Marshall, George Catlett, Jr.

Marshall, George Catlett, Jr. (1880–1959) General of the Army and statesman, army chief of staff (1939–45), secretary of state (1947–49), and secretary of defense (1950–51). Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. He is generally recognized as the architect and organizer of the Allied victory during World War II, during which he was unofficial leader of the joint chiefs, first among equals within the combined chiefs, and key military advisor to the commander in chief, Franklin D. Roosevelt.) He played a major role in such crucial strategic decisions as the invasion of Normandy and the unity of command for all British and American forces. As secretary of state in the early years of the Cold War, Marshall helped to define the U.S. role in international affairs and to restructure the state department accordingly. The European Recovery Program, commonly known as the Marshall Plan and for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize (1953), provided more than $13 billion in aid to the war-torn nations of Western Europe. In his brief tenure as secretary of defense, Marshall was involved in the decision to recall Gen. Douglas MacArthur from Korea. Earlier in his career Marshall had played a major role in planning the offensives of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne (1918) during World War I while on the operations staff of Gen. John J. Pershing's headquarters.