This study of relations examines the close diplomatic association of Russia and the United States, both close and distant. The book deals particularly with the still vital and very timely question: the control of Manchuria. It describes in detail the struggle between Russia and America, checked and counterchecked by nearly all the other governments of Europe and Asia, for domination of this rich and strategic area. It is safe to say that the full, detailed story of this little-known chapter in our political history is told here for the first time as the author had access to official documents only recently opened to scrutiny by students of foreign affairs.
The study begins with a historical sketch of the early friendship between the two countries, but subsequent chapters reveal how this cordiality deteriorated toward the end of the nineteenth century as political and economic interests in the Far East came into open conflict. With the acquisition of the Philippines following the Spanish-American War, America's eyes turned Eastward, and by the conclusion of the Boxer Rebellion her policy of the Open Door in China was firmly established. Under the cloak of this principle, however, American trading, industrial, and railway interests, with the encouragement of our diplomatic agents in the Far East, quickly made a bid for the economic expansion of eastern Asia, at the same time that Russia was attempting to annex Manchuria for herself.
When the tinderbox of Far Eastern affairs flared into the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, Roosevelt's policy balanced antagonism during the conflict eventually had the result of strengthening Japan and of drawing that country closer to Russia. The outbreak of World War I found these two powers dominating Manchuria, with the United States in spite of its Dollar Diplomacy excluded from the competition. The account is given chiefly through the personalities who took part on both sides in the diplomatic maneuvers. The book is therefore of unusual human interest, as well as an important documentary contribution to an understanding of the present relations of two leading world power.