If we must die—let it not be like hogs
Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,
While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,
Making their mock at our accursed lot.
If we must die—oh, let us nobly die,
So that our precious blood may not be shed
In vain; then even the monsters we defy
Shall be constrained to honor us though dead!
—CLAUDE MCKAY JULY 1919
The expedition [to northern Russia] was nonsense from the beginning and always seemed to me one of those sideshows born of desperation and organized for the purpose of keeping up home morale rather than because of any clear view of the military situation.
—SECRETARY OF WAR NEWTON D. BAKER, 1929