will be learning more about in his lecture today. a graduate of the university of minnesota. he has worked as a staff writer for "the miami herald" and has covered some of the major stories of the last three decades. he is an active member of the western front association and currently lives in minnesota where he is working on his facebook of world war i nonfiction. please join me in giving a round of applause for james carl nelson. [applause] james: i'm going to talk about the polar bears. start off with a story of a guy who was a lieutenant, commander of the fourth platoon, company a, 330 night infantry regiment. 1919,rning of january 19, he and his men were stationed 250 miles south of archangel guarding an american allied outpost in the conflict which i will be explaining. he was woken up that morning at 6:00 a.m. by a shell. got out of bed, joined his men. there were only 45 men. manning the lines. meanwhile, these ghostly forms were heading for them. hundreds of ghostly forms on skis wearing white tunics headed straight for them. within minutes, they were up on the forlorn americans manning this forlorn post. they were overcome quickly and had to fight for their lives and try to escape north to headquarters about a mile and a half north. they were put to flight. just a handful of them got back to company headquarters. that is just two lead into the question of what americans were doing in russia in 1919. and thank you, i'm glad you asked that. we all know it is the western front. frontwas also an easter the russians had been holding since the outset of the war. they had tried to invade east prussia. , ae on the western front semi static front had developed. 1917, along came lenin who promised to take rush out of the war. and he did. he signed a treaty with the germans in 1818. russia left the war. that freed germany to transfer 80 divisions to the western front. many of those divisions took part in a massive offensive aimed at splitting the french and british forces and rolling the british into the sea. it very nearly succeeded. a series of subsequent offenses were also launched. one on may 27, and by early june, the german vanguard is within 35 air mass of paris. they were quite nervous, of course. the german forces were putting them in peril. about as soon as russia to get some out of the war, allied command began casting about ways to relieve the pressure on the western front. they settled with the idea of an intervention. they would send a handful of allied soldiers into northern russia where they would be greeted as liberators by the anti-bolshevik forces. they would form an army of these men and reconstitute the eastern front and forced germany to bring troops back or at least not take any more from where they were. that is a map. that works good. there is the archangel. they had southeast up the river about 300 miles. it was down a railway line. armydea was to have this reach out to this estranged conglomerate of soldiers known as the czech legion. they had been prisoners of war in russia. they were allowed to leave and go to france to help the cause on the western front. they will reach out to this army .f thousands of men moving, linking up with forces, moving to on moscow and moving to undo the russian revolution. the british were very gung ho as usual. , the brits had landed upusands of men appear -- here. they were joined by 1400 french ship woodrowe u.s. theon had agreed to send at request of the allies. meanwhile, they tried to get woodrow wilson to send troops of his own. he refused. he felt every resource should be used on the western front, so he refused for months. the allied supreme war council okayed the idea in early june of sending american troops there. 1918,y in mid-july of woodrow wilson spent a long night agonizing over the question. memoir inhis famous which he first argued why he would not send troops to russia and spent the last part saying what he would send troops to russia. the chief reason being to guard millions of dollars of war material sent to the russians to help the war cause throughout the war. secondly, he insisted american troops not get involved in the internal politics or do any fighting produced eight the russians in any way they could -- aid the russians in any way they could. meanwhile, back at the ranch, thegeneral in command of allied invasion moved his troops down to archangel to try to stop the gauntlet up the divina river. landed in archangel. the local bolshevik government fled but limited all the stores in archangel -- looted all the stores in archangel moving them up the river by ship, therefore negating the entire reason for the americans to go to north russia. there is a contingent of 50 whiles from the olympia, the guys, they look like a fun bunch. they started chasing the bolsheviks down the railway line. they wound up getting beaten back by the bolsheviks and eventually head back to archangel. they were split into again -- in two again and joined forces the british led, one down the divina, another one down the railway line. force woundsailor up in this area trying to get to the main red base. among them was an ensign named donald hicks. they wound up fighting in this area. very muddled fighting. they tried to attack from here, but another force moved on them from behind. they finally escaped and got back on the railway line. meanwhile back at the ranch, the regiment for the intervention had been selected, mostly men ,rom wisconsin and michigan they had been trained for hoboken and england. they were in england shortly after wilson okayed forces in the north russian region. they all thought they were going to france. they had been issued american rivals. they were just waiting to cross the channel. they started to get rumors they were instead heading for russia. 's family ran a boarding house. someone had been a student there. he had adventures in arabia. harry and lowell crossed paths on a london street one day and harry said we are getting ready to go to france, and lowell said that is not what i heard. he had just been at british headquarters and said you're going to russia. he ended up getting lectured by the famous arctic explorer. they traded in their springfield for american-made russian-designed weapons that the soldiers complained it had such poor aim it could shoot around corners. there were millions of rounds of ammunition for these guns supposedly sitting in archangel but have probably been carried off by the bolsheviks by that time. anyway, they left england in late august, 1918, sailed around this way, this way, i hit the wrong button, i do that a lot. they sailed around here. their destination was for max -- vermansk. there came an urgent call they needed to rescue these soldiers in the russian wilderness. they diverted their path and landed in archangel. the next day, in some donald hicks and his men appeared on the railway line. the urgency was no longer there. it was a series of mistakes as we will see. they were quickly taken from their transports. the third battalion was put on a on september 6 and immediately ran into competition from the local bolshevik fighters in the area. the idea was to push all the way through, which they should be able to do by november, reach 300 miles further south. the next day, the first battalion of the 330 night was sent up divina. the thought there would be no opposition. high in the sky stuff. they immediately ran into here.viks that is as far as they got. they lost five or six men killed in action. russian gunboats came up and scared them off. hear.etreated back to they were sent back in mid-october. appeared agains and blew apart the blockhouses they created so they again retreated to a more permanent base where they were going to spend the winter. ironically, very ironically, on november 11, 1918, company b was attacked by hundreds of bolshevik warriors that spent quite today's fighting for their lives and just barely escaped. they beat them off. they wound up burning part of the village that was harboring snipers. they basically spent the winter in the area constantly under attack. ofthe days were on, some them became disaffected, especially after word got back that the world war had ended. there were people coming and going from archangel that could bring word that the world war was over. the question became a burning one. the war is over, why are we still here? what are we doing in russia? they never really got a good answer to that. meanwhile on the railway line, companies m an dd l trying to batter their way through. the ended up down here -- they ended up down here by november. tryingle, company k was to force their way through. it, took kodish and lost and took it, and lost it. a nervous lieutenant then ordered it be burned to the ground. that was a much the end of the operations. there were not widespread casualties, but there was enough that it was an insane idea whole operation to lose one life for this was kind of a travesty. they also sent company h into the river valley to guard the western plains. company g spent most of the winter and spring on the pineda river and fought a battle here and lost several men and fought larger battles here. company g was reinforced by company f in december and january and found themselves in very active fighting. i'm going to show a few photos here. that is archangel itself. it had about 100,000 residents at that time. from thehe refugees civil war going on between the whites and the reds. this was the commander, a wealthy businessman who had gone to officer training and was originally in command of the seventh battalion. that is his office in a railway car where he spends winter into the spring of 1918. that is part of company b on snow patrol in the middle of winter. cudahy john carter he -- . he returned and wrote a scathing book about it afterwards. they ringed the village with block houses and wires. kept trying to sneak in. whenstayed until march they turned the village over to russians. blackmailed or controlled by host of x to letting them in. everything they had fought for through the winter was lost and there was not a shot fired. basically moving on to company a , this was the company commander. and fought skirmishes eventually were sent -- i will go back to the amount -- the map -- they were sent here. this is where company headquarters were. they had some reinforcements slavic-british allies. they were local russians. some say they basically into details. -- emptied the jails. no more than 500 men manning this outpost. meanwhile, the bolsheviks under trotsky were building their forces. very ill-equipped and until trained army to begin with when the revolution occurred. but over the winter, they built it up and trained them. eventually in the northern sector, they had 45000 and facing off against no more than 11,000 allied soldiers. , 4-1.ds were ridiculous by june of 1919, the red army was 60,000 men strong. it was quite a movement. company always stationed here -- company a was stationed here. it was winter. as winter descended, like in the civil war, they thought they would suspend operations until the spring. that is not what happened in northern russia. when the ground froze, russians strapped on skis. armistice day fight of company b, that is when the war began in earnest. what is interesting is they had sent a new commander, frederick poole, somebody who decided he wanted to go on vacation in the middle of the operation plant. they sent another general out of the trenches in france. he arrived and visited the various fronts. butecided this is hopeless it is too late to take them out because they would be vulnerable. he said we will just sit in our fortifications here. it is safer. we will hope nothing bad happens. he had actually visited this 1919.ine on january 18, he wrote about it in a book later and said he easily imagine how a force could come up the river and overwhelm this small force here. he left. he went back to shen kursk. lucky for him because the next theing, like i mentioned, 46 men of company a were attacked and put to flight. ultimately, 25 men from company killed or die of wounds. a handful of men made it back to the log cabin that served as company a's headquarters. that turned out to be no haven either. they soon came under artillery fire from the bolsheviks and had to flee that area, trying to get here.p it should be on here. , they were a larger town. fightings they arrived rearguard actions and temperatures 40 below, that town was infested. all of the inhabitants took to flight trying to find some refuge further upriver. finally after several days, they wound up here with a were able to circle the wagons a little bit. lateny a spent from january into early march living in snow trenches fighting off constant bolshevik attacks until they were relieved in early march by company f. their ordeal was pretty much over. back on the railway line, the intoing continued february. the kept trying to hammer down and still could hardly get anywhere further than about here. meanwhile, the bolsheviks were gathering forces. a large army approached from here trying to cut the supply lines. bolsheviks for an attack against company f, i, russian soldiers, and several canadian batteries. this small force of 500 men this largebeat off force of 7000 men. this is a bolshevik soldier who tried to infiltrate the lines of company a in early january and they shot him down. a forlorn outpost century -- sentry. that was held by the bolsheviks at the time. that is a dead bolshevik soldier. canadian artillery, machine guns, they were able to fend off this large force of 7000 losses.ks with few that was really the end of the major engagements in the war. it was in late march, early 1918 that things were beginning to wind down. the men had no idea when they would go home. that is joel moore, company commander of company m. commander.lo he thought his men had pierced the line but they hadn't and he got shot off his horse and wound up there. things are winding down. spread.as beginning to it erupted among the french first. after the soldiers learned the armistice had been signed, the question became, what are we doing here? they did not get a good answer. it was the original design of fomenting counterrevolution. company i was going to be sent down. they refused to back the sleds. there was a big kerf awful -- kerfuffle. they were read the act of war by the commanding general. it all settled down. company b, there was a corporal, sterling parish, who created this petition that said we are not going to fight anymore or go on patrol until you tell us why we are here. he said they were bolo sympathizers. called them the bolo patrol. funny but tragic. overall, there was a terrible strandedf having been for no good reason. they knew their boys were leaving france for home. the war was over for months and months. and still, even when woodrow wilson in mid-february said enough is enough and signed a deal and cut date on the operation, it made the but iters in the u.s., was a moot point by then because archangel was frozen so that was no way they could get out anyway unless they went all the way back up to murmansk. all they could do was wait and freeze. it was so cold. another instance of how ill planned the operation was, the machine guns were watercooled and don't operate well when it is 50 below. the men would bring them into their sleeping bags at night to try to keep them warm. it did not do any good. otherwise, they were well-equipped. the clothing was not bad except for the boots that had a very slick sole. , a few of themg were flailing around in the snow . they threw them away and put on eight pairs of wool socks and trudged through the snow in those. there were cases of snake -- frostbite. casualties were not huge. 70 men roughly died of the flu in archangel before the end of september. another 435here was casualties total, including the action,illed in accidents in which four engineers drowned on the dvina river in october of 1918. finally, word came that they were going to indeed get out by stages. wherewas an instance another company had taken over for company a. the local british commander crossed the company not the banks of the river until a certain date. he said you have to hold on this long. they were concerned the ice would go out and leave them stranded to the russian gunboats. the company commander said to help with this entity is men across -- and took his men across. they would fire on the americans if they would cross. the canadians refused. they were on our side. the canadians were battle hardened veterans of the western front. sort of like souvenir takers who cut the ears off, things like this. they were an interesting bunch. they started withdrawing when the river started falling -- thawing south and were able to board ships and head back to .rchangel when omega bay was free of ice, they were able to come back here. the forces gathered here and went south. luckily, i don't even know what the word is, the bolsheviks did not try to attack as they were withdrawing. i think orders probably came definitely and trotsky himself -- leon trotsky himself saying just let them go. there were negotiations in versailles with the versailles treaty. they wanted recognition and some benefits from that. they did not want to be known for slaughtering allied soldiers at that time. it is also interesting. there were about 10 men taken prison in the course of this winter. one of them disappeared forever. he was from company b. herbert schroeder. he wound up being taken. the only allied soldier whoever made it to the city in the great plan. another died in the hospital. otherwise, they were well treated. a handful were taken to moscow and given free reign of the streets. they lived better than the local residents at the time who were starting -- starving. they could get library books. one soldier did not come back. he made it back to michigan in 1920. he did not report being mistreated. it was just an ordeal he had to go through. they started coming back to up here. and gathered british madee plans to send more troops in to cover the retreat. they raised several regiments of veterans from france who were unemployed or could not adjust to civilian life. as the americans were leaving, the british were coming in. in june, they did sort of a cleaning up here. they pushed violently down the dvina river -- up the dvina river to create a buffer zone for when they were going to leave. the americans boarded ships beginning in early june and were taken to france. the british state behind mopping up and left in september. that was the end of that little war. the americans went to france for a short time and came back. the first companies arrived in detroit on july 3, 1919. the next day, they had a big fourth of july parade. the quickly formed a thing called the polar bear association to commemorate their ordeal and the loss of their 235 comrades. over time, the gathered funds. in 19 29th, they sent a small contingent back to russia. they were allowed in by the russians to look for the grave of the fallen. when they left russia, they took about 100 bodies with them. on the various fronts, they located 86 bodies and shipped them back to the united states where 40 or claimed by relatives for private burial. 46 were buried under this magnificent statue in detroit, michigan, at the whitechapel cemetery in september. it is really nice. it is about eight feet tall. like walking around there i know about this guy, i wrote about this guy. interesting experience. what didthe impact, this all amount to? for americans, not much. it was kind of a mistake that was swept under the carpet. i don't take a lot of people know about this invasion except in detroit and greater michigan maybe where they are more aware of the polar bears and what they went through. in russia, it is much more commemorated. the bolsheviks were able to use this invasion to create propaganda to say we were invaded, the bolsheviks fought these guys off, gaining the sympathy of the locals. the civil war between the full civics and the whites did and in 1922 with the bolsheviks winning that war. the intervention is still taught in russian schools today. they have a much longer memory of this. they have been invaded summery but thisr the years one sticks in their memories for the capitalistic/western whatever and they were able to use it for propaganda. i believe that is about all i have inside my little brain. [laughter] [applause] lora: we are opening up the floor to questions. if you are able, had to either mic. if you're not, i will come to you. you are more than happy to start. hollins.e is alanna i am a doctoral student at the university of kansas. a few weeks ago, i found an interesting picture at the library of congress. it was called "playing the national game on the russian railroad." it is american soldiers. they were coming with the red cross on the railroad line from moscow. i was trying to figure out, who are these people, what was going on? a dual use ofwas the american red cross. i'm not a military historian so i do not know how this relates. infantry, the detroit infantry from the american expeditionary forces, was sent to archangel specifically to aid the white russian soldiers. the american red cross sent aid to archangel to aid the starting russian peasants but also to aid the american soldiers. james nelson: i did not know that. >> was wondering if in your encountered have any other instances of american aid societies aiding both civilians and also americans. james nelson: not really. maybe the ymca. they seem to be everywhere. i did not find any mention of that, not medical or anything. they had no medical detachment. gordon anderson said they were taught a little bit of anatomy ound, thato find a wi is about all the training they had. these men had the flu. some were still sick with the flu. the flu became rampant in these areas they occupied. because of tradition and because it was so cold, the local russians sealed all the windows so they could not get any fresh air. tryingrican medics kept to tell them you have to ventilate this place. sanitary conditions were horrible also. they were fairly primitive people living in that area. find any other civilian activities. i forgot to show the most important photo. [laughter] our next question is going to come from the back. withwas just wondering, the propaganda coming out of russia and with our invasions, how much did that affect our getting out? . heard we were told to get out you are becoming involved in our politics and government. james nelson: i don't think it had a huge effect. swayolsheviks did try to the prisoners they took to bolshevism.nism, the family members were aware their loved ones and friends were in northern russia. there became a groundswell, especially in detroit, to get these people out. they started pressuring local congressman. there is one senator from california who introduced a resolution to bring the troops home. it failed by one vote in the senate. that was the vote of the vice president of the united states. that was early on. that was in january of 1919. but there was a groundswell here that had some effect. wilson finally got hit to the idea that his troops were being misused. the british basically grabbed them out from under the nose of their commander, george stewart, and used them. george stewart felt like he was caught in a bind. he was told the british were running the show and he had to do what they said. have turned out that they stayed in archangel and , but it turned into offensive purposes right away. lora: the gentleman on our left. >> thank you. still trying to understand what the official mission was. you mentioned something about reconstituting the eastern front. it seems they were also supposed to be aiding the white russians in the civil war. james nelson: it kind of became a jumbled mess. originally, the idea was to gather forces and try to get the czech legionella go to where the eastern front was. general poole had this bigger idea of counterrevolution. i think that idea kind of ran away with him. they never got near to the czech legion. they did not get anything like the local support they thought they would. russians were saying here is another invader, let's wait long enough and they will go away. you are right. the original idea of rebuilding the eastern front got lost in translation. >> i thought the british, especially winston churchill at the time, was definitely very interested in combating the bolsheviks. he saw them as a big menace. james nelson: all this is going on as they are trying to get them out of there. he said we should send one million men in. people, including one million brits had just died, and he starts talking about starting a new war with one million men. he got no takers. no way. he was very much anti-red, yes. >> thank you. lora: next question from the left. [laughter] lora: my left, our left. >> the best plans for expeditions like this are always executed perfectly until the first shot is fired, and then it falls apart. it looks like there were three different areas they sent these different groups into. how in the world did they communicate with each other? did they use radios? telegraphs? how would you even know what is going on in another sector? james nelson: i don't think they really did know. they certainly would have had runners, just like on the western front. probably had telegraphs. i don't know how far radiohead come along -- radio had come along. probably telegraphs if the lines were still working. in fact, i know they were. one soldier, john gorman, was sent out every day to repair the telegraph lines. there were telegraph lines but not enough engineers to keep them all working. >> thank you. >> a very interesting talk. thanks. i have a couple things to add to what you said. are at least there a few commemorations of the american, british, and french invasion in 1918 and 1919. there is no mention whatsoever of friendly efforts in the second world war. they do remember this clearly, to the exclusion of almost anything else about american assistance or hindrance in either war. i was an exhibit guide in the soviet union in 1987 and combat -- can vouch for the fact they do teach that in school, the invasion or intervention. i was asked about it several times each day. why did your forces come to snuff out a revolution? james nelson: interesting. people here don't really know. >> they remember every day there. james nelson: thank you. gentlemen,s and please join me in thanking james nelson. [applause] >> ♪ >> this weekend on american history tv, we look back to the richard nixon impeachment inquiry. asy reflect on their time attorneys on the staff of the house judiciary committee in 1973 and 1974. here is a preview. >> what should the country have learned from the house's role in the impeachment in 1974? >> i think it is such a serious undertaking. do not pursue it for trivial, partisan, political purposes. if it does fall to you while you examinehe house to abuses of power by the president, be as circumspect and careful as john doerr was. restrain yourself from grandstanding and holding news conferences and playing to your base. this goes way beyond whose side you are on or who is on your side. purveyors be faithful of the history and solemnity of the process. >> i guess that lesson was not learned. >> that lesson was not learned. and that is why i think it is important to keep talking about how serious this is. it should not be done for political, partisan purposes. it in the late 1990's, those who talk about it studyhould go back and the painstaking approach the impeachment inquiry staff took. and it was bipartisan. you had a bipartisan staff, and you had both democratic and republican members of the committee reaching the same conclusions, that the were grounds for impeachment. >> you were there before john doerr was named. >> i was there before bert jenner. maybe it was before john doerr. i remember showing up for work. if i was the first staffer, hillary rodham was the second staffer. i remember john doerr calling us into his office saying we have a research project. we have to find out what constitutes grounds for impeachment of a president, and there does not seem to be any case directly on point. it is friday afternoon, i don't want to ruin your weekend. have it on my desk tuesday morning. we said wright, chief. we looked around and looked around. six months later after 40 lawyers had gone blind trying to figure out what the answer to the question was, we decided the answer to the question really resided in the newspapers of the time, not in decided law cases. from hillary rodham clinton and bill weld sunday here on american history tv. >> american history tv products are available at the new c-span online store. go to c-span store.org to see what is new for american history tv and check out all the c-span products. in late november, 1940 three, in the midst of world war ii, joseph stalin, franklin roosevelt, and churchill met in tehran to discuss allied military strategy. bookshelf, bill yenne talks about his book, "operation long jump: stalin, roosevelt, churchill, and the greatest assassination plot in ," in which he discusses a nazi plot to kill the three leaders. >> we are going to get started in a second. >> good evening. k

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