Arthur M, Schlesinger, Jr. divides the American military tradition between the Roundheads and the Cavaliers: on the one side, Grant, Marshall, Ridgeway; on the other, McClellan, Patton, MacArthur. Pershing was a Roundhead, although which side he would have chosen between Cromwell or Charles I is a matter of conjecture; he was probably the finest example we have of this better side of American generalship. To command the AEF in World War I was as much a diplomatic as military assignment: Pershing was pleased to have the opportunity to lead the Americans in their rescue of the Western front, and determined to maintain the AEF as an independent force. Yet he remained unfailingly courteous to the other Allied commanders, succeeded in complementing French and British operations, and was a resolute and humane captain—careful to avoid wasting lives, tactically inventive and effective and, by his stolid and resolute manner, an inspiration to his troops, as well as a shot in the arm to the Allies.
This is one of the finest biographies that has been written of an American general, a masterful account of a military career that is both broad and deep. It is difficult to sew together the threads of character and events and to humanize the image of a totem like Pershing, but Frank Vandiver has succeeded, and stylishly, too. Perhaps some further inquiry into Pershing's personality might have been in order— in 1915, for example, his wife and three daughters died in a fire—but Pershing purposely left few novelistic details of himself and Vandiver wisely avoids going where nu trail can lead him.
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