The Illusion of Victory (57 page)

Quentin Roosevelt poses in his second-rate French-made fighter plane in May 1918. When his two older brothers were wounded in action, he demanded to be sent to the front. On July 14, 1918, he was shot down and killed.

Energetic Secretary of the Treasury William Gibbs McAdoo was Woodrow Wilson’s son-in-law. But when McAdoo ran for president in 1920, Wilson refused to endorse him. He wanted the nomination for himself. C
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General John J. Pershing and two members of his staff are welcomed by French officers at a Paris railroad station. Relations between the allies were far from cordial. The French and British repeatedly called for amalgamation of AEF troops into their armies.
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General Henri-Philippe Petain was pessimistic about France’s chances of winning the war. When he met Persh-ing in the summer of 1917, he said: “I hope you are not too late.”
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Generalissimo Ferdinand Foch became supreme commander of all the allied armies in France in the spring of 1918. An apostle of the attack, he had been sidelined because of the heavy casualties suffered by troops under his command.
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British Field Marshal Douglas Haig makes a point with Prime Minister David Lloyd George while France’s Marshal Joseph Joffre watches. Lloyd George yearned to fire Haig but his conservative backers in Parliament would not hear of it.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II sometimes talked boastfully of German power. But he was unsure of his masculinity, had frequent nervous breakdowns, and hated to make a decision. He let Germany’s generals run the war.
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Matthias Erzberger was the leader of the Catholic Centre Party in the German Reichstag. An advocate of a negotiated peace in 1917, he signed the Armistice under protest and denounced the Treaty of Versailles. Nevertheless, he became a symbol of defeatism and was assassinated in Berlin by right wing extremists.
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Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff’s victories over the Russians elevated him to demi-god status. In 1918, with Russia out of the war, Ludendorff convinced Germany’s leaders that total victory was within their grasp.
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Slim sallow Austrian born Corporal Adolf Hitler was a messenger in the Sixteenth Bavarian Infantry Reserve Regiment. When he received the Iron Cross for courage under fire, he wrote to a friend that it was “the happiest day of my life.”
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More than 25,000 American women came to France to participate in the war. Some entertained troops with theatrical performances. Others drove ambulances or worked for the YMCA or the Salvation Army, often running canteens close to the front.
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