Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920

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Excerpt from Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920: Russia Leaves the WarWhen this study was first contemplated, the intention was not to re construct in detail the happenings of the initial months of the Soviet American relationship, but rather to attempt a critical appraisal of the actions and policies of the two governments in their relations with each other over a much longer span of time. It soon became apparent, however, ' that despite the existence of several valuable secondary works on individual phases of Soviet - American relations in the early period, there was no general treatment of this subject, tapping all the sources available today, that could serve as adequate foundation for critical judgment. In these circumstances there was no alternative but to delve into the original source materials and to attempt to unravel, if only for one's own instruction, the tangled web of what actually occurred.The present volume brings the first fruits of these researches, re lating to the period between the November Revolution of 1917 and Russia's final departure, in March 1918, from the ranks of the war ring powers. It is, admittedly, a heavily detailed account, some may think too much so. In attempting to bring together the available evi dence on events at once so complex and so controversial, I have pre ferred to err on the side of explicitness rather than to run the risk, or invite the suspicion, of partiality in the selection of material. But be> yond that: the more I saw of these records of the doings of an official generation slightly older than my own, the more it was borne in upon me that the genuine image of the diplomatic process is hardly to be recaptured in historical narrative unless the lens through which it is viewed is a sharp one and the human texture of which it consists becomes visible in considerable detail. The acts and deci sions of statesmanship will seldom be found entirely intelligible if viewed apart from the immediate context of time and circumstance -information, associates, pressures, prejudices, impulses, and mo mentary necessities - in which they occur.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.