As for the men, Foch makes it his business to get into personal contact
with them, as Napoleon used to do. Foch does not hobnob with them, there
is no joking or familiarity, but he goes into the trenches and the
occupied villages and looks the men over informally, inspects food or
equipment, makes a useful comment or two, drops a phrase that is worth
repeating, and leaves behind him enthusiasm and respect. The Paris
Figaro says that he has the gift of setting souls afire, of arousing
that elan in the French fighter which made that fighter perform military
miracles when the "sun of Austerlitz" was high. It has been declared by
a French writer that Foch knows the human element in the French Army
better than any other man living.
With all his knowledge of men, his power of inspiring them, Foch is
quiet, retiring, non-communicative, with no taste for meeting people in
social intercourse. His life has been monotonous--work and work and
work. He has the reputation of being a driver; he used to be
particularly severe on shirkers in the war college, and such, no matter
what their influence, had no chance of getting a diploma leading to an
attractive staff position when Foch was Director.
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