- a black sea fleet anymore. they will be evacuated in the summer of 1920 from the collapsing situation in the south of russia and the bolsheviks kind of do it. , it's really hard to train your sailors in classical naval missions when you're constantly going to and from ports. you do not get that into your training matrix. eventually, you will have an .ntire destroyer squadron here's a great picture that captures the black sea fleet's. notice the debt. collapse. russian that says it all. white russians collapse. working in turkey with the nationalists. that was back in the day when they still had dog mascots in the navy. this is a great statement by the first chairman of the joint chief of staff who served in the black sea fleet. the leahy. the scene from the sea from a theance, transformed by history, strange and a real beauty. theailor ever saw into distance without the desire to return at some time. 1921. your -- boarding party -- your questions please. >> again, i would invite you to come down to the microphone if you are able and our first question will come from the gentleman on the other side of the auditorium. have naval airports or -- you said that there were flying that were sent in to get one of the commanders? yes, yes.hn: that is a reference to an old john candy movie "planes, trains, and automobiles." i do not know if bristol ever gets onto a plane. naval aviation is again -- the , itence of naval aviation is substantial, but remember, we don't have any aircraft carriers yet. she is converted from a coal tender into an aircraft. . mostlyre motive -- kurdish seaplanes during the patrol, so it's not surprising a few aboardght be those airplanes, but the research i did, admittedly spared -- spartan, two secondary sources for the most part . "patriot without apeace," i did not see much discussion in these operations about the use of naval aircraft. your question is fascinating. does anyone know who the first director of naval aviation is in the united states navy after 1911? mark bristol. so it would not surprise me. the bureau of aeronautics is not created until 1921. started by his friend and battleship admiral. bristol will be in charge of naval aviation. the is a coordinator who will coordinate the actions of the bureau of navigation, the bureau of construction and repair, and the bureau of engineering with respect to naval aviation development and everything. the guy who is in the navy and on the ground with naval aviation is mark bristol. mark bristol is an exceptionally interesting guy. it would not surprise me that he leverages aircraft in some way during those nine years he is in istanbul. >> question. at the time of the first world war, great britain was considered to be the power of the ocean, if you will. what was the relationship? was the united states considered to be like a second cousin, if you will, to the british fleet? were they taking orders from the brits? how clear were the americans' naval orders? it seems to me using terms like mission creep and the united states was in the middle, it seems like a lot of what was going on there is it was an ad hoc situation with the u.s. navy. prof. kuehn: the question is, as i understand it, what is the relationship between the u.s. ify and the british navy not the british government? you answered part of the question. ad hoc, yes. anglophile, so he is more than willing to probably cooperate more than many of his brother naval officers with the british. but when it comes to these operations after the armistice, mms's like these guys do need their independence because they are doing diplomatic missions and there is a different game in play. simms will support these guys even though he has subordinated himself to the goal of the british admiralty. he works well with the british admiralty. they have nothing but good things to say about simms but nothing but bad things to say about mark bristol. they will say mark bristol is stupid, we don't know why the united states assigned him here. one of the british -- biggest mistakes you can make about someone you have to work with who you view as an adversary, which many british admirals view their working counterparts as, temporary bedfellows, but the real problem for the royal navy in great britain is the u.s. navy. i will get back to that in the second and answer your question. imms supports these guys. loathed by the british admirals. if you're looking for sources of animosity in 1920, it was a real conferences, naval you don't have to look far in this scenario to find it. one of the biggest mistakes you can make about one of your adversaries is to assume he is stupid and unintelligent. bristol turns out to be immensely intelligent, far more intelligent than anybody thought. simms makes bristol look like the second coming of christ. i will try to fight that when i write his biography. the bristol is very intelligent. he understands the economic and diplomatic instruments of power very well. in almost every case, he will outmaneuver his british and french counterparts in dealing with the turks. the united states will come out of this with a much better situation in the near east than the british and friends will visa be turkey. and it will serve us well in the cold war. >> we are running short on q&a time. if it is as quick as he says, we will get back to you. how rapidly can you answer? ,> throughout the entire war with the assistant army of the navy usurping authority, roosevelt had a great deal to do with creating the mind garage between scotland --barraged between scotland and norway. in 1919, he went to europe to help the demobilization. me the tell decision-making impact roosevelt had? is secondn: roosevelt only to josephus daniels. there needs to be more of a look at that. my only experience looking at roosevelt activities in europe with josephus daniels and the chief of naval operations is ist roosevelt overwhelmingly dana was' man with respect to the conference in versailles. there's going to be another talk here by me about the naval battle of versailles. that is completely opaque in this presentation. perhaps we will find out more about f.d.r. then. the short answer is i know he is important. in terms of these operations, i did not see his name come up much as being the agent of orders. >> it feels like part of the answer was watch our youtube channel later on. you can see that lecture. if it can be answered in 260 characters or less, gentlemen in the green jacket, go for it. >> real quick. the americans are trying to final food aid in. the british are trying to run a blockade on germany, austria, and hungry. who is the food aid going to? prof. kuehn: this is a very political situation. some of the other talks will get at it. the key guy is hoover. there are times when all of , andrews, bristol's, simss, are working directly for herbert hoover. he is the food guy. he understands the scope of the problem better than anyone else. he is a workaholic. nobody ever did more to save people from starting. hoover should have gotten a nobel peace prize. this is all subject to local politics. i would say the american role in take ashis is to try to much of the local politics out of the equation. what the americans will tend to do is they will tend to get the food to the nationalist components. surprising fact. we are still pushing famine relief to the russians inside the soviet union until 1924. we finally quit doing it because the communist government in moscow becomes so difficult to work with in terms of pushing that food. we are actually trying to get food to people we have identified as existential threat's to the united states. does that answer your question? >> i know there are more questions. we are about to head into a break. feel free to ask those questions to dr. kuehn. the bookstore is not yet open so do not make a beeline there, that do make the bee at lunch break because there will be a book signing. to could make the beeline the books that are duplicates from our collection. many of you have taken a quick look. we have added more to it. please feel free. that is a gift from our museum and memorial to those of you who love this period of study. please feel free to help yourselves to those. if you want to find out more about our battlefield tour, ask around. she can tell you more about our battlefield tours. i think you had at least one goat who was a mascot. you can find that in our digital online archive while your waiting in line for coffee. don't forget your lists. i will see you back here promptly at 10:00. we will start right then. have a great break. [applause] [indiscernible conversations] >> this is american history tv weekend,3, where each we feature 40 hours of programming exploring our nation's past. >> next, arthur james carl nelson tells the story while discussing his book, "the polar bear expedition: the heroes of america's forgotten invasion of russia, 1918 to 1919." this program was part of the 2019 national world war i museum and memorial symposium. aboutnext, talking russia, if you like everything is relevant in the world today that can expect to world war i. our next speaker is james carl nelson, he is the author of four books about the american streets in world war i. of the colonelr joseph alexander award for biography from the marine corps heritage foundation and the cold war --and the "the polar bear expedition: the heroes of america's forgotten invasion of ru

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