A retired U.S. Chief of Staff talked to reporters on his 79th birthday. General Peyton C. March's pointed goat-beard had gone grey; but his eyes were sharp and blue as ever, his tongue still as acid as in 1918, when even the dread "March smile" was enough to burn holes in his subordinates. During World War I, General March was the superior officer and most watchful critic of the A.E.F.'s General John J. Pershing.
Looking back over his own 33 Army years, the nation's almost-forgotten soldier was content last week that the U.S. had finally come to recognize the importance of the...