PRIOR TO THE NEGOTIATION OF THE TREATY OF VERSALLES
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In Moscow, Bullitt and Steffens were treated as honored guests, being allowed to live in a palace that had once belonged to a grand duke of the House of Romanov; were given the best caviar for their meals; and at the Moscow opera sat in a booth that had once been reserved only for the Emperor Nicholas II and the other members of the imperial family.[44] Bullitt noticed that the streets of Moscow were covered with corpses of those who had starved to death, which Bullitt blamed not on Bolshevik policies, but on the Allied blockade.[52] Bullitt and Steffens met Lenin at the Kremlin and came away impressed.[44] Bullitt reported to Wilson that Lenin was "straightforward and direct, but also genial and with a large humor and serenity".[44] Likewise, Bullitt was impressed with the Foreign Commissar, Georgy Chicherin, and his English-speaking deputy foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinov, as he reported to Wilson that both Chicherin and Litvinov were "full of the sense of Russia's need for peace" and were willing to repay all of the repudiated debts provided the Allies cease supporting the Whites
/.../Margaret MacMillan describes both Bullitt and Steffens as "useful idiots" who were swindled by Lenin into Western abandonment of the White Russian factions.
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Christian_Bullitt_Jr.
/.../ Prior to the negotiation of the Treaty of Versailles, Bullitt, along with journalist Lincoln Steffens and Swedish communist Karl Kilbom, undertook a special mission to Soviet Russia to negotiate diplomatic relations between the United States and the Bolshevik regime.[49] It was authorized by Wilson advisor Edward M. House. The Bullitt mission was opposed by the Secretary of State, Robert Lansing, the British War Secretary Winston Churchill, and the French Premier Georges Clemenceau, all of whom favored support for the White cause in the Russian civil war.[50] In Petrograd (modern St. Petersburg), Bullitt and Steffens met Grigory Zinoviev who lost interest in them once it was clear that their visit was for "information only".[51] In Moscow, Bullitt and Steffens were treated as honored guests, being allowed to live in a palace that had once belonged to a grand duke of the House of Romanov; were given the best caviar for their meals; and at the Moscow opera sat in a booth that had once been reserved only for the Emperor Nicholas II and the other members of the imperial family.[44] Bullitt noticed that the streets of Moscow were covered with corpses of those who had starved to death, which Bullitt blamed not on Bolshevik policies, but on the Allied blockade.[52] Bullitt and Steffens met Lenin at the Kremlin and came away impressed.[44] Bullitt reported to Wilson that Lenin was "straightforward and direct, but also genial and with a large humor and serenity".[44] Likewise, Bullitt was impressed with the Foreign Commissar, Georgy Chicherin, and his English-speaking deputy foreign commissar, Maxim Litvinov, as he reported to Wilson that both Chicherin and Litvinov were "full of the sense of Russia's need for peace" and were willing to repay all of the repudiated debts provided the Allies cease supporting the Whites.[53]
On March 14, Bullitt received a Soviet proposal that demanded that the Allies agree to a peace summit on the Russian Civil War in which they had been participating. The proposed terms for discussion included the lifting of the Allied blockade on the country, the withdrawal of foreign troops from Russia, the disarmament of the warring Russian factions, and a commitment by the Bolshevik government to honor Russia's financial obligations to the Allies (the second time that the Soviets promised in writing to honor the Tsarist debt).[54][55] Under the terms proposed, the Allies would withdraw all of their forces from Russia and end all support for the Whites.[44] Lenin was willing to accept the existence of the various White governments, but since his offer called for an end for Allied support for the Whites, his concession was only cosmetic.[44] The Bolsheviks had control of Petrograd, Moscow and the industrial cities of the Urals and hence of the Russian arms industry, while the Whites depended entirely upon arms from abroad.[53] Bullitt was highly enthusiastic about Lenin's offer, and very much favored accepting it.[44] Bullitt saw Lenin's offer as a way to enter elite circles and wrote to Colonel House "You must do your utmost for it".[56] Bullitt and Steffens returned from Moscow alongside the British writer and spy Arthur Ransome, who worked as a double agent for both MI6 and the Cheka.[57] Ransome—who publicly supported the Bolsheviks—served as Bullitt's guide to Russia.[58] Pipes wrote that: "Bullitt's mission had an air of unreality about it. Only people ignorant of the causes of the conflict and the passions that it aroused could conceive of such a plan".[47]
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The Republican Senator Henry Cabot Lodge had Bullitt called as an expert witness before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where he testified that if the American people knew what had really happened during the Paris peace conference, they would never accept the Treaty of Versailles, which Bullitt called a betrayal of Wilson's principles.[67] Bullitt's testimony before the Senate received much coverage in the American media and helped to turn American public opinion against the Treaty of Versailles.[68] During his testimony, Bullitt depicted Wilson as a weak man who had given away too much at the Paris peace conference to create what he called an unacceptable treaty.[69]
He also had his report of his Russian trip placed into the record.[70] Margaret MacMillan describes both Bullitt and Steffens as "useful idiots" who were swindled by Lenin into Western abandonment of the White Russian factions.[71] Most historians, however, consider Lenin's peace offer to be a genuine effort to end the war that threatened his regime.[72][73][74] Stephen M. Walt called it a "lost opportunity" for the Allies to obtain better terms from the Soviets than they ultimately did.[2]
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