It means that you have entirely grasped the
ideas of the leader who has given the order and that you take
every possible means of satisfying him. Discipline does not
mean silence, abstention, only doing what appears to you
possible without compromising yourself; it is not the practice
of the art of avoiding responsibilities. On the contrary, it
is action in the sense of orders received."

Fifteen years ago at the Ecole de Guerre General Foch was fond
of quoting Joseph de Maistre's remark, "A battle lost is a
battle which one believes to have lost, for battles are not
lost materially," and of adding, "Battles are therefore lost
morally, and it is therefore morally that they are won." The
aphorism can be extended by this one: "A battle won is a
battle in which one will not admit one's self vanquished." As
"Miles" remarks, "He did as he had said."

Ernest Dimnet in The London Saturday Review has this to say in part
about Foch and his two widely known books:

During his two terms of service at the Ecole de Guerre he
produced two considerable works, "Principes de la Guerre" and
"De la Conduite de La Guerre," which give a high idea of their
author's character and talent. There is nothing in them that
ought to scare away the average reader. Their style has the
geometrical lucidity which is the polytechnician's birthright,
but in spite of the deliberate impersonality generally
attached to that style of writing, there emanates from it a
curious quality which gradually shows us the author as a
living person.

We have the impression of a vast mental capacity turned to the
lifelong study of a fascinating subject and acquiring in it
the dignity of attitude and the naturalness which mastery
inevitably produces. War has been the constant meditation of
this powerful brain. In "La Conduite de la Guerre" this
meditation is the minute historical examination of the battles
of the First Empire and 1870. "Nothing can replace the
experience of war," writes the author, "except the history of
war," and it is clear that he understands the word "history"
as all those who go to the past for a lesson in greatness
understand it.

"Les Principes de la Guerre" is more immediately technical,
yet it strikes one as being less a speculation than a
visualizing o