Marshall, George C. 1880-1959

MARSHALL, GEORGE C. 1880-1959

Army general, chief of staff, us. secretary
of state (1947-1949), u.s. secretary of defense
(1950-1951)

Important General and Statesman

Gen. George C. Marshall's bureaucratic career soared as America evolved from a largely isolated economic powerhouse to the world's military superpower and global policeman. Though he never came under fire himself, Marshall planned key offensives during World War I and trained the leading generals of World War II. As army chief of staff during the World War II, he shaped and managed all elements of global strategy and in the armed peace that followed shaped critical aspects of the postwar global economy in line with the goals of American internationalists. As the civilian secretary of state and later secretary of defense, Marshall served as one of the principal strategists of the Cold War. He became the only military man ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his organization of the postwar reconstruction of Europe, a program termed the Marshall Plan in his honor.

Rising in the Ranks

Marshall came of age at a time when the United States began to assume a prominent part on the world stage. Entering the Virginia Military Institute in 1897, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1902. From the beginning of his military career he showed outstanding talent and aptitude for strategy and command. During World War I he served as chief tactical officer under Gen. John J. Pershing, helping to plan the first American offensives in France and other important campaigns. As a result of his skills he was promoted to chief of operations of the First Army by the end of the war. He served as the executive officer of the Fifteenth Infantry Regiment in China, then became the chief of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia. There he deeply influenced army doctrine and trained Omar Bradley, J. Lawton Collins, Joseph W. Stilwell, Matthew Ridgway, and Walter Bedell Smith—all of whom later were key commanders and planners in World War II.

War Strategist

War loomed on the horizon in the late 1930s, and in 1938 Marshall was called to Washington to help the nation prepare for its possibility. In April 1939 Marshall was named army chief of staff by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, becoming a four-star general in the process. He officially took office on 1 September 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland. At that time army forces included only 175,000 men, making it the nineteenth largest in the world. By 1943, under Marshall's command, the army numbered more than 8 million men and was the best-equipped and best-trained in the world. But his role was not confined only to strictly military matters. President Roosevelt quickly learned to appreciate Marshall's organizational skill and made him a key participant in strategic planning by including him at the major wartime conferences at Washington, Casablanca, Quebec, Tehran, Cairo, Malta, and Yalta. At the end of the war he accompanied President Truman at Potsdam. Marshall was the one who pushed for and won approval for the cross-channel invasion of France, and he appointed Dwight D. Eisenhower to command it.

Criticism

Marshall's career was not without controversy. His judgment was questioned after the 7 December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the 1944 Normandy expedition seemed impossible to many on the general staff. His role in the decision to use the atomic bomb against Japan in 1945 was also criticized, as was his central position in the developing Cold War. But he was widely seen as a man of such unquestioned integrity and intelligence, with deep respect among his peers and subordinates, that he was able to weather such criticism.

The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

Stepping down as chief of staff on 20 November 1945, Marshall immediately was sent by President Truman on a special mission to China to broker peace between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists. His efforts were unsuccessful, primarily because he failed to recognize that the Communists' political and military strength gave them little reason to compromise with the American military client Chiang Kai-shek. Communist suspicions of American intentions were in fact exacerbated, contributing to later Cold War animosity between the United States and China. In January 1947 President Truman re-called Marshall from China and appointed him secretary of state. He advised Truman to get tougher with Soviet premier Joseph Stalin and to militarize George F. Kennan's diplomatic containment policy. The Truman Doctrine, by which the United States took its first steps as global policeman, resulted from such advice. Along with other American geostrategists, Marshall worried about political instability in war-ravaged Europe, which could serve as a breeding ground for communism. Marshall believed that European industries had to be rebuilt in order to provide an alternative to Communist or Socialist reconstruction and create a market for American goods. Consquently, in June 1947 Marshall announced the European Recovery Plan, by which the United States would provide loans and grants to any nation in Europe. Marshall anticipated that recovery funds would be used to promote an American political and economic agenda in Europe. Most reconstruction monies were to be spent on American products and used to hire American firms. Europe was thus tied, if not integrated, into the American-dominated global economic system. As the arrangement rebuilt Western Europe, it also benefited many U.S. corporations. All Marshall Plan participants, moreover, were required to open their economies to inspection by U.S. experts and to accept American economic practices. American officials, for example, forbade the nationalization of key German and British industries and pressured the French and Italian governments to remove Communists from their ministries. Soviet-bloc countries refused these arrangements. The Soviets, moreover, were alarmed that aid was to be provided to Germany. The Marshall Plan thus also contributed to Cold War tensions.

Late Career

Marshall resigned in 1949 due to illness but was called out of retirement the following year to deal with the crisis of the Korean War as secretary of defense. He retired again in 1951 following attacks by Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, but he remained an active-duty general available for consultation by the government. In 1953 he became the only soldier ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which he received for the European Recovery Program. He died in Washington, D.C., on 16 October 1959 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Source:

Ed Craig, General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman (New York: Norton, 1990).