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is impressed by the young man’s zeal, not to mention his unflagging compliments toward Ludendorff as a true hero of Germany. In November 1923, Ludendorff stands beside Hitler during the Nazis’ attempt to take control of the city (the Munich Putsch), and marches through a parade of bullets as Hitler’s attempted coup collapses into violence. Hitler himself is captured and imprisoned. Ludendorff is arrested as well, but he is acquitted of all charges. With Hitler in prison, Ludendorff begins to separate himself from the Nazis, believing that Hitler is more interested in his own interests than in the greater good of Germany. But when Hitler is released, he courts Ludendorff again, insists that Ludendorff vie for the position of president of the new Weimar Republic. But Ludendorff’s day has passed, and the public virtually ignores his candidacy. Hitler is quick to perceive that Ludendorff is no longer an asset, and so, the Nazis throw their support instead to the aging hero, Paul von Hindenburg.

In 1926, Ludendorff divorces his wife, and marries a woman whose radical ideas play on Ludendorff’s crumbling sanity. He develops a fanatical hatred of various ethnic groups, including Jews, Christians, Jesuits, Freemasons, and Catholics, and begins to rely on astrology and the occult to govern his daily life. Despite his mental decay, he continues to write articles expressing his views, particularly regarding the absolute necessity of a military dictatorship as the only reliable means of governing a nation, particularly the German nation. He dies in Munich in 1937, at age seventy-two.

PAUL VON HINDENBURG

He survives the violence that rolls through Germany, and attempts to become a voice of reason, even as the terms of the armistice galvanize the German people. In 1925, at the urging of several political groups, he reluctantly agrees to run for the office of president, and to his surprise, he wins. But von Hindenburg cannot prevent Hitler’s rise to power, and, as he had done with Ludendorff, von Hindenburg takes a more passive role as the titular head of the nation that Hitler in fact controls. In 1933, von Hindenburg bows to the inevitable, and names Hitler chancellor of Germany, which cements Hitler’s position as absolute dictator. Von Hindenburg dies in 1934, at age eighty-seven.

HENRI-PHILIPPE PÉTAIN

Among the men he commanded, Pétain is arguably France’s most popular military leader. Promoted to marshal of France after the armistice, he continues to serve in the army. He is named minister of war in 1936, and two years later, is named France’s minister to Spain.

In 1940, when France cannot hold back the German occupation of Paris, the aging Pétain signs the armistice documents that signify France’s defeat. The documents are signed in the presence of Hitler himself, which, by no accident, takes place in the same rail cars Foch had used in 1918. Instead of retiring, and thus preserving some of his dignity, Pétain inexplicably accepts control of the Vichy government, whose function is to serve Nazi interests in unoccupied France, thus assuming the role as the ultimate French collaborator. Astonishingly, Pétain serves Hitler by providing the Nazis with lists of French Jews, who are then arrested and sent to concentration camps. At the war’s end, Pétain is charged with treason and sentenced to be executed. But the new French leader, Charles de Gaulle, will not allow France to forget Pétain’s earlier legacy, and the sentence is commuted. Pétain serves out the remaining years of his life in exile, on an island off the French coast. He dies in 1951, at age ninety-five.

FERDINAND FOCH

Unlike Pershing, Foch takes an active role in the contentious negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles, as the primary representative of the French military. He is an outspoken critic of the treaty, believing it to be far too lenient, but performs his duty as one of the administrators who oversees German compliance. His criticism of the Treaty of Versailles results in a feud with Georges Clemenceau that continues even after his