This is CBS I Am The World. I'm John Batser. Nick Lloyd is here. His new book is The Western Front.

History of the Great War, 1914 to 1918. His June of 1917. A cavalryman in high, shiny boots with a stiff collar, drab olive,

arrives in Paris to celebration, cheering from the rooftops. His name is Pershing. Couple of months before he was riding horses in Mexico and was in Texas in the heat of the Texas summer.

And because he spoke French and because his commander died of a heart attack right before, Wilson called him up. President Wilson Beckendom to say,

I'm sending you the head of the American Expeditionary Force because in April of 1917, Wilson and the Congress declared war on Germany and Austria and and Pershing arrives without an army.

There were only 113,000 men in the army when Pershing was riding around in Mexico, seeking Pancho via. He's without an army, but he's going to bring an army with him.

And what they want is a malgommation. Let's term on this because a malgommation will not work. Pershing's ideas were going to fight alone. Nick, a hundred years later, is Pershing right or is Fo Shright? Should they have all been put together?

No, I think I think pushing is right. I think, you know, the malgommation when America enters the war in April, 1917, and the French said, look, you know, you don't really know how to fight.

You don't have the equipment. Why don't you just give us your manpower because that's your strongest asset and we will train them. They'll work in our divisions.

And this will be a way that we can essentially reenergize and we can win and understand that would be the Americans say, well, no, you know, you perhaps don't have the best record of not killing your own troops.

And you actually know, we might consent to some training missions and coordination on this or that, but you're not going to have American soldiers, you know, under French officers and that kind of thing.

So the malgommation issue goes through the book and you see it multiple chapters where it reappears. It really appears where the allies say, well, just just give us your manpower.

And we say, well, we are not allied to you. We're an associate power. Remember, so we're not, you know, we don't have a formal alliance. We are fighting the war, but we're in a semi independent sense.

So working out what role the Americans can play is a constant issue. And the allies get quite desperate at times because they say to the Americans, look, you're going to have to make serious contribution or we are going to go under.

And at one point, Lord George says the perishing is as well, this is what this isn't the following year in 1918. It was a great crisis at the front.

He says, well, if the British and French go under, we at least can say we have done everything we've given our all.

Whereas if, you know, we're walking the Americans say they've even they've provided fewer troops than Belgium.

Of course, it's great wounding comparison. You know, Pershing doesn't flinch when he's he's create, you know, he's faced with this insult by the British Prime Minister.

It's how desperate the allies become by the following year. I think the key question with the Americans is how quickly they can get manpower in and how serious they are at it.

And the Germans don't think the Americans are serious. They think it will be years before they can build an army.

And so they underestimate the Americans terribly. And ultimately, that is one of the things which, you know, which causes the end of the war because once the Americans demonstrate that they are serious, which they do by 1918.

Then clearly the writing is very much on the wall. Yes, his foe's plan. It's magnificent. Attack on the North, attack on the center, attack on the South.

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