GENERAL FOX CONNER: PERSHING'S CHIEF OF OPERATIONS AND EISENHOWER'S MENTOR

Dwight D. Eisenhower viewed Fox Conner as “the outstanding soldier of my time.” In the early 1920s, Conner transformed his protégé Eisenhower from a struggling young officer on the verge of a court-martial into one of the American army’s rising stars. Eisenhower acknowledged Fox Conner as “the one more or less invisible figure to whom I owe an incalculable debt.”
John J. “Black Jack” Pershing, America’s top general in World War I, considered Fox Conner to have been “a brilliant solider” and “one of the finest characters our Army has ever produced.” During the Great War, General Conner served as chief of operations for the American Expeditionary Forces. Pershing told Conner: “I could have spared any other man in the A.E.F. better than you.”
General Fox Conner: Pershing’s Chief of Operations and Eisenhower’s Mentor presents a complete biography of this highly significant, but now forgotten, figure in American military history.
In addition to providing a unique insider’s view into the operation of the American high command during World War I, General Fox Conner also tells the story of an interesting life. Conner perceived a calling to service as an American Army officer although his father had been blinded during the Civil War while fighting for the Confederacy. From humble beginnings in rural Mississippi, Conner became one of the army’s intellectuals. During the 1920s, when most of the nation slumbered in isolationism, Fox Conner predicted a second world war. As the nation began to awaken to international dangers in the 1930s, President Roosevelt offered Conner the position of army chief of staff, which he declined. Poor health prevented General Conner’s participation in World War II, while others whom he influenced, including Eisenhower, George Patton, and George Marshall, went on to fame.
General Fox Conner: Pershing’s Chief of Operations and Eisenhower’s Mentor is published by Casemate Publishers/Casemate UK and was released in October 2016 in both the US and the UK. The book was recently named a finalist for the Army Historical Foundation’s Distinguished Writing Award in the field of biography. General Fox Conner is available in hardcover through Amazon and all major booksellers. For more information on the general and the book, please visit www.generalfoxconner.com.