HIRAM W. JOHNSON (1866-1945) served as a United States Senator from California during the years 1917-1945. He opposed the entry of the U.S. into the Great War that began in Europe in 1914. Arguing his position in 1917 he was quoted as saying, "The first casualty when war comes, is truth." The thought has often been repeated—if reworded—by journalists and historians who have tried to peer into The Fog of War.
The French nation was hardly aware of what had happened [during the first weeks of World War I]. GQG's bulletins were masterpieces of the opaque. Joffre operated on the fixed principle that civilians should be told nothing. No journalists were allowed at the front; no names of generals or of casualties or of regiments were mentioned. In order to keep all useful information from the enemy, GQG adopted a principle from the Japanese, to “wage war silently and anonymously.” France was divided into a Zone of the Rear and a Zone of the Armies; in the latter, Joffre was absolute dictator; no civilian, not even the President, much less the despised deputies, could enter it without his permission. It was his and not the President's name that was signed to the proclamation addressed to the people of Alsace.
---The Guns of August
© Barbara W. Tuchman 1962
The Macmillan Company, New York
Excerpt from the 11th printing (1972) p. 188