The New York herald., 1921-10-29
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1921.
General Foch.

It Is only now, nearly three years
after the war, that America has the
opportunity to hail her greatest SOL
dier. We say Americas soldier, be-
cause in March of 1918 FERDINAND
FocH ceased to be French General
and became the Generalissimo OF all
the forces that were fighting Prus-
sian autocracy. What PERsHING did
was done-and wonderfully well done
after FocHs pencil had marked the
map; and so it was with HAIG and
NIvELLE and DIAz and all the other
Generals, big and little, who played
their parts in the last act of the
war. The little gray schoolmaster who
came yesterday to America for the
first time was the director Of the
millions Of our young men whose en-
ergy and spirit helped to turn the
tide OF the war.
What pleasure it must be to Cen
eral FocH, and what tribute 1t is
to his greatness and his popularity,
that this nation is as glad to see
him and as proud of having served
under his leadership as it would
have shown him it was il he had
come here direct from the field
of his last martial triumph. The
people of the United States for four
years have been greeting and cheer
ing European generals and admirals,
prelates and statesmen. Greatness
has been such frequent visitor as
almost to cool the national ardor.
But there has always remained an
unquenchable curiosity about Gen.
eral FocH and genuine desire to
have him here that Americans might
see the strategist whose genius put
him head and shoulders above other
big men of the titanic struggle.
1t is doubtful whether any Ameri-
cans except the students Of war had
ever heard of FERDINAND FoCH before
September, 1914; and to those stu
dents he was not the hero of action
but the teacher of strategy, the mind
that had taken up the art or battle
where NAPOLEON laid it down. The
first great struggle of the war made
bis reputation as a General, for at
the Marne, as commander of the
Ninth Army, seeing the error of Won
KLUcK, he drove a wedge between
the armies of voN HAUsEN and Won
BUELow and started the flight Of the
enemy. The schoolmaster who had
for years exhorted his young officers
TO Learn to thinkl" had shown his
ability not only to think more clearly
than his opponent but to act with the
thought.
Great as was that achievement at
the Marne it cannot compare as
an intellectual feat with what FocH
accomplished between March, 1918,
when, following the great German Of
fensive on the western front, he be-
came Generalissimo of the allied
armies, and Armistice Day. The
terms of his commission called on
him to coordinate" the allied forces.
He did far more than that. He re-
established morale; he put the spirit
Of victory in the hearts of tired
armies. He stopped the Germans and
then struck at them with force i'm.
possible before the days OF unified
command. Before FocH's elevation
there was no rhythm in the allied
warfare; six months after II there
was no heart in the German armies.
Other generals had seen the region
in which they fought. FocH's great
vision encompassed all of Europe.
Victory" FocH once said, "is the
moral superiority OF the conqueror.'
That. coupled with the mans fifty
years study OF strategy, is the reason
why the German forces crumbled
months before it seemed that the
war could end. FocH in 1918 was
more than the embodiment OF that
spirit which doggedly kept repeating
"They shall not pass!" That the
enemy should not proceed did not
satisfy him; 1t was necessary that
they should be t'irned back. And
those of us who on this side of the
water watched eagerly the move
ments on the chess board under the
fingers OF the new master saw how
wonderfully he moved his men now
rnat he was free to move them as
he wished. We saw the Americans
and the French conquering along the
Argonne, the British and the Arneri-
cans breaking the Hindenburg line,
the armies in Flanders sent in
great fanking movement. "The best
defence" said FocH, rs attack"
The Marshal is reminder OF the