Cary T. Grayson Diary

Cary T. Grayson Diary

Grayson, Cary T. (Cary Travers), 1878-1938

WWP17007

1918 December 17

Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia

English

Marshal Foch made a formal call upon the President this morning. He does not talk English nor understand it, and the conversation was through an interpreter. Naturally it was somewhat stilted as a result, but the President’s impression of the French Field Marshal coincided exactly with what he had previously pictured him in his mind to be—plain, strong, calm and forceful, the “embodiment of sense and sensibility.” Marshal Foch explained to the President his own impressions of the general situation so far as Germany was concerned. Among other things he said that the German people knew absolutely nothing about the conditions of their government, neither did they know that the acceptance of the armistice terms was due entirely to the collapse of the German army. The people had been kept in complete ignorance of all that had been going on, especially of the fact that the offensive had been a complete failure. The German people could not understand why it was that their soldiers were returning home, Marshal Foch told the President. The Marshal seemed somewhat nervous on his arrival and apparently his meeting the President was more or less of an ordeal to him, he being far more the soldier than the diplomat.

In the evening the President dined at the American Embassy, the guests including the President and Madame Poincare, General Pershing, Marshal Foch, General Bliss and others.

DIARY ENTRY:Paris—1918 December 17. Marshall Foch called upon President Wilson, plain, strong—calm & forceful. Does not speak English—He is just what the President expected him to be.+ said that the German people did not know about conditions of their Government—kept in ignorance—Did not understand meaning of soldiers returning home.+embodiment of sense and sensibility

Diary