Stanley Washburn
Stanley Washburn (1878-1950) was an American war correspondent particularly associated with reporting on Russian operations. He covered the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War initially from the Russian side and then from the victorious Japanese side and was one of the first on the battlefield to learn that peace had been agreed. Washburn afterwards reported on the Russian Revolution of 1905. During World War One Washburn reported from the Eastern Front. His recommendations that the US make improvements to the Trans-Siberian Railway to support the Russian war effort led to a commission being sent under engineer John Frank Stevens. Washburn himself was part of a commission under Elihu Root sent to liaise with the Russian Provisional Government. Washburn advocated that the US government support the Don Republic during the Russian Civil War and, in 1941, ahead of the attack on Pearl Harbor sent a message warning the leadership of the US Navy not to underestimate the Japanese.
Russo-Japanese War
[edit]Washburn was born in 1878.[1] During the 1904-05 Russo-Japanese War he worked as a war correspondent, initially covering the conflict from the Russian side.[2] Following Japanese victories in the war he found himself working from the Japanese side of the frontline. He communicated with newspaper offices in the United States by means of a telegraph running across Manchuria and Korea and via Nagasaki in Japan. Through this telegraph he learnt of end of the war from the editor of the Chicago Daily News and was able to rcord the reactions of Japanese troops when he revealed this information.[3] Washburn moved from the battlefront to Russia to cover the Revolution of 1905.[3][2]
World War One
[edit]Washburn covered the Eastern Front of World War One. His articles were published in periodicals and books in the US, leading him to become well known to the American public.[2] Washburn's reporting was generally favourable to Russia; he downplayed the discontent among the population caused by Tsar Nicholas II's order to close down vodka shops and did not mention the intense anti-Semitism that prevailed in the country during the period.[4]
In Spring 1917 he was in Baltimore in the United States, following the February Revolution that saw the Russian Empire dissolved. There, Washburn discussed with railway executive Daniel Willard the shortage of ammunition and other war materiel in the Russian army and recommended that the US help to make improvements to the Trans-Siberian Railway to support Russia's war effort. The US shortly after entered the war and Willard as chairman of the Advisory Committee on National Defense was told to assemble a commission to act on Washburn's idea.[5] It was planned to assign Washburn to the commission sent to Russia, which was headed by American engineer John Frank Stevens. At a late moment Washburn was instead appointed to the mission headed by Elihu Root sent by US President Woodrow Wilson to liaise with the post-revolution Russian Provisional Government of which Washburn was a strong supporter.[2] In this role Washburn was granted the rank of major.[6] Washburn had returned to the United States by December 1917.[2]
Washburn was acquainted with many of the Tsarist generals and was an admirer of Mikhail Alekseyev; as a result of this he lobbied Robert Lansing to support the anti-Bolshevik Don Republic during the Russian Civil War.[2]
Later life
[edit]Washburn later lived in Lakewood, New Jersey and was a candidate for election to the US Congress for the Republican party. On 29 November 1941 he wrote to the Frank Knox, a Republican serving as secretary of the Navy under Democrat president Franklin D. Roosevelt, to warn him not to underestimate the Japanese and advise that they "never do what they're expected to do". Knox passed the message onto the Chief of Naval Operations, Harold Raynsford Stark, who mailed it Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, commander of the Pacific Fleet on 2 December. The message arrived only after the Japanese had launched a surprise attack on Kimmel's fleet base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.[7] Washburn died in 1950.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ a b "Reminiscences of Stanley Washburn, 1950". Oral Histories Portal: Collection Overview. Columbia University Libraries. 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f Kennan, George Frost (24 January 2023). Russia Leaves the War. Princeton University Press. pp. 173–174. ISBN 978-0-691-18947-5.
- ^ a b Dubbs, Chris (2017). American Journalists in the Great War: Rewriting the Rules of Reporting. U of Nebraska Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-4962-0017-4.
- ^ Rose, Kenneth (27 March 2017). The Great War and Americans in Europe, 1914-1917. Taylor & Francis. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-351-80586-5.
- ^ Subcommittee Hearings on H.R. 6277, to Give Discharges to the Members of the Russian Railway Service Corps Organized by the War Department Under Authority of the President of the United States for Service During the War with Germany. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1950. pp. 6259–6260.
- ^ United States Congress Report. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 23.
- ^ Twomey, Steve (21 November 2017). Countdown to Pearl Harbor: The Twelve Days to the Attack. Simon and Schuster. p. 190. ISBN 978-1-4767-7648-4.