The USA''s contribution to the making of the USSR was accidental. In the belief that the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic could not survive, American statesmen strove to keep the former tsarist empire intact for a non-communist successor regime in the face of attempts by other powers to carve out spheres of influence in both European and Asiatic Russia. In this manner, they unwittingly facilitated the formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

At the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Armament and on Pacific and Far Eastern Questions of 1921-1922, hosted by President Harding, the USA established predominance over Britain and its empire, France and Japan in a series of treaties limiting the size of the world''s major navies and aiming at stability throughout the Pacific as well as on the Asiatic mainland. Meanwhile, ''uninvited Russia'' was attempting to establish its hold on the former tsarist lands, partly through the stratagem of the Far East Republic used against Japanese intervention. In 1922, Soviet power was consolidated in the creation of the USSR.

The USA in the Making of the USSR will show the importance of the ''Russian question'' at the Washington Conference and throw light on the emergence of the ''Versailles-Washington'' system of international relations.