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George C. Marshall
1880–1959 · 79 years Tier I
The cadet who fainted onto a bayonet and never named the boys
His grades were too ordinary for West Point, so he settled for the Virginia Military Institute, and his own brother Stuart told their mother not to let him go — the boy would disgrace the family name. Marshall heard it, and later said he enrolled to wipe his brother's face. He was 16. His mother sold parcels of land in Uniontown and in Augusta, Kentucky, to pay the bills. Upperclassmen made him squat over an unsheathed bayonet set point upward, and after 20 minutes he passed out onto it and opened a deep cut in his buttock. Treated for it, he refused to say who had done it, and was never hazed again. He finished first in discipline, 15th of 34 overall, and took a diploma rather than a degree.
He was commissioned in February 1902, married within days, and shipped to the Philippines. He was sworn in as Chief of Staff of the Army on September 1, 1939, hours after the Wehrmacht crossed into Poland. He then wrote the document that became the central strategy of Allied operations in Europe, and at Arcadia talked a reluctant Britain into Germany first and unified theater commands. He scheduled Overlord for April 1943 and watched Churchill divert it to Sicily. He would not lobby for the command, and Roosevelt kept him in Washington: "I didn't feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington." Churchill called him the organizer of victory. Secretary of State followed, then Defense, then a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 — the only Army general ever given one.
He met Elizabeth Carter Coles by hearing her play the piano across the street from the VMI barracks, and broke curfew to get to her. They married on February 11, 1902 and never had children. She went in for surgery on a goiter, and on September 15, 1927 the operation strained a weak heart and killed her. His second wife brought three children with her, and one of them, Lieutenant Allen Tupper Brown, was killed in Italy on May 29, 1944, in the middle of the war Marshall was running. Then came the accusation. Joseph McCarthy's 1951 speech, published as America's Retreat From Victory, held Marshall responsible for the loss of China and placed him inside "a conspiracy so immense and an infamy so black as to dwarf any previous venture in the history of man."
Truman refused to let the European Recovery Program be called the Truman Plan and insisted on the other name, which is why a general's name sits on the biggest act of American economic statecraft. Time made him Man of the Year twice, for 1943 and 1947. He was entitled to a full state funeral and did not want one: after a run of strokes he died at Walter Reed on October 16, 1959, and got a stripped-down military service instead — 24 hours lying in state at Washington National Cathedral, guarded by one man from each service and a VMI cadet, then 200 guests at Fort Myer. Eisenhower ordered the flags lowered. Truman came. He is at Arlington.
Lifespan
George C. Marshall's life against the full span of the corpus.
Notable works
-
Harvard commencement address
speech
Delivered June 5 — the eleven minutes that launched the European Recovery Program 1947 -
The Marshall Plan
other
Formally the European Recovery Program. Truman rejected calling it the Truman Plan 1948 -
Marshall Mission to China
mission
Special envoy from December 20, 1945 to January 6, 1947, and it failed 1945 -
Germany-first strategy for the European war
other
Argued through at the Arcadia Conference over British resistance 1942 -
Memoirs of My Services in the World War, 1917-1918
book
Written long before and published 17 years after his death 1976
Life in brief
with age at each point- September 1897 aged 16 Enrolls at the Virginia Military Institute at 16 His mother sold land in Pennsylvania and Kentucky to cover the cost.
- 1901 aged ~21 Graduates as first captain, 15th of 34 He also made All-Southern at tackle for the 1900 VMI team.
- February 11, 1902 aged 21 Marries Lily Coles and sails for the Philippines within days
- 1908 aged ~28 Graduates first in his Army Staff College class
- September 15, 1927 aged 46 Lily dies after thyroid surgery strains a weak heart
- September 1, 1939 aged 58 Sworn in as Chief of Staff of the Army as Germany invades Poland
- May 29, 1944 aged 63 His stepson Allen Tupper Brown is killed in Italy
- June 5, 1947 aged 66 Outlines American aid for European recovery at Harvard
- December 10, 1953 aged 72 Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Critics objected that he was a soldier rather than a pacifist.
Related
Contemporaries
Government & Politics, born within 25 years
Douglas MacArthur 1880–1964Government & PoliticsCommander who led major Pacific campaigns, oversaw Japan’s occupation, and became central to the Korean War controversy.
Felix Frankfurter 1882–1965Government & PoliticsSupreme Court justice and Harvard professor whose jurisprudence and government service shaped twentieth-century American law.
Franklin D. Roosevelt 1882–1945Government & Politics32nd President who led the nation through the Great Depression and most of World War II.
Sam Rayburn 1882–1961Government & PoliticsLongest-serving Speaker of the House who steered New Deal and postwar legislation through Congress.
William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan 1883–1959Government & PoliticsFounder and director of the OSS whose wartime organization became a principal institutional predecessor of the CIA.
Harry S. Truman 1884–1972Government & Politics33rd President who authorized the atomic bomb and implemented the Marshall Plan.