U.S. President Woodrow Wilson first proclaimed Armistice Day for November 11, 1919. In proclaiming the holiday, he said:
To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country’s service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations.
The same year, The American Expeditionary Force, North Russia, 1918-1919 (“Polar Bears”), a contingent of 5000 US troops, landed as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and fought the Red Army. Available from the Hope College Libraries Joint Archives in Digital Commons, you may listen to oral history interviews and read transcripts of an oral history project done with local “Polar Bear” veterans. The physical collection includes interview transcripts, cassette tapes, articles, bibliographies, diaries, clippings, photographs, microfilm and a book.