The First 30 Years . . .

The U.S. Army officer who knows the most about Russia is no longer in Russia. He is in Arkansas. The War Department has sloughed off his temporary rank of Brigadier General and called him home. The officer is Colonel Philip Ries Faymonville, who in a career of ups & downs was last week down again.

Vigorous, fastidious Faymonville, graduate of West Point, had watched Russia since 1915. He learned the language, served with the U.S. forces in Siberia in 1918, and for five years served at the U.S. Embassy as military attache.

Fellow officers called him "the Bolshevik." In 1939 he was relieved. The considered view of U.S. Army Intelligence was that Russia could withstand the Wehrmacht only a few weeks. Colonel Faymonville's contrary views were not popular. To the Army's amazement Russia did not collapse. Harry Hopkins overrode the War Department and had Faymonville sent back to Moscow.

Temporarily, Faymonville was up. He was feted by the Russians, who considered him their No. 1 U.S. friend. But he made enemies among U.S. colleagues who did not enjoy the same prestige. Some of them wanted Faymonville to see U.S. Lend-Lease as a bargaining weapon to pry out Russia's suspiciously guarded military secrets. Faymonville said that this was beyond his purview.

A feud among U.S. officials in Moscow grew confused and hot. The friction between Faymonville and Brigadier General Joseph Anthony Michela, military attache, grew no less intense when Ambassador Admiral Standley arrived. Faymonville, already at odds with his military colleagues, locked horns with State.

When W. Averell Harriman succeeded Admiral Standley, Washington decided on a new deal, a whole new pack of cards to boot. Faymonville was relieved and reduced. Also relieved were Michela (reduced to Colonel) and Standley's former aide, Rear Admiral Jack Duncan. To Congress Cordell Hull proclaimed: "I am glad to say there is now in Moscow a highly competent U.S. Military Mission headed by Major General John R. Deane, [former secretary to the U.S. members of the Combined Chiefs of Staff]." Faymonville's job last week: temporary duty at the Texarkana Ordnance Center.

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