George Marshall

George C. Marshall
December 31, 1880(1880-12-31) – October 16, 1959 (aged 78)
George Marshall
Place of birth Uniontown, Pennsylvania
Place of death Washington, D.C.
Resting place Arlington National Cemetery
Allegiance United States of America
Years of service 1902–1945
Rank General of the Army
Commands held Chief of Staff of the United States Army
Battles/wars Philippine-American War

World War II
Awards Army Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Silver Star
Nobel Peace Prize
Other work Secretary of State; Secretary of Defense

George Catlett Marshall, Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American military leader, Chief of Staff of the Army, Secretary of State, and the third Secretary of Defense. Once noted as the "organizer of victory" by Winston Churchill for his leadership of the Allied victory in World War II,[1] Marshall supervised the U.S. Army during the war and was the chief military adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As Secretary of State he gave his name to the Marshall Plan, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.[2]

Contents

Early life

George C. Marshall was born into a middle-class family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. Marshall was a scion of an old Virginia family, as well as a distant relative of former Chief Justice John Marshall. Marshall graduated from the Virginia Military Institute (VMI),[3] where he was initiated into the Kappa Alpha Order, in 1901.

World War I

Following graduation from VMI, Marshall was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Until World War I, he was posted to various positions in the US and the Philippines, and was trained in modern warfare. During the war, he had roles as a planner of both training and operations. He went to France in mid-1917 as the director of training and planning for the 1st Infantry Division. In mid-1918, he was promoted to American Expeditionary Forces headquarters, where he worked closely with his mentor General John J. Pershing and was a key planner of American operations. He was instrumental in the design and coordination of the Meuse-Argonne offensive, which contributed to the defeat of the German Army on the Western Front.

Between World War I and II

Marshall with Secretary of War Henry Stimson

In 1919, he became an aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing. Between 1920 and 1924, while Pershing was Army Chief of Staff, Marshall worked in a number of positions in the US Army, focusing on training and teaching modern, mechanized warfare. Between WWI and World War II, he was a key planner and writer in the War Department, spent three years in China, and taught at the Army War College. From June 1932 to June 1933 he was the Commanding Officer at Fort Screven, Savannah Beach, Georgia, now named Tybee Island. In 1934, then-Col. Marshall directed the publication of Infantry in Battle, a book that codified the lessons of World War I. Infantry in Battle is still used as an officer's training manual in the Infantry Officer's Course, and was the training manual for most of the infantry officers and leaders of World War II.

Marshall was promoted to Brigadier General in October 1936. He commanded the Vancouver Barracks in Vancouver, Washington from 1936-1938. Nominated by President Franklin Roosevelt to be Army Chief of Staff, Marshall was promoted to full General and sworn in on September 1, 1939, the day German forces invaded Poland, which began World War II. He would hold this post until the end of the war in 1945.

World War II

As Chief of Staff, Marshall ordered the largest military expansion in U. S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly-equipped army of 189,000 men and, partly drawing from his experience teaching and developing techniques of modern warfare as an instructor at the Army War College, coordinated the large-scale expansion and modernization of the U. S. Army. Though he had never actually led troops in combat, Marshall was a skilled organizer with a talent for inspiring other officers.[4] Many of the American generals that were given top commands during the war were either picked or recommended by Marshall, including Dwight Eisenhower, Lloyd Fredendall, Leslie McNair, and Omar Bradley.[5]

Faced with the necessity of turning an army of former civilians into a force of over eight million soldiers by 1942 (a forty-fold increase within three years), Marshall directed General Leslie McNair to focus efforts on rapidly producing large numbers of soldiers. With the exception of airborne forces, Marshall approved McNair's concept of an abbreviated training schedule for men entering Army land forces training, particularly in regards to basic infantry skills, weapons proficiency, and combat tactics.[6][7] At the time, most U.S. commanders at lower levels had little or no combat experience of any kind; without the input of experienced British or Allied combat officers on the nature of modern warfare and enemy tactics, many of them resorted to formulaic training methods emphasizing static defense and orderly large-scale advances by motorized convoys over improved roads.[8] In consequence, Army forces deploying to Africa suffered serious initial reverses when encountering German armored combat units in Africa at Kasserine Pass and other major battles.[9] Even as late as 1944, U.S. soldiers undergoing stateside training in preparation for deployment against German forces in the ETO (European theater) were not being trained in combat procedures and tactics currently being employed there.[10]

Originally, Marshall had planned a 200-division Army with a system of unit rotation such as practiced by the British and other Allies.[11] By mid-1943, however, after pressure from government and business leaders to preserve manpower for industry and agriculture, he had abandoned this plan in favor of a 90-division Army using individual replacements sent via a circuitous process from training to divisions in combat.[12] The individual replacement system (IRS) devised by Marshall and implemented by McNair greatly exacerbated problems with unit cohesion and effective transfer of combat experience to newly-trained soldiers and officers.[13][14] In the ETO, where there were few pauses in combat with German forces, the individual replacement system had broken down completely by late 1944.[15] Hastily-trained replacements or service personnel re-assigned as infantry were given six weeks' refresher training and thrown into battle with Army divisions locked in frontline combat. Often, the new men were not even proficient in the use of their own individual rifle or weapons system, and once in combat, could not receive enough practical instruction from veterans before being killed or wounded, usually within the first three or four days.[16][17][18] Under such conditions, many replacements suffered a crippling loss of morale, while veteran soldiers were kept in line units until they were killed, wounded, or incapacitated by battle fatigue or physical illness. Incidents of soldiers AWOL from combat duty as well as battle fatigue and self-inflicted injury rose rapidly during the last eight months of the war with Germany.[19].[20][21] As one historian later concluded, "Had the Germans been given a free hand to devise a replacement system for the ETO, one that would do the Americans the most harm and the least good, they could not have done a better job."[22][23]

Marshall's abilities to pick competent field commanders during the early part of the war was decidedly mixed. While he had been instrumental in advancing the career of the able Dwight D. Eisenhower, he had also recommended the swaggering Lloyd Fredendall to Eisenhower for a major command in the American invasion of North Africa during Operation Torch. Marshall was especially fond of Fredendall, describing him as "one of the best" and remarking in a staff meeting when his name was mentioned, "I like that man; you can see determination all over his face." Eisenhower duly picked him to command the 39,000-man Central Task Force (the largest of three) in Operation Torch. Both men would later come to regret that decision after the U.S. Army debacle at Kasserine Pass.[24]

During World War II, Marshall was instrumental in preparing the U.S. Army and Army Air Forces for the invasion of the European continent. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe. It was assumed that Marshall would become the Supreme Commander of Operation Overlord, but Roosevelt selected Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander due to many reasons. First, it was due to his success in working with Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with his refusal to lobby for the position. At the time, the President told him: "I didn't feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington."[25] Additionally, when rumors arose that the top job would go to Marshall, many critics viewed the transfer as a demotion for Marshall, since he would leave his position as Chief of Staff of the Army and lose his seat on the Combined Chiefs of Staff.

On December 16, 1944, Marshall became the first American general to be promoted to 5 star rank, the newly created General of the Army. He was the second American to be promoted to a 5 star rank, as William Leahy was promoted to Fleet Admiral the previous day. This position is the American equivalent rank to Field Marshal. Throughout the remainder of World War II, Marshall coordinated Allied operations in Europe and the Pacific. He was characterized as the organizer of Allied victory by Winston Churchill. Time Magazine named Marshall Man of the Year in 1944. Marshall resigned his post of Chief of Staff in 1945, but did not retire, as regulations stipulate that Generals of the Army remain on active duty for life.

Post War: China and Secretary of State

George C. Marshall
50th United States Secretary of State
In office
January 21, 1947 – January 20, 1949
President Harry S. Truman
Preceded by James F. Byrnes
Succeeded by Dean Acheson
3rd Secretary of Defense
In office
September 21, 1950 – September 12, 1951
President Harry S. Truman
Preceded by Louis A. Johnson
Succeeded by Robert A. Lovett
Born December 31, 1880(1880-12-31)
Died October 16, 1959
Political party Democratic
Religion Episcopalian[26]

In December 1945, Truman sent Marshall to China to broker a coalition government between the Communists under Mao Zedong and America's Nationalist allies under Chiang Kai-shek. Marshall had no leverage over the Communists, but threatened to withdraw American aid essential to the Nationalists. Both sides rejected his proposals and the Chinese Civil War escalated, with the Communists winning in 1949. His mission a failure, he returned to the United States in January 1947.[27][28] As Secretary of State in 1947-48, Marshall seems to have disagreed with strong opinions in The Pentagon and State department that Chiang's success was vital to American interests, insisting that U.S. troops not become involved.

On his return in early 1947, Truman appointed Marshall Secretary of State. He became the spokesman for the State Department's ambitious plans to rebuild Europe. On June 5, 1947 in a speech[1] at Harvard University, he outlined the American plan. The European Recovery Program, as it was formally known, became known as the Marshall Plan. Clark Clifford had suggested to Truman that the plan be called the Truman Plan, but Truman immediately dismissed that idea and insisted that it be called the Marshall Plan.[29][30] The Marshall plan would help Europe quickly rebuild and modernize its economy along American lines. The Soviet Union forbade its satellites to participate.

Marshall was again named TIME's Man of the Year in 1948, and received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. As Secretary of State, Marshall strongly opposed recognizing the State of Israel, telling President Truman, "If you (recognize the state of Israel) and if I were to vote in the election, I would vote against you."[2][3][4] In 1949, he resigned from the State Department and was named president of the American National Red Cross.

Secretary of Defense; attacked by McCarthy

When the early months of the Korean War showed how poorly prepared the Defense Department was, Truman fired Secretary Louis A. Johnson and named Marshall as Secretary of Defense in September 1950. His main role was to restore confidence and rebuild the armed forces from the post-war state of demobilization. He served in that post for less than one year, retiring from public office for good in September 1951. In 1953, he represented America at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom.

On June 14, 1951, as the Korean war stalemated in heavy fighting between American and Chinese forces, Republican Senator Joe McCarthy attacked. He charged that Marshall was directly responsible for the "loss of China," as China turned from friend to foe.[31] McCarthy said the only way to explain why the U.S. "fell from our position as the most powerful Nation on earth at the end of World War II to a position of declared weakness by our leadership" was because of "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous such venture in the history of man."[32] McCarthy said that "If Marshall were merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve this country's interest." McCarthy argued that General Albert Coady Wedemeyer had prepared a wise plan that would keep China a valued ally, but that it had been sabotaged; "only in treason can we find why evil genius thwarted and frustrated it."[33] McCarthy suggested that Marshall was old and feeble and easily duped; he did not charge Marshall with treason. Specifically McCarthy alleged:

"When Marshall was sent to China with secret State Department orders, the Communists at that time were bottled up in two areas and were fighting a losing battle, but that because of those orders the situation was radically changed in favor of the Communists. Under those orders, as we know, Marshall embargoed all arms and ammunition to our allies in China. He forced the opening of the Nationalist-held Kalgan Mountain pass into Manchuria, to the end that the Chinese Communists gained access to the mountains of captured Japanese equipment. No need to tell the country about how Marshall tried to force Chiang Kai-shek to form a partnership government with the Communists."[34][35]

Public opinion became bitterly divided along party lines on Marshall's record. In 1952, Eisenhower while campaigning for president denounced the Truman administration's failures in Korea, campaigned alongside McCarthy, and refused to defend Marshall's policies.

In 1953 Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Marshall Plan. He is the only United States Army general ever to receive this honor.

Marshall died on Friday October 16, 1959. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Fictional Portrayals

Family life

He married Elizabeth Carter Cole of Lexington, Virginia, in 1902. She died in 1927. In 1930, he married Katherine Boyce Tupper. Marshall's stepson with Tupper, Army Lt. Allen Tupper Brown, was killed by a German sniper in Italy in 1944. George Marshall maintained a home, known as Dodona Manor (now restored), in Leesburg, Virginia.

Dates of rank

No pin insignia in 1902 Second Lieutenant, United States Army: February 2, 1902
US-OF1A.svg First Lieutenant, United States Army: March 7, 1907
US-O3 insignia.svg Captain, United States Army: July 1, 1916
US-O4 insignia.svg Major, National Army: August 5, 1917
US-O5 insignia.svg Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: January 5, 1918
US-O6 insignia.svg Colonel, National Army: August 27, 1918
US-O4 insignia.svg Major, Regular Army (reverted to peacetime rank): July 1, 1920
US-O5 insignia.svg Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: August 21, 1923
US-O6 insignia.svg Colonel, Regular Army: September 1, 1933
US-O7 insignia.svg Brigadier General, Regular Army: October 1, 1936
US-O8 insignia.svg Major General, Regular Army: September 1, 1939
US-O10 insignia.svg General, Regular Army, for service as Army Chief of Staff: September 1, 1939
US-O11 insignia.svg General of the Army, Army of the United States: December 16, 1944
General of the Army rank made permanent in the Regular Army: April 11, 1946

Awards and decorations

U.S. military honors

Bronze oak leaf cluster
Distinguished Service Medal ribbon.svg
 Distinguished Service Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster
Silver Star ribbon.svg Silver Star
Philippine Campaign Medal ribbon.svg Philippine Campaign Medal
Bronze service star
Bronze service star
Bronze service star
Bronze service star
World War I Victory Medal ribbon.svg
 World War I Victory Medal with four battle clasps
Army of Occupation of Germany ribbon.svg Army of Occupation of Germany Medal
American Defense Service ribbon.svg American Defense Service Medal
American Campaign Medal ribbon.svg American Campaign Medal
World War II Victory Medal ribbon.svg World War II Victory Medal
National Defense Service Medal ribbon.svg National Defense Service Medal

Foreign military honors

Civilian honors

Bibliography

See also

References

  1. ↑ "George Catlett Marshall Jr., U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Secretary of State" (HTML). CNN. Retrieved on 2007-12-12.
  2. ↑ W. Del Testa, David; Florence Lemoine and John Strickland (2001). Government Leaders, Military Rulers, and Political Activists. pp. 120. 
  3. ↑ Uldrich, Jack (2005). Soldier, Statesman, Peacemaker: Leadership Lessons From George C. Marshall. pp. 14–15. 
  4. ↑ Bland, Larry I., George C. Marshall and the Education of Army Leaders, Military Review 68 (Oct. 1988) 27-51, Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas
  5. ↑ Ossad, Steven L., Command Failures: Lessons Learned from Lloyd R. Fredendall, Army Magazine, March 2003
  6. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen, Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany June 7, 1944 - May 7, 1945, New York: Simon & Schuster (1997), pp. 271-284
  7. ↑ Keast, William R. (Maj), Provision of Enlisted Replacements, Army Ground Forces Study No. 7, Washington, D.C.: Historical Section - Headquarters Army Ground Forces, 314.7(1 Sept 1946)GNHIS 1 September 1945
  8. ↑ George, John B. (Lt. Col), Shots Fired In Anger, NRA Press (1981), ISBN 093599842X, pp. 13-21
  9. ↑ Keast, William R. (Maj), Provision of Enlisted Replacements
  10. ↑ Hanford, William B., A Dangerous Assignment, Stackpole Books, ISBN 9780811734851, p. viii
  11. ↑ Vandergriff, Donald E., Seven Wars and a Century Later, a Failed System, Article
  12. ↑ Vandergriff, Donald E., Seven Wars and a Century Later, a Failed System, Article
  13. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen, Citizen Soldiers, pp. 277-284
  14. ↑ Keast, William R. (Maj), Provision of Enlisted Replacements
  15. ↑ Henry, Mark R., The US Army in World War II: Northwest Europe, Osprey Publishing (2001), ISBN 1841760862, 9781841760865, pp. 12-14
  16. ↑ Henry, Mark R., The US Army in World War II: Northwest Europe, Osprey Publishing (2001), ISBN 1841760862, 9781841760865, pp. 12-14
  17. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen, Citizen Soldiers, pp. 271-284
  18. ↑ Keast, William R. (Maj), Provision of Enlisted Replacements
  19. ↑ Henry, Mark R., The US Army in World War II: Northwest Europe, Osprey Publishing (2001), ISBN 1841760862, 9781841760865, pp. 12-14
  20. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen, Citizen Soldiers, pp. 277-284
  21. ↑ Keast, William R. (Maj), Provision of Enlisted Replacements
  22. ↑ Ambrose, Stephen, Citizen Soldiers, p. 277
  23. ↑ Henry, Mark R., The US Army in World War II: Northwest Europe, Osprey Publishing (2001), ISBN 1841760862, 9781841760865, pp. 12-14
  24. ↑ Ossad, Steven L., Command Failures: Lessons Learned from Lloyd R. Fredendall, Army Magazine, March 2003
  25. ↑ Buell, Thomas B.; John H. Bradley. The Second World War: Europe and the Mediterranean. pp. 258. 
  26. ↑ Entry at www.arlingtoncemetery.net
  27. ↑ Stoler, Mark A. (1989). George C. Marshall''. pp. 145–51. 
  28. ↑ Tsou, Tang (1963). America's Failure in China, 1941-50. 
  29. ↑ McCullough, David (1992). Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster. pp. 717. ISBN 0-671-86920-5. 
  30. ↑ Behrman, Greg (2007). The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe. Free Press. ISBN 0743282639. 
  31. ↑ The speech was published as a 169-page booklet, America's Retreat from Victory: The Story of George Catlett Marshall (1951).
  32. ↑ McCarthy, Joe (1951). Major Speeches and Debates''. pp. 215. 
  33. ↑ McCarthy, Joe (1951). Major Speeches and Debates. pp. 264. 
  34. ↑ McCarthy, Joe (1951). Major Speeches and Debates. pp. 191, from speech of March 14, 1951. 
  35. ↑ Reeves, Thomas C. (1982). The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy. pp. 371–374. 

Primary sources

External links

Military offices
Preceded by
Malin Craig		 Chief of Staff of the United States Army
1939 – 1945		 Succeeded by
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Political offices
Preceded by
James F. Byrnes		 United States Secretary of State
Served Under: Harry S. Truman
1947 – 1949		 Succeeded by
Dean Acheson
Preceded by
Louis A. Johnson		 United States Secretary of Defense
Served Under: Harry S. Truman
1950 – 1951		 Succeeded by
Robert A. Lovett
Chiefs of Staff of the United States Army

Young · Chaffee · Bates · Bell · Wood · Wotherspoon · Scott · Bliss · March · Pershing · Hines · Summerall · MacArthur · Craig · Marshall · Eisenhower · Bradley · Collins · Ridgway · Taylor · Lemnitzer · Decker · Wheeler · Johnson · Westmoreland · Palmer · Abrams · Weyand · Rogers · Meyer · Wickham · Vuono · Sullivan · Reimer · Shinseki · Schoomaker · Casey

 Flag of the Chief of Staff of the Army
United States Secretaries of State
Jefferson • Randolph • Pickering • J Marshall • Madison • Smith • Monroe • Adams • Clay • Van Buren • Livingston • McLane • Forsyth • Webster • Upshur • Calhoun • Buchanan • Clayton • Webster • Everett • Marcy • Cass • Black • Seward • Washburne • Fish • Evarts • Blaine • Frelinghuysen • Bayard • Blaine • Foster • Gresham • Olney • Sherman • Day • Hay • Root • Bacon • Knox • Bryan • Lansing • Colby • Hughes • Kellogg • Stimson • Hull • Stettinius • Byrnes • G Marshall • Acheson • Dulles • Herter • Rusk • Rogers • Kissinger • Vance • Muskie • Haig • Shultz • Baker • Eagleburger • Christopher • Albright • Powell • Rice
Department of state.svg
United States Secretaries of Defense
Forrestal • Johnson • Marshall • Lovett • Wilson • McElroy • T. Gates • McNamara • Clifford • Laird • Richardson • Schlesinger • Rumsfeld • Brown • Weinberger • Carlucci • Cheney • Aspin • Perry • Cohen • Rumsfeld • R. Gates
 Seal of the United States Department of Defense
Nobel Peace Prize laureates

Léon Jouhaux (1951) · Albert Schweitzer (1952) · George Marshall (1953) · United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (1954) · Lester B. Pearson (1957) · Georges Pire (1958) · Philip Noel-Baker (1959) · Albert Lutuli (1960) · Dag Hammarskjöld (1961) · Linus Pauling (1962) · International Red Cross and Red Crescent (1963) · Martin Luther King, Jr. (1964) · UNICEF (1965) · René Cassin (1968) · International Labour Organization (1969) · Norman Borlaug (1970) · Willy Brandt (1971) · Henry Kissinger / Le Duc Tho (declined award) (1973) · Seán MacBride / Eisaku Satō (1974) · Andrei Sakharov (1975)
Complete roster · 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present
Time Persons of the Year
 
1927–1950

Charles Lindbergh (1927) · Walter Chrysler (1928) · Owen D. Young (1929) · Mahatma Gandhi (1930) · Pierre Laval (1931) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932) · Hugh Samuel Johnson (1933) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1934) · Haile Selassie I (1935) · Wallis Simpson (1936) · Chiang Kai-shek / Soong May-ling (1937) · Adolf Hitler (1938) · Joseph Stalin (1939) · Winston Churchill (1940) · Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941) · Joseph Stalin (1942) · George Marshall (1943) · Dwight D. Eisenhower (1944) · Harry S. Truman (1945) · James F. Byrnes (1946) · George Marshall (1947) · Harry S. Truman (1948) · Winston Churchill (1949) · The American Fighting-Man (1950)