The Stars and Stripes was a newspaper written by troops (and for the troops) serving in the American Expeditionary Force of the United States Army during the United States' involvement in World War I. The newspaper's existence was endorsed by official order of General John J. Pershing, who wanted the publication to strengthen the moral of the troops and to promote unity within the American forces. The paper ran from February 1918 to June 1919, and by the time it ceased publication, it had a readership of over 500,000. As part of the American Memory series of online collections, the Library of Congress has created this Web site containing a complete digitized and searchable run of the Stars and Stripes for the general Web-browsing public. Users may elect to browse the issues by date, or to search the entire collection of papers. Additionally, the site features an in-depth look at the paper, including a detailed discussion of the noted editorial staff that ran the paper, along with a complete roster of the paper's employees.