You might want to reread that paragraph for context, because she's using it as an example of US/Russian cooperation, from what I can read.
I don’t think so. I think she’s pointing out that Americans don’t know that we did fight Russians, specifically the Bolsheviks, although ineffectually and with no real defined mission.
She could also have pointed out that Russia was the Union’s best friend in Europe during our Civil War. The “special relationship” with Russia lasted up till America had the nerve to protest government-sponsored pogroms during the 1890s.