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George Catlett Marshall (December 31, 1880–October 16, 1959), an American military leader and statesman, was born into a middle-class family in Uniontown, Pennsylvania.
While attending Virginia Military Institute he pledged and was initiated into the now dormant Beta('01) chapter of Kappa Alpha Order. In 1948, he was awarded the Distiguished Achievement Award for his role and contributions during and after WWII.
Marshall was instrumental in getting the U.S. Army and Army Air Corps reorganized and ready for war. 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. 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.
After WW II he 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.
Marshall 'retired' in November 1945 and was named Secretary of State in 1947. As such, on 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 awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. 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 implied he was a traitor and denounced him for making decisions that "aided the Communist drive for world domination". Marshall died on October 16, 1959.
Military Career
After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901, he 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. 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.
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 forced Germany to sue for peace.
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, mechanised warfare.
He 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.
Dates of rank
- 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 permanent 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
Notes about components:
- United States Army: Regular U.S. Armed Forces prior to World War I
- National Army: Combined conscript and regular United States forces during World War I
- Regular Army: Regular volunteer forces after 1930. Considered "career" professionals
- Army of the United States: Combined draft and regular forces of World War II.
Awards and decorations
United States
Foreign awards
- British Order of the Bath
- French Legion of Honor
- French Croix de Guerre
- Soviet Order of Suvarov
- 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
- 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
- Columbian Grand Cross of the Order of Boyaco Cherifien
- Nobel Peace Price 1953 for the Marshall Plan
Quotations
"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.) [1] (http://www.ehistorybuff.com/kimmel1.html)
"I couldn't sleep nights, George, if you were out of Washington." -President 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
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