George C. Marshall in World War II

George C. Marshall, U.S. Army
15th Chief of Staff

George C. Marshall (1880-1959), a 1901 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute,[1] was an officer in the United States Army who notably served during World War I as General John J. Pershing’s aide de camp and, during World War II, as the Army’s chief of staff, appointed to the latter position by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Marshall became chief of staff on 1 September 1939, the same day the German army invaded Poland;[2] and “at the time, the U.S. had only 180,000 troops (by some accounts, it was even less), which ranked it sixteenth militarily in the world.”[3]

During the war, as the time for the invasion of France drew near, it was thought by many that President Roosevelt would name Marshall, because of his tremendous ability and prestige, as the commander of the operation that would ultimately decide the war in Europe. Even Marshall, himself felt that he should be so appointed, though he steadfastly refused to put forward his own name for consideration. Ultimately, however, it was Eisenhower who was chosen to be the Supreme Allied Commander. FDR’s rational for not selecting Marshall was that he felt that he “could not sleep at night with [Marshall] out of the country.”[4] So, instead of commanding the armies of Normandy, Marshall continued as Chief of Staff for the war’s remainder, but also, as his biographer, Forrest Pogue described him, in his capacity as the “organizer of victory.”[5]

As the organizer of victory, Marshall built the Army. Building the Army included the mobilization of enough men to give the operational commanders what they needed, the mobilization of American industry to supply those men with the materials required, the construction of bases at which to train the men, and ships to transport them to the theaters of war. By spring of 1944, under Marshall’s leadership, “the United States … was shipping [nearly] that number of soldiers to Great Britain each month … By nightfall [on D-day] the Allies had landed 165,000 men, more than eight divisions, a force larger in size than the entire U.S. Army when Marshall too command in 1939.”[6]

In December, 1944, before the war’s conclusion, Marshall was promoted to “General of the Army” and given his fifth star.[7] At the time, only one other officer had been pinned with five stars, Marshall’s mentor, General Pershing. Pershing, who was still living at the time, bore the title of “General of the Armies.” Marshall insisted that his be limited to “General of the Army,” because he felt it wrong to be considered Pershing’s equal. After the war, Marshal served as President Harry S Truman’s ambassador to China, then later as Truman’s secretary of state. 

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[1] History of the Virginia Military Institute, Virginia Military Institute, http://www.vmi.edu/uploadedFiles/VMI/Communications_Marketing/Media_Relations/fact_sheets/
VMI_History_Fact_Sheet_021709.pdf (accessed 25 July 2012).

[2] Detailed Marshall Chronology, George C. Marshall Foundation, http://www.marshallfoundation.
org/about/chronology.html (accessed 24 July 2012).

[3] Timeline of Marshall’s Life, George C. Marshall Foundation, http://www.marshallfoundation.
org/about/timeline/ww2.html (accessed 25 July 2012).

[4] Ibid., 13.

[5] Marshall Bibliography: Selected Works, George C. Marshall Foundation, http://www.marshall
foundation.org/about/bibliography.html (accessed 25 July 2012).

[6] Ed Cray, General of the Army: George C. Marshall, Soldier and Statesman, (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990), 453-455.

[7] Marshall Chronology, Op Cit.