Oct 13 2023
by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
16 OCTOBER 1919
On 16 October 1919, Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) James G. Harbord submitted the final report from his intelligence mission in Armenia to the American Peace Commission (alternately known as the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the Paris Peace Conference). The report detailed a months-long investigation into political and military conditions in postwar Europe, particularly how war and genocide in Armenia affected America’s efforts towards peace in Eastern Europe.
Col. (later Maj. Gen.) Ralph Van Deman served as the intelligence officer with the American Peace Commission, and he had advised on preliminary peace negotiations with several European nations prior to the armistice in November 1918. Van Deman was appointed chief of all counter-espionage activities within the Paris Peace Conference. [See "This Week in MI History" #18 6 December 1918] Part of his duties included membership on the Committee on Current Diplomatic and Political Correspondence. After the war, many of the reports by military attachés stationed across Europe were passed to the Military Intelligence Division in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the Peace Conference committees could not examine these records for successive counterintelligence operations within Paris. Consequently, the American Peace Commission offered an ambitious program to amass accurate intelligence on particularly troubled regions of Europe.
Ellis L. Dresel, a military attaché to Berlin from 1915–1917 who later served as chargé d'affaires (embassy chief in the absence of an ambassador) to Germany, was selected as chairman of the new program under the American Peace Commission. This unique committee reviewed reports from military attachés in different sectors of Europe before they were presented to the multinational Peace Conference. The committee established “missions” to collect information in key regions of Europe, including the troubled areas of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. These missions were principally directed by the commission and primarily consisted of American government and military personnel. Colonel Van Deman, Maj. Royall Taylor, and Maj. Delancey Kountze served as U.S. Army representatives for this program.
One of these missions was the American Mission to Armenia, headed by General Harbord. Turkey and Armenia represented an especially fraught problem for the Peace Conference. Between 1915–1917, the Ottoman Turks had massacred between 600,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians, more than half of the Armenian population in northwest Asia. Thousands more were deported, sold into slavery or marriage to the Turks, or forcibly converted to Islam. Harbord had served as Gen. John J. Pershing’s chief of staff from 1917–1918 and, later in the war, had commanded the 4th Marine Brigade and the 2d Infantry Division before taking over the American Expeditionary Forces’ Services of Supply. Harbord’s military prestige, experience, and integrity prompted his appointment as leader of the Armenia Mission.
On 16 October 1919, General Harbord submitted his "Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia" to the American Peace Commission. The report summarized the mission’s expedition through Armenia and Asia Minor and included a lengthy history of Armenia and its relations with the Turks and Russians; interviews of government officials, victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of the genocide; and recommendations for the Peace Conference to limit further conflict in the region. According to the so-called Harbord Commission, the only way towards peace between Armenia and Turkey at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was for the United States to include Armenians in mandates and relief aid ordered for the whole of Asia Minor and the former empire. The report cautioned that relief solely for Armenians would potentially lead to further bloodshed and emphasized that “temptation to reprisals for past wrongs will be strong for at least a generation.”
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"This Week in MI History" publishes new issues each week. To report story errors, ask questions, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: [email protected].
16 OCTOBER 1919
On 16 October 1919, Maj. Gen. (later Lt. Gen.) James G. Harbord submitted the final report from his intelligence mission in Armenia to the American Peace Commission (alternately known as the American Commission to Negotiate Peace at the Paris Peace Conference). The report detailed a months-long investigation into political and military conditions in postwar Europe, particularly how war and genocide in Armenia affected America’s efforts towards peace in Eastern Europe.
Col. (later Maj. Gen.) Ralph Van Deman served as the intelligence officer with the American Peace Commission, and he had advised on preliminary peace negotiations with several European nations prior to the armistice in November 1918. Van Deman was appointed chief of all counter-espionage activities within the Paris Peace Conference. [See "This Week in MI History" #18 6 December 1918] Part of his duties included membership on the Committee on Current Diplomatic and Political Correspondence. After the war, many of the reports by military attachés stationed across Europe were passed to the Military Intelligence Division in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, the Peace Conference committees could not examine these records for successive counterintelligence operations within Paris. Consequently, the American Peace Commission offered an ambitious program to amass accurate intelligence on particularly troubled regions of Europe.
Ellis L. Dresel, a military attaché to Berlin from 1915–1917 who later served as chargé d'affaires (embassy chief in the absence of an ambassador) to Germany, was selected as chairman of the new program under the American Peace Commission. This unique committee reviewed reports from military attachés in different sectors of Europe before they were presented to the multinational Peace Conference. The committee established “missions” to collect information in key regions of Europe, including the troubled areas of the crumbling Ottoman Empire. These missions were principally directed by the commission and primarily consisted of American government and military personnel. Colonel Van Deman, Maj. Royall Taylor, and Maj. Delancey Kountze served as U.S. Army representatives for this program.
One of these missions was the American Mission to Armenia, headed by General Harbord. Turkey and Armenia represented an especially fraught problem for the Peace Conference. Between 1915–1917, the Ottoman Turks had massacred between 600,000 and 1,500,000 Armenians, more than half of the Armenian population in northwest Asia. Thousands more were deported, sold into slavery or marriage to the Turks, or forcibly converted to Islam. Harbord had served as Gen. John J. Pershing’s chief of staff from 1917–1918 and, later in the war, had commanded the 4th Marine Brigade and the 2d Infantry Division before taking over the American Expeditionary Forces’ Services of Supply. Harbord’s military prestige, experience, and integrity prompted his appointment as leader of the Armenia Mission.
On 16 October 1919, General Harbord submitted his "Report of the American Military Mission to Armenia" to the American Peace Commission. The report summarized the mission’s expedition through Armenia and Asia Minor and included a lengthy history of Armenia and its relations with the Turks and Russians; interviews of government officials, victims, witnesses, and perpetrators of the genocide; and recommendations for the Peace Conference to limit further conflict in the region. According to the so-called Harbord Commission, the only way towards peace between Armenia and Turkey at the collapse of the Ottoman Empire was for the United States to include Armenians in mandates and relief aid ordered for the whole of Asia Minor and the former empire. The report cautioned that relief solely for Armenians would potentially lead to further bloodshed and emphasized that “temptation to reprisals for past wrongs will be strong for at least a generation.”
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"This Week in MI History" publishes new issues each week. To report story errors, ask questions, or be added to our distribution list, please contact: [email protected].