The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to Marshal of France Henri P. B. O. J. Petain, French Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished service in a position of great responsibility to the Government of the United States, during World War I, as Commander in Chief of the French Armies of the North and Northeast, as an expression to him of the high regard of the people of the United States and of their Army, for the distinguished and patriotic services which he has rendered to the common cause in which he has been associated on the battlefields of Europe.