MEMORIES
How Wilson created his army

If the United States had a large army in the field in 1918, they owe it to three men: Wilson, Joffre, Pershing.
But especially to Woodrow Wilson. It was on Wednesday May 2, 1917 that the president decided that it would exist.
That day, at four p.m., Marshal Joffre came to the White House. He was taken to the Green Room where President Wilson joined him.

When they parted, an hour later, the principle of an autonomous American army was accepted, and it was decided that it would be formed of divisions of the French model, mass-produced, in as large a number as was necessary. .
The president's last words were these: « We want to give you all the support we can and as soon as possible. »

It is generally unknown that no one, in England or France, wanted or dared to envisage such a result. America was expected to send volunteers to Europe, at most companies or battalions of volunteers.
In the United States, there was strong discussion about whether it was appropriate to form an expeditionary force, which the most daring estimated at 20,000 men, and the others at 10,000.
Wilson, from day one, wanted an American army capable of competing with the great armies of the French front. He was also the only American capable of creating it. I saw him several times at that time, and precisely on the day he received Marshal Joffre. At the height of his physical strength and undoubtedly at the height of his authority over his compatriots, he gave the impression that he had absolute power; his ministers were only his clerks; and he had just had Congress vote in a few days for compulsory military service, which was a kind of revolution for the United States,
He still had many institutional difficulties to overcome, but he was determined to do so. “I fear that our law limits the strength of the company,” he said to the marshal; However, it is possible to modify it. » And three times, during the interview, he assured that he would modify the law whenever it was necessary to do so. to achieve the envisaged solution.
I always thought that he saw in the creation of a large national army a means of strengthening federal ties and increasing his authority. But he also said, as I have noted several times, “Our law would remain powerless without our army, our own. And he added: “This is true for the rights of every people. »

Marshal Joffre had decided at sea, aboard La Lorraine, and against the advice of the government and General Headquarters to ask the Americans for an army and not just men. The first contacts in Washington showed him that he was in the right way. He brought to President Wilson the organizational formula that he wanted, but that no one gave him, Mr. Balfour arriving eight days before us, less than any other. The marshal demonstrated to the president that he could make his dearest wish come true, and he provided him with the means. On May 2, President Wilson accepted Joffre's proposals; and on May 14 Mr. Baker, Secretary of War, adopted a protocol, which Mr. Viviani telegraphed to Paris on the 15th. It was faithfully executed.

Pershing, who carried it out in France, always refused to deny Wilson's great idea: the autonomous American army. He defended this autonomy with stubbornness and particularly at the end of December 1917 and the beginning of January 1918, when energetic interventions by the G. O. G. and the French government called it into question. He stood firm and, supported by Wilson, was ultimately right.
It is a story that will be worth telling one day, for the glory of the three men who told it: Wilson, Joffre, Pershing.

Wilson is dead, and I learned of his death in Geneva. Once again I asked myself how this leader of men, in whom I had seen in 1917 such a clear and true conception of force in the service of law, could, in 1919, refuse to Mr. Léon Bourgeois to put an international force at the service of peace. What service he would then have rendered to the League of Nations!
Now four years have passed. The need to create this force is felt a little more every day; and we meet many men in Geneva who declare themselves supporters. But to bring it together would require a man as clear-sighted and resolute and as listened to as the president. Wilson in May 1917.

JEAN FABRY Deputy for Paris.