Marshall and Secretary of Defense - George C. Marshall Foundation

Thank you, my friend SGT (Join to see) for letting us know that on September 21, 1950, American statesman and soldier George Catlett Marshall Jr. was sworn in as the third Secretary of Defense.
His first home is located about 10 miles west of me in Leesburg, Virginia
Images:
1.The Marshall House in Leesburg, Virginia was Marshall‘s private residence from 1941 until his death in 1959;
2. George and Katherine Marshall in front of Dodona Manor, 1949;
3. General George C Marshall - U.S. Army Chief of Staff
4. 1945 Marshal Takes Oath of Office as Secretary of State

Rest in peace George Catlett Marshall Jr.

General George C. Marshall introduced by Walter Matthau with Walter Cronkite narrating.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fjMFeX7nZo

Here is background on George C. Marshall from georgecmarshall.org/george-c-marshall/
Who Was General George C. Marshall?
General George C. Marshall is considered by many to be one of the greatest modern-day American heroes. He is recognized as the organizer of the Allied Victory in World War Two and the architect of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan) that changed the face of the world and earned Marshall the Nobel Peace Prize. From the beginning of his 44-year public career as a graduate of Virginia Military Institute in 1901 to the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953, Marshall’s decorations, awards, and honorary degrees total more than 60, and include military, civilian, and substantial foreign recognition.
Amid his extraordinary accomplishments, Marshall was most appreciated and beloved for who he was. He did not seek fame and earned an uncontested reputation for being an honest, humble, and resolute leader. His personal contributions to the efforts and development of the United States and other countries during some of the most significant events in modern history are remarkable, not just for the magnitude of what he accomplished, but because of the incorruptible, selfless integrity with which he served.

George C. Marshall, His Early Career
George C. Marshall was born December 31, 1880, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, into the family of a prominent local businessman whose company manufactured coke ovens and who participated in real estate ventures. His comfortable childhood was filled with episodes of fun and mischief, shaped by the love and discipline of his parents.
In his early education he was a lackluster student, but later when he overheard his older brother Stuart beg his mother not to let George go to the Virginia Military Institute because he thought it would disgrace the family name, George was inspired to outshine his brother.
His career at VMI was marked by an uncommon determination to excel, and in his senior year he was selected as First Captain of the Cadet Corps, the most honored position in that institution.
1902 – 1929, The Beginning of a Military Career
George C. Marshall obtained his commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1902 as the result of an interview with no less than President McKinley. This interview led to his being authorized to take the required examination, his success at which made possible a commendation by his senator on Marshall’s behalf to the Secretary of War. Immediately after receiving his commission he married Elizabeth “Lily” Carter Coles, his college sweetheart from Lexington, Virginia. His first assignment was with the 30th Infantry in the Philippines, part of the U.S. occupation to quell an insurrection by natives. This assignment in leading troops in combat was the beginning of a long career of learning the many duties and functions of an Army officer, vital to an officer destined to achieve the highest rank in the service. His duties prior to the World War I included service in mapping remote parts of Texas, a stint as student, and later as instructor, at Fort Leavenworth’s officer Staff School. As the top student in his class, his subsequent assignment as a Leavenworth instructor was a distinct honor indicative of his evident potential. This was the first of many key teaching assignments that marked his military career. His assignment with the Massachusetts Militia, forerunner of the National Guard, and duty with the 4th Infantry at three different military bases, gave him insight into the range and structure of the U.S. Army in peacetime. His duty as aide-de-camp for General Hunter Liggett in the Philippines and later to General James Bell in the U.S. afforded him invaluable experience in effective staff work that would eventually propel him to a position that proved to be his forte in World War I and later years.
His assignment as Assistant Chief of Operations for the show-horse 1st Division in France in 1917 gave him the opportunity to distinguish himself amongst the senior Army leadership as one of the most promising staff officers in the command. Ironically this opportunity arose as the result of a characteristically Marshall reaction to what he perceived as an injustice. His challenge of the formidable Commanding General John J. Pershing in front of the 1st Division staff for his unfair criticism of the division and its commander (Maj. Gen. William Sibert) was unprecedented conduct for a middle-grade officer. His crisp and meticulous critique of the failings of Pershing’s General Staff that had undermined the division’s performance stunned General Pershing and the assembled staff.
Pershing said nothing. He departed abruptly, thereby persuading Marshall’s peers that his career was over. But Marshall’s determination to speak “truth to power” proved an incalculable asset to his superiors and belied the pervasive belief that unvarnished candor to superiors was career suicide. Marshall’s honesty and intellectual rigor soon earned him appointment to the Operations Staff of the General Headquarters. In this capacity he drafted the operations order moving 400,000 American troops from the St Mihiel salient to the Meuse-Argonne offensive to join some 200,000 Americans already engaged in a complex 72-hour movement. Marshall’s order was viewed as a masterstroke of brilliant staff work and marked him as a likely future Chief of Staff of the Army though he was then only a Lieutenant Colonel.
After the Armistice, Marshall remained in France as Chief of Staff of the 8th Army until he was selected to be General Pershing’s Aide-de-Camp. As such, he accompanied Pershing on a victory tour of the Allies’ capitals which gave him the opportunity to meet several of the individuals who became prominent leaders in World War II. His service as Pershing’s ADC while the latter served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army provided Marshall insight into the Army’s dealing with a presidential administration, the federal bureaucracy and, most importantly, with the Congress. In 1924 when General Pershing stepped down as Chief of Staff, Marshall sought appointment as a line officer and was named Deputy Commander of the elite 15th Infantry in Tientsin, China.This was one more assignment during which he could expand the scope of his acquaintance with promising officers and evaluate those who did measure up, a sort of virtual “Black Book.”
This methodical process of observation became a part of the critical personnel decisions that Marshall would have to make when he rose to command the U.S. Army as it mobilized for World War II. It was at the end of this tour in 1927 that his beloved but frail first wife Lily Coles died. Marshall had initially been assigned as an instructor at the prestigious Army War College. After his wife’s death, he was given the choice of three posts, and he opted to be Assistant Commandant at the Fort Benning Infantry School, another excellent vantage point to expand and refine his “Black Book.”
It was in this assignment that George Marshall made one of his most enduring contributions to the Army by promoting the reformed infantry doctrine and training to replace infantry attacks in mass formations with assault by small units by fire and maneuver. He revamped training methods to keep operations and orders simple, to provide officers flexibility in responding to changing situations, and to concentrate on field exercises in lieu of lectures. This change in tactics and training saved thousands of American infantrymen’s lives in World War II, which was a war of movement, as opposed to one of static defense that he had observed from the front in World War I. During Marshall’s five years at Fort Benning, according to Marshall’s biographer, Forrest Pogue, 150 future World War II generals passed through in training, and some 50 more future generals served on the Infantry School’s staff.

Early Career, 1930 – 1939
While at Fort Benning, George C. Marshall courted and married in October 1930 Katherine Boyce Tupper Brown, a charming Baltimore widow with three young children. His subsequent assignments with the Civilian Conservation Corps in Georgia and South Carolina in 1932-33 gave Marshall a window into the character and ability of young American men who would serve in his citizen army in the coming war. Following his service with the CCC, he returned to a recurring role in his life, that of teacher serving as the Senior Instructor with the Illinois National Guard. His focus in his tour from 1933 to 1936 was to apply his infantry training concepts to the poorly motivated and trained National Guard units in recognition that the citizen-soldier would carry the burden in any future war. He concentrated his efforts on enhancing the professionalism of the Guard soldiers, and especially of the officers. He also developed Guard command staff structures for the Guard while making unit training more realistic and more efficient. He also pressed the Army for the assignment of higher caliber officers to all the state National Guard commands. Marshall’s promotion to brigadier general in October 1936 was, as he recognized, and for which he had gently campaigned, an essential step toward realizing his interest in becoming Chief of Staff of the Army.
His promotion earned him command of the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division and the position of post commander of Vancouver Barracks, situated just north of Portland, Oregon. This proved to be a very satisfying assignment for him both professionally and personally. In addition to obtaining a long-sought and significant troop command, traditionally viewed as an indispensable way station to the pinnacle of the U.S. Army, Marshall was also responsible for 35 CCC camps in Oregon and southern Washington. As post commander, Marshall made a concerted effort to cultivate relations with the city of Portland and to enhance the image of the U.S. Army in the region. With the CCC he initiated a series of measures to improve the morale of the participants and to make the experience beneficial in their later life. He started a newspaper for the CCC region that provided a vehicle to promote CCC successes, and he initiated a variety of programs that developed their skills and improved their health. Marshall’s inspections of the CCC camps gave him and his wife Katherine the chance to enjoy the beauty of the American Northwest and made the assignment what he called “the most instructive service I ever had, and the most interesting.”
In July 1938 George Marshall arrived at his new assignment as Head of the War Plans Division at Army Headquarters in Washington, D.C. While Marshall was widely regarded as a brilliant staff officer, he regretted giving up his troop command and the satisfaction of working with the CCC in the magnificent setting of the Northwest. War clouds were gathering in Europe as Hitler’s aggressive actions slowly began to persuade European democracies that they could be constrained only by the use of force. Concurrently, Japan pursued its conquests in China and threatened other Western interests in the Pacific. Distasteful as it was for Americans, war planning became essential, and Marshall was clearly the officer to lead these efforts. Within three months, he was elevated to the Deputy Chief of Staff position. In this capacity he attended a White House conference in November 1938 that proved a fateful encounter that shaped not only his career, but also the course of American history in the 20th Century.
At that council of his senior advisers, President Roosevelt proposed to built 10,000 aircraft for European democracies to forestall U.S. involvement in the impending war. Marshall was stunned by the proposal which made no provision for training of flight crews and other logistical challenges. More importantly, this initiative would be at the expense of America’s need for more troops, tanks and all the other material required to prepare for war. When Roosevelt went around the room asking the attendees for their reaction, Marshall was further astounded that all of his military colleagues assented to the proposal with which he knew they really did not agree.
When the President came to Marshall, he asked, “Don’t you think so, George?” Marshall, who was attending his first conference with Roosevelt, was vexed at the President’s “misrepresentation of our intimacy” by the use of his first name. Nonetheless, he firmly replied, “I’m sorry Mr. President, I don’t agree with you at all.” This apparently startled the President and the meeting adjourned abruptly thereafter. As with his confrontation with Pershing in 1917, Marshall’s fellow participants assumed his compulsion to express his opinion bluntly, yet honestly, spelled the end of his career in Washington. To his credit, Roosevelt recognized Marshall’s character and came to value his unfailing honesty. In April 1939, Marshall was summoned to the White House, and Roosevelt selected him to become Chief of Staff of the Army, thereby vaulting him over several dozen more senior officers. Marshall was honored, but he made clear in his response to the President, that, “I have the habit of saying exactly what I think,” to which he added, “and that can be unpleasing. Is that all right?” Roosevelt’s acceptance with a grin only inspired Marshall to remind the President again that his candor may be “unpleasant.” Roosevelt maintained his grin and said with resignation, “I know.” This exchange cemented the terms of probably the most important operational relationship in American military history.
Winston Churchill called him “the noblest Roman”; President Harry Truman said he was “the greatest military man America ever produced”; and U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson considered Marshall the finest soldier he had ever known.
In 1939 General George C. Marshall became U.S. Army Chief of Staff–the highest rank in the Army. The day of his promotion, however, would prove prophetic: Hitler invaded Poland, and Marshall’s work was cut out for him.
While Americans watched the advance of Hitler across Europe with horror, Marshall began to prepare for what he believed was inevitable armed conflict. By the time the United States went to war in 1941, Marshall’s leadership, foresight, and integrity had led to the expansion of the Army from 172,000 men to more than a million. By early 1945, the Army had grown to more than eight million – an achievement that required brilliant planning, persuasion, and execution skills.
Throughout World War II, Marshall was at the heart of solving many problems – strategy, supply, budgeting, leadership, and battle priority. Most important was Marshall’s role in the outcome of the war: the Allied Victory.
By March 1942, Marshall was firming up the concept to consolidate the Allied armies and use that amazing force to defeat the Germans. His plan was to build a huge U.S. army, ship it to England, cross the Channel, and invade France. Ultimately, the execution of the plan was stalled many times over, much to the concern of Marshall, and required 90 separate meetings before being launched in 1944. But what Marshall predicted then we know today: Normandy proved that the power of a coordinated, worldwide Allied strategy was the way to win the war.
As U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall was indispensable. He negotiated wartime strategy alongside President Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Joseph Stalin, and he was responsible for the smooth operation of the Alliance and the execution of the Normandy Invasion. His counsel and leadership also played a key role in the defeat of Japan in 1945.
In 1945, General George C. Marshall was released from duty as Army Chief of Staff and began his career as a statesman. Serving as a Special Presidential Envoy in China, where he experienced the intractable nature of Chinese politics. His mission was to negotiate a settlement between China’s two warring forces and keep the opportunistic Soviets from taking over–an assignment that was both frustrating and impossible. The extreme elements of the Communists and Nationalists were in charge and prevented a settlement, and Marshall eventually ended his efforts to unify China. The China mission was one of the few disappointments of Marshall’s career.
Marshall was sworn in as Secretary of State in 1947, and he found himself again focused on Europe, where conditions were deplorable. After World War II, Europe had experienced a bitter winter, and food was scarce in both victorious and defeated nations. People were dying in the streets from starvation, there was virtually no industry, crime rates were rising dramatically, and the threat of Soviet expansion was ever-increasing.
After a foreign ministers conference, Marshall was convinced that the Soviet Union was using the plight of the European countries, particularly Germany, to its advantage and that immediate action was needed. Marshall began an extensive, oft-criticized campaign to revive Europe. What ultimately become known as the Marshall Plan was, according to historian Randall B. Woods, the single most successful foreign aid program in modern history, and ensured stability and democracy in Europe.
During his years as a statesman, Marshall also served as President of the American Red Cross from 1949 to 1950, and Secretary of Defense from 1950 to 1951 during the Korean Conflict. In 1953, he headed the United States delegation to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and later that year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his humanitarian efforts and contributions to world peace and understanding.

The Marshall Plan
As Secretary of State, General George C. Marshall had an enlightened and visionary attitude toward dealing with Europe after World War II. The world wanted to punish and punish harshly–particularly Germany. Yet Marshall believed that to support and stabilize Europe, a conciliatory approach to reconstruction, including that of Germany, was absolutely necessary.
At the time devastated European countries were being tempted by communism because it represented hope from post-war economic, political, and social despair. To ensure freedom, Marshall and others began imagining a program that would restore the economic health of Europe–a program that would rely on countries acting cooperatively with the aid and assistance of the United States.
What is now known as the Marshall Plan was broad-based, and dealt with critical issues such as trade agreements, loan repayments, and financial aid. It was not unanimously embraced. Many Americans, including some members of Congress, favored isolationism. The Soviets did not want to reveal their needs to other countries or accept East-West trade, which would ruin their plan to control the commerce of the Eastern Bloc. France, which had been invaded three times in a century, did not want a strong Germany. Again and again, however, Marshall communicated that a strong Germany was a strong Europe. By December 1947, Congress approved a $600 million measure to provide temporary aid to Western Europe. A few days later President Truman sent the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan) to Congress for its approval.
By the time the plan had been administered in 1951, more than $13 billion had been distributed to the 16 participating countries. (That’s about $140 billion in 2015 dollars.) Europe’s Gross National Product rose 33 percent, industrial production increased 40 percent, and by 1953, trade between European countries increased almost 40 percent.
The Marshall Plan laid the groundwork for the modern European Union, and it is considered by many to be the most successful foreign aid program of the 20th century.
https://www.georgecmarshall.org/george-c-marshall

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Great read!

SGT (Join to see) I remember him