Joseph Jacques C. Joffre, marshal of France, was an amiable and optimistic man, known affectionately in France as ‘Papa.’ Until late 1916 he had been the head of the French army, but by the time America was contemplating entering the war against Germany, he was on the shelf.

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Long a leader in the coterie of French officers who believed they could defeat Germany by sheer audacity, Joffre had been in command of the French army when the Great War began in early August 1914. While in that position, the French marshal had a profound effect on the course of history. In the first few weeks it seemed that the world was about to witness a repetition of the Franco- Prussian War of 1870, in which the French army was routed, with Emperor Napoleon III actually taken prisoner at Sedan. But Joffre’s balance and continual optimism held the French army together, and the exhausted Germans were driven back to a line along the Aisne River. Joffre was hailed as the Hero of the Marne, his name a household word in America as well as Europe.

But that was 1914, and since then fate had not been kind. Once the armies on the Western Front had settled into their prolonged, ghastly stalemate, the luster attached to Joffre’s name wore off. He was widely blamed for French unpreparedness when the Germans attacked Verdun in 1916, and the pressure for his removal became strong. He resigned as chief of the French army in December 1916 and was succeeded by General Robert Nivelle. The exalted title marshal of France was then conferred on Joffre; the honor carried a hollow ring. He was perhaps surprised, therefore, when French Premier Alexandre Ribot called him into his office on April 1, 1917.

The premier had an important challenge for Joffre. The United States, he said, was expected to declare war against Germany within the next few days, and if that should come to pass, Ribot would send René Viviani, a former French premier and currently lord chancellor, on an important mission to Washington. Ribot wanted to know if Joffre would be willing to make the trip as a member of the party. The victory of the Marne was still remembered in the United States, and Joffre was still a hero. No Frenchman, no matter how prominent, could represent the French army to the American people as well as he.

Joffre had reservations about accepting. General Nivelle’s great spring offensive on the Aisne was about to take place, and excitement was in the air; he hated to be absent from France at that time. He did not take long, however, in accepting. The entry of the United States in the war was a tremendously important event, and the government of France needed to know more about America’s capabilities and plans. It might also be possible to guide the new ally in its first efforts. Joffre notified Premier Ribot that he was available, and began making preparations even before the mission was confirmed.

As Ribot had anticipated, the United States Congress declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and by the middle of the month the Viviani mission was organized and ready to go. The French premier did not issue detailed, binding instructions to the members. Joffre was being sent to establish ‘a general outline of the policy which will govern the co-operation of the American forces with the Allied Armies.’ How he went about it was up to him.

Up to that time, Joffre had devoted little or no thought to the American military situation, so when he began to study the numbers he was struck by the small size of the U.S. Army. Regulars and National Guardsmen together totaled only two hundred thousand men. The force would have to be multiplied many times to be of any value in Europe, where the Allies had nearly four million men on the Western Front and the Germans about 2.5 million.

The easy part of the task, Joffre believed, would be the recruiting and training of the enlisted soldiers; the difficult problem would be the creation of an officer corps. Developing leaders competent to hold their own in battle against a highly professional enemy could not be accomplished instantaneously.

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