Page:America in the Struggle for Czechoslovak Independence (1926).pdf/59

RV 55

the Russian disorganization and lack of political maturity) should be clearer and more energetic. A precise political (and administrative) plan is also necessary for the success of the military operations.

Mr. Wilson finally decided to send a contingent of American troops to Siberia, but only for the express purpose of protecting the Czechoslovaks in their march to the Pacific. This contingent numbered seven thousand men and was commanded by General Graves. It never proceeded beyond Vladivostok.

The appearance of the Czechoslovak legions in Siberia, in independent formations, required that this army be given a political head also in the legal sense, and this led to a recognition of the Czechoslovak National Council as а de facto government, not only by the Allied powers, but by the American Government as well. The latter’s recognition was accorded on September 3, 1918, and Dr. Masaryk, as President-Designate of the new Republic, sailed from New York on November 19th, after having appointed the writer as the first Czechoslovak diplomatic representative in the United States with the title of Commissioner. This appointment in itself was something of a curiosity. The appointee was an American citizen, though of Czech birth, and the