In the hardest years of First World War, the American Ambassador in Turkey, H.Morgenthau, not satisfied with the efficiency of his activities, resigned from that post, and has written about it in his memoirs: "My failure to stop the destruction of the Armenians had made Turkey for me a place of horror, and I found intolerable my further daily association with men, who, however gracious and accommodating and good-natured they might have been to the American Ambassador, were still reeking with the blood of nearly a million human beings. Could I have done anything more, either for Americans, enemy aliens, or the persecuted peoples of the empire, I would willingly have stayed. The position of Americans and Europeans, however, had now become secure and, so far as the subject peoples were concerned, I had reached the end of my resources." (Kloian 1985: 244)
In the USA H.Morgenthau resumed his humanitarian mission with a new impetus. He had an active participation in the re-election of the greatest politician, President Woodrow Wilson, considering it an important enterprise both for the USA and for the whole world. Together with President W.Wilson, H.Morgenthau has taken part in post-war peace negotiations, in military missions and in other important international enterprises. (Kloian 1985: 244. Hovannisian 1974: 338)
From the very beginning of the First World War, the Armenians, who had increased in number in the USA due to various historical circumstances, assembled the entire intercommunal public, intellectual, material, party and other resources to succor the native land and its people in distress for defensive and reconstructive purposes in collaboration with the American diplomatic, political, military, benevolent and other organizations.
The Armenian-Americans have participated both in volunteer movements in the native land in helping the enormous number of needy compatriots and emigrants and in the various political, diplomatic and military enterprises in Europe and the USA suing the Armenian Action. Among such kind of Armenian-American nation-supporting institutions were initially the pro-educational organizations, then, during the First World War and in the period following it, the widow-helping, orphan-helping, poor-helping and rehabilitation organizations, the compatriotic unions, the political parties (the Hnchakian party in 1890, the Dashnaktsakan party in 1895, the Ramgavar-Azatakan party in 1921), the American headquarter of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (in 1908, Boston), the Armenian Red Cross of America (in 1910, New York), the Armenian Missionary Association of America (in 1918, Worcester) and other similar organizations. (Avakian 1996B: 177-183)
Among the active political Armenian-American institutions were the Interparty Council (in November, 1914, Boston), subsequently renamed the National Defense Armenian-American Council (NDAC) and the Society for the Defense of National Interests (SDNI) (in 1915, New York) these two being later amalgamated into the Society for National Defense, the Armenian National Union of America (ANUA) (in March, 1917, Boston), the plenipotentiary representative of the National Paris Delegation in the USA, which had established the Armenian National Union Publicity Office (in 1918, New York), subsequently renamed Press Office and still later, Publicity Committee. (Teghekagir 1922: 8-12, 30, 31)
The Chairman of the USA Central Committee of the Armenian General Benevolent Union, Mihran Karageuzian, has realized a pro-Armenian cooperation with the General Secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Rev. Dr. James Barton. The latter, in reply to Ambassador H.Morgenthau's telegram from Constantinople in September, 1915, informing that "the destruction of the Armenian race in Turkey is rapidly progressing," therefore it is important to save the rest, founded the American Committee for the Examination of Armenian Persecutions with the help of the Armenian Home of Cleveland. This committee, consisting of American missionaries, humanists, industrialists and professors gave birth to the American Committee for Armenian Relief. Its chairman, Rev. Dr. James Barton has said on the occasion of its creation: "The Armenians have no one to speak for them and it is without question a time when the voice of Christianity should be raised." The American Committee for Armenian Relief collected 100.000 dollars and sent it to the USA Ambassador in Turkey H.Morgenthau for the needs of Armenians. (Hooshamatyan 1965: 934. Barton 1930: 4-6)
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