When the 1916–17 Campaign turned into a defensive war, N. D. Cocea joined the government and Land Forces on their retreat to Western Moldavia. Reunited with Vinea, he helped publish a daily named "Deșteptarea" ("The Awakening"), flirting with the Germanophiles and Zimmerwald neutralists, hotly criticizing the Ententist and National Liberal establishment. However, he remained an outspoken critic of those public figures whom he perceived as German hirelings, including politician Alexandru Marghiloman and "Arena" newspaperman Alfred Hefter-Hidalgo. As was later acknowledged by Vinea, Cocea and his "Deșteptarea" colleagues had formed a conspiratorial "revolutionary republican committee". Both of them were also affiliated with a wing of the Romanian Freemasonry.