Hiram Johnson, Raymond Robins, and the Struggle for an Alternative American Policy Toward Bolshevik Russia, 1918

Allied intervention in Russia in the summer of 1918 put an end to serious dialogue between Bolsheviks and Americans until the Paris Peace Conference. But in the United States, maverick Senator Hiram Johnson (D-California) and former American Red Cross representative to Russia, Raymond Robins, fought a behind-the-scenes battle pressing the case for an alternative American policy, resumption of discussions with the Bolsheviks, and withdrawal of American troops. This effort, within and without the Wilson administration, eventually resulted in a tense, deadlocked U.S. Senate vote to demand answers from the Lansing State Department and marks the beginning of the American movement for peace with Soviet Russia.