Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-13
WORLD SOON MAY KNOW
REAL STORY OF WAR
Pershing, Clemenceau, Foch and Others
May Yet Reveal Battles Waged
by Allied Commanders.
BY THOMAS M. JOHNSON,
Author Of Without Censor" and "Our
Secret War"

More, are we. going to hear all about
the battle within that battle, whose
issue determined the issue Of the World
Wharf.-The unknown struggle on the
heights of Olympus, cloud-hidden, of
the gods who in 1918 controlled world
destiny: Foch, Pershing, Haig, Lloyd
George and, perhaps, greatest Of all,
Clemenceau?
Remember hoW-aided by propaganda
we viSioned them then, sublimely
perfect, supermen, appropriations, nobly,
even blandly, superior to common pas
sions?
Can it be true that, after all. there
were times when they reSembled more
an afternoon bridge club Squabbling
over the score and the prizes? Per-
haps-or so it seems now that the
dead hand of one of them has rent
the veil of the temple.
Other Views Coming.
For Clenienceau has written a book,
wherein he has told things hitherto
unknown of happenings on Olympus.
And Is 1t mere coincidence that Per-
shing has resumed vigorously writing
his side OF the same great event? And
Foch'S own book is soon to appear, fol-
lowed by Foch biography written with
help from the marShalS widow and his
devoted Weygand, by the brilliant Eng
lish writer, Capt. LiddeIl Hart. The
lowdown on the Olympians!
What did they really do and say and
think up there on the heights when
victory and defeat trembled in the
scales? Did human passions rise and
fall, too, as dominant personalities I'M
der great stress, strove for victory over
the enemy, and, sometimes. over one
another?
How they strove appears in the dra-
matte, poignant circumstances of the
death of Clemenceau, Tiger of France,
who but recently died fighting, after
all. He had tried to rest from his bat
les, but fate, and Foch, and his own
fiery spirit would not let him. He
seized again the pen that was his
sword and persisted by it. Astonishingly,
the battle that this celebrated French
man died fighting was, in part, an
American battle.
Inside Facts Are Due.
Nearly 80 years old, the Tiger stalked
the kill again, snarling eagerly to tell
the whole world his part in that battle,
the Meuse-Argonne, and what has been
called his intrigue to have Gen. Pershing
removed as commander in chief of the
American Expeditionary Forces. He
had been stung by the action of his
celebrated compatriot, Marshal Foch,
former commander in chief of all the
allied armies, in telling his side of the
battle within a battle-a side that diff
fered from that of the Tiger.
Frances great soldier had revealed
how Frances World War premier had
wanted to appeal to President Wilson
to send some one less independent, less
stubborn, to command the American
Army-sorne one who would yield more
to allied ideas. The marshal told how
he had opposed Clemenceau, favored
Pershing. Then he said, after he, Foch,
had won the war, Clemenceau had lost
the peace. That caused a furore in
France, lively interest here.
This remarkable quarrel that the two
foremost Frenchmen carried to their
graves, has not yet subsidized and cannot
until their books appear, to be scanned
by an eagerly curious world. A pre-
view can be had in part, by narrating
chronologically certain events whereof
the average reader knows nothing, al
though they determined the course of
1918 when Foch and Clemenceau
snatched triumph from disaster, but in
1919. did not treat those two quite the
same.
Different Types Of Men.
Not strange, for how different they
were! Clemenceau-hardhea cyni-
cal, agnostic; Foch-inspirational, mys-
tic, religious. Love of France held
them together in war, separated them
in peace. When peace came, love of
France pulled them in different paths.
They could not agree what was best for
La Patrie.
That was not until after the darkest,
tensest hours of the wars crisis. They
worked together then, although Foch
had become allied commander in-chief
over the dead body of Clemenceau's
ambition-aS few Americans realize.
The Tiger wanted to be commander-in-
chief himself, although he was not
soldier. But British and Americans
wanted Foch, so the Tiger yielded, but
with i'll grace. Once he told Field Mar
shal Sir Henry Wilson that it needed
Just two men to win the war; French
man and an Englishman, himself and
Sir Henry. That was when Foch was
under q. cloud.
Another thing few Americans realize
Is that only two months after he got
the job Clemenceau wanted the Tiger
saved Foch-the Tiger, that is, with
some help from the Americans In
Foch, thanks to British tenacity and
tardy French reinforcements, had kept
the Western front intact, although at
terrific cost in allied losses and morale.
Where would the next blow fall?
Near Aniens, said Foch, disregarding
American warnings that it would be
far from AnnienS, on the Chemin des
Danes. So when the blow fell the few
and tired allied troops could not be
supported quickly enough by Foch's re-
serves coming tardily from around
Amiens and the triumphant Germans
pressed down to the Marine at Chateau
Thiery-only 40 miles from Paris.
Called Blacklist Hour.
That was what Gen. Pershing con,
siders in all 1918 the blacklist hour for
the allies. Some of the French troops,
harried and worn, lost heart, retreated
pellmell, some even looting as they
went. The allied commander-in-chief
had guessed wrong. OmcerS at his
headquarters saw his staff plunged in
gloom. Clemenceau came to the rescue.
Dashing back and forth between Paris
and the front, scarcely sleeping. the
Tiger appeared heroic before the Cham
Der Of Deputies, some OF whom clam
ored for Foch's head.
what are you going to do?" they
II fight before Parish" roared the
Tiger. "I fight behind Paris! I tight
everywherel"
Loyalty and courageously, he saved
Foch-he and the Americans. For then
it was that the I'd American Division,
Regulars and Marines, came to the
Marine at Chateau Thiefry through
throngs of retreating French peasants
and some soldiers-and stopped the
Germans. Legend hath it that they
saved Paris as well as Foch, which Is
doubtful, but there was enough fol-
Clemenceau to seize upon as propa-
1arida to cheer up Paris and all France,
despairing now that their troops and
their Foch had failed them. But, said
Clemenceau, here were the Americans,
young, fresh, innumerable- would