George Marshall
General of the Army
George Catlett Marshall,
GCB, US Army (Ret.) (
December 31 1880 –
October 16 1959) was an
American military leader and
Secretary of State best remembered for his leadership in the Allied victory in
World War II and for his work establishing the post-war reconstruction effort for Europe, which became known as the
Marshall Plan.
George C. Marshall was born into a middle-class family in
Uniontown, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles southeast of
Pittsburgh. He was educated at
Virginia Military Institute. He entered the US Army after graduation, rising to the position of Army Chief of Staff, and served continuously, including in World War I (on the staff of General
John Pershing) and World War II, until his retirement in 1945. In 1964, the
The George C. Marshall Foundation was established at the
Virginia Military Institute to honor Marshall's character and career.
After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute, where he was initiated into the
Kappa Alpha Order, in
1901, Marshall entered the
U.S. Army, where he was to have a long and distinguished career. 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 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
WWII, he was a key planner and writer in the
War Department, spent three years in
China, and taught at the Army War College. 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. In
1939 he was selected by
Franklin D. Roosevelt to be
Army Chief of Staff, a position he held until
1945. In 1944, became the first U.S. General to be awarded 5-star rank, otherwise known as
General of the Army. This position is the American equivalent in 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 couldn't sleep nights, George, if you were out of Washington."
Throughout the remainder of the
World War II, Marshall coordinated all 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 retired from the Army in
1945.
After WW II Marshall was sent to
China to negotiate a truce and build a coalition government between the
Nationalists and
Communists fighting the
Chinese Civil War. His efforts failed and he was recalled in January 1947.
Upon his return, Marshall was named
Secretary of State in
1947. In this role, on Thursday
June 5 1947 at a
speech at
Harvard University, he outlined the U.S. government's preparedness to contribute to European recovery. The European Recovery Plan, which became known as the
Marshall Plan, helped Europe quickly rebuild and earned Marshall the honor of being named
TIME's Man of the Year in 1948 and receiving 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."[
1][
2] In
1949 he resigned from the
State Department and was named president of the
American National Red Cross. He was named
Secretary of Defense in
1950, but retired from politics for good in
1951, after Senator
Joseph McCarthy made a speech on the Senate floor stating that "if Marshall was merely stupid, the laws of probability would dictate that part of his decisions would serve America's interests."
Marshall died on Friday
October 16 1959. 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.
*
Second Lieutenant,
United States Army: February 2, 1902
*
First Lieutenant, United States Army: March 7, 1907
*
Captain, United States Army: July 1, 1916
*
Major,
National Army: August 5, 1917
*
Lieutenant Colonel, National Army: January 5, 1918
*
Colonel, National Army: August 27, 1918
* Major,
Regular Army (reverted to peacetime rank): July 1, 1920
* Lieutenant Colonel, Regular Army: August 21, 1923
* Colonel, Regular Army: September 1, 1933
*
Brigadier General, Regular Army: October 1, 1936
*
Major General, Regular Army: September 1, 1939
*
General, Regular Army, for service as
Army Chief of Staff: September 1, 1939
*
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
United States: military honors
*
Distinguished Service Medal with one
Oak leaf cluster *
Silver Star *
World War I Victory Medal with four
battle clasps
*
American Defense Service Medal with "Foreign Service" Clasp
*
American Campaign Medal *
Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal *
European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze
service stars *
Mexican Border Service Medal*
World War II Victory Medal*
Army of Occupation of Germany Medal *
National Defense Service MedalForeign military honors
*
British Order of the Bath *
French Legion of Honor *
French Croix de Guerre *
Soviet Order of Suvorov *
Soviet Grand Cross Order of Military Merit *
Moroccan Grand Cross of Ouissam Alaouite*
Philippine Campaign Medal * Cuban Order of Military Merit, First Class
* Liberian Centennial Medal
* Greek Grand Cross
Order of George I with swords
* Order of the Crown of Italy
*
Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus (Italy)
* Netherlands Grand Cross with Swords in the Order of Orange Nassau
* Montenegro Silver Medal for Bravery
* Panamanian Medal of La Solidaridad, Second Class
* Peruvian Gran Oficial del Sol del Peru
* Brazilian Order of Military Merit
* Chilean Order del Merito
* Ecuadorian Star of Abdon Calderon, First Class
* Colombian Grand Cross of the Order of Boyaco Cherifien
Civilian honors
* In 1948, he was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award for his role and contributions during and after
World War II.
*
Nobel Peace Prize 1953 for the Marshall Plan
* The British Parliament established the
Marshall Scholarship in recognition of Marshall's contributions to Anglo-American relations.
* A street, Marshall Drive, is named after him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
*"We are determined that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, Our Flag will be recognized throughout the World as a symbol of Freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other." -- George Marshall (May 29, 1942, Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens, ed. The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, Vol 3 pp. 212-14.) [
3]
*"I couldn't sleep nights, George, if you were out of Washington." -
Franklin D. Roosevelt, reported by
Henry Stimson,
1943*"...what a joy it must be to [Marshall] to see how the armies he called into being by his own genius have won immortal renown. He is the true 'organizer of victory.'"
Winston Churchill,
1945*"A man devoted to the daily study of war on several continents with all the ardour of a certified public accountant." -
Alistair Cooke,
1959*"Hitherto I had thought of Marshall as a rugged soldier and a magnificent organizer and builder of armies - the American Carnot. But now I saw that he was a statesman with a penetrating and commanding view of the whole scene." -
Winston Churchill*
Marshall Space Flight Center*
Marshall Mission to China*
The Marshall Foundation*
The Marshall Films Collection*
Marshall Scholarships*
The Marshall Plan Speech*
Dodona Manor*
The George C. Marshall High School*
Annotated bibliography for George Marshall from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues* Four-volume authorized biography, by
Forrest Pogue, Viking, 1963â€"87:
**
George C. Marshall: Education of a general, 1880-1939**
George C Marshall: Ordeal and Hope, 1939-1943**
George C. Marshall: Organizer of Victory 1943-1945**
George C. Marshall : Statesman 1945-1959
