American Military History, Volume 2 by Richard W. Stewart

Regular Army units continued to guard the Mexican border during 1919 and 1920 due to the ongoing revolutionary disturbances in that country. Because the National Guard had not yet been reorganized, the Regular Army also had to supply troops on numerous occasions through the summer of 1921 to help suppress domestic disorders arising out of labor disputes and race conflicts in a restless postwar America.

American soldiers remained in Europe for some time as the de- mobilization continued, guarding against renewed hostilities. A newly activated Third Army crossed the French border into Germany on De- cember 1, 1918, to occupy the region around Koblenz, between Lux- embourg and the Rhine River. Eight U.S. divisions organized into three corps participated in the occupation of Germany. Similarly, an Army regiment sent to Italy before the end of hostilities spent four months participating in the occupation of Austria. American occupation troops encountered no unusual difficulties with the populace, and their num- bers were rapidly reduced after the Paris Peace Conference ended in May 1919. They numbered only about 15,000 by the beginning of 1920. After rejecting the Treaty of Versailles that resulted from the peace conference, the United States technically remained at war with Germany until a separate peace was signed in the summer of 1921. Occupying forces gradually withdrew after that, until the last thousand troops departed on January 24, 1923.