Struggle for Justice

The ACIA (American Committee for the Independence of Armenia) founding ceremonies, which took place in Manhattan from Friday, 7 February, through Tuesday, 11 February 1919, were among the most auspicious peace-time gatherings in modern history. The main event, a banquet at the Hotel Plaza, was attended by more than four hundred people, including past and future United States presidents and their families; state and territorial governors; United States cabinet, House, Senate, and state department representatives . . . as well as delegates to the Paris Peace Conference. . . . That banquet proved to be the culmination of the brief, although important, story of the American Committee for the Independence of Armenia. —From the introduction by Robert George Koolakian