American Legion of Wisconsin
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7th District American Legion of Wisconsin |
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| General of the Army George C. Marshall, U.S. >Army | |
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| December 31, 1880 -- October 16, 1959 (aged 78) | |
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| Place of birth | Uniontown, Pennsylvania |
| Place of death | Washington, D.C. |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Years of service | 1901-1945 |
| Rank | General of the Army |
| Commands | Army Chief of Staff |
| Battles/wars | Philippines, World War I, World War II |
| Awards | Distinguished Service Medal, 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, 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, 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.
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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), where he was initiated into the Kappa Alpha Order, in 1901.
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 the summer of 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.
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.
As Chief of Staff, Marshall oversaw the largest military expansion in U. S. history, inheriting an outmoded, poorly equipped army of 200,000 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 into a force of over eight million soldiers by 1942 (a forty-fold increase within three years).
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. Marshall once joked that he was glad the U.S. never created a Field Marshal rank during World War II, since he would then have to be addressed as Marshal Marshall.
During World War II, Marshall was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps reorganized and ready for combat. Marshall wrote the document that would become the central strategy for all Allied operations in Europe, selected Dwight Eisenhower as Supreme Commander in Europe, and designed Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. His success in working with Congress and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, along with his refusal to lobby for the position, ultimately resulted in his being passed over as the Supreme Allied Commander in charge of the D-Day invasion. At the time, the President told him: "I didn't feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington."
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.
| George C. Marshall | |
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50th United States Secretary of State |
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| In office 21 January 1947 - 20 January 1949 |
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| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | James F. Byrnes |
| Succeeded by | Dean Acheson |
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3rd Secretary of Defense |
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| In office 21 September 1950 - 12 September 1951 |
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| President | Harry S. Truman |
| Preceded by | Louis A. Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Robert A. Lovett |
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| Born | December 31, 1880 |
| Died | October 16, 1959 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Religion | Episcopalian |
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 1948. His mission a failure, he returned to the United States in January of 1947. 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 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. 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." In 1949, he resigned from the State Department and was named president of the American National Red Cross.
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. He served in that post for less than one year, retiring from politics 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 enemy. 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." 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." 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."
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.
Marshall died on Friday October 16, 1959. Like Eisenhower, he is recognized as a great American soldier despite never actually seeing combat. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
He married Elizabeth Carter Cole of Lexington, Virginia, in 1902. She died in 1927. In 1930, he married Katherine Boyce Tupper. George Marshall maintained a home, known as Dodona Manor (now restored), in Leesburg, Virginia.
| No pin insignia in 1902 | Second Lieutenant, United States Army: February 2, 1902 |
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First Lieutenant, United States Army: March 7, 1907 |
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Captain, United States Army: July 1, 1916 |
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Major, National Army: August 5, 1917 |
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Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: January 5, 1918 |
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Colonel, National Army: August 27, 1918 |
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Major, Regular Army (reverted to peacetime rank): July 1, 1920 |
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Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: August 21, 1923 |
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Colonel, Regular Army: September 1, 1933 |
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Brigadier General, Regular Army: October 1, 1936 |
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Major General, Regular Army: September 1, 1939 |
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General, Regular Army, for service as Army Chief of Staff: September 1, 1939 |
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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 |