My notes about the interview I had with General Ludendorff ran as
follows:

General Ludendorff received me with the following words:

"In America you wanted to make peace. You evidently thought we were
at the end of our tether."

I replied:

"No, I did not think that; but I wanted to make peace before we
came to the end of our tether."

Whereupon the General said:

"We, however, did not want to. Besides, it would not have been
surprising if you had thought that we had come to the end of our
resources. The communications you received, which I read from time
to time, certainly led to that conclusion."

Later on in the conversation, General Ludendorff asked me when,
in my opinion, the Americans would participate in the war with
great force. I replied that in twelve months a large American army
was to be expected in France, and that this army would be organized
with comparative ease. To this the General rejoined that in that
case we had ample time to end the war meanwhile; for the U-boats
would force England to a peace in three months. He had received
absolutely certain information on this point. When I was on the
point of leaving, General Ludendorff repeated this remark very
positively.

Though the sense was the same, the actual wording of my evidence
before the Examination Committee differs somewhat from that of
the notes given above. This is explained, however, by the fact
that I spoke quite freely, and therefore prefaced my remarks with
the words: "So far as I can remember, and so far as I am able to
say, under oath, the conversation was more or less as follows,"
etc.

I did not enter into the personal views which General Ludendorff
thought fit to express in his evidence before the Examination Committee;
for I am of the opinion that the duty of the Committee was simply to
establish the real truth by an inquiry into the facts. It is open
to the Committee to put to me any questions they like concerning my
activities in Washington, and I will answer them frankly; but I think
that a quarrel between witnesses about their own personal opinions
would have been an undignified spectacle, in which I distinctly
refused to participate. I gladly leave it to the reader of the present
volume to form his own ideas regarding my work in America.

In May, 1917, I left G. H. Q., feeling quite convinced that for
the moment there was no room for me in German diplomacy; for the
only policy which I regarded as right, had