[This biographical
essay will have a different format than the others I write. Instead of a
continuous narrative, this essay consists of six scenes from Marshall’s life
and a lessons learned section.]
SCENE ONE: LEADING YOUR PEERS
George Marshall was born
December 30, 1880. He grew up in Uniontown, Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh.
Marshall was a distant relative of John Marshall, veteran of the American War
for Independence and later the longest serving Chief Justice of the Supreme
Court. His father was a local businessman who made unfortunate investments
which marginalized his family. He was an indifferent student so when he decided
to enroll at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) he once overheard his older
brother Stuart, already a VMI cadet, pleading with their mother not to permit George
to attend VMI because he would embarrass the family. This event only hardens
George’s resolve to be a successful cadet.
VMI was more of a military
trade school than a college. It was steeped in the glories of the Confederacy
and the Southern cause. Although hazing of new cadets was officially forbidden,
it was indeed a fact of life among the Corps of Cadets. Marshall arrived late
his first year due to an illness and together with his Yankee accent, he
instantly became a hazing target. So, not long after his arrival, Marshall was
aroused out of his bed one night by older cadets, stripped of his night
clothes, and ordered into a sitting position over a bayonet sticking out of the
wooden floor in the barracks. But, due to physical weakness resulting from his
recent illness, Marshall could not maintain the hazing position and a large slash
in his body caused an injury. Marshall was rushed to the infirmary by the older
cadets, who feared for both Marshall’s personal safety and whether he would
inform the administrators of their activities.
Despite his serious injury,
Marshall refused to divulge the names of the guilty cadets, earning their
lasting admiration. Marshall’s instincts as a natural leader began to rise
culminating in his selection as First Captain of the Corps of Cadets his senior
year at VMI.
SCENE TWO: CONFRONTING THE
GENERAL
Upon graduation from VMI,
Marshall sought an officer’s commission in the US Army. He even went to the
White House to lobby President William McKinley directly. The newly
commissioned Lieutenant Marshall began to serve in variety of assignments from
survey work in the Southwest to the Philippines. He began to shine in staff
work. He also became a life-long learner particularly with his assignment to
the Infantry and Cavalry School (now General Staff College) at Fort Leavenworth,
Kansas. First as a student and then as an instructor, Marshall took a renewed
interest in history which surfaced while a VMI cadet.
With our entry into World War
l, Marshall went to France as chief of staff of the newly formed 1st
Infantry Division. The rapid expansion of the US Army in 1917-18 strained
training and logistics prompting a visit to division headquarters from General
John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). Pershing
proceeded to roundly criticize the division commanding general for the lack of
fighting readiness, which Marshall thought unfair. As Pershing began to leave,
the usually stoic Marshall touched Pershing’s uniform sleeve to get his
attention and then shared his own evaluation of the division’s situation
including defending his commander. Pershing listened, said a few words, and
quickly left the headquarters. Marshall’s fellow officers were stunned thinking
Marshall’s military career was over.
Rather than relieving Marshall
of his duties, Pershing sent for Marshall to serve as a staff planner at AEF Headquarters.
Participation of American soldiers and marines in the fighting intensified in
the summer of 1918 as the Allied forces made their final big push against the
German Imperial Army. Marshall was assigned as the primary planner to move 800,000
US soldiers and their supplies and equipment from one battlefield to another
without detection from the Germans. He spent a few hours walking and thinking.
Realizing that nothing like this had ever been attempted, Marshall worked
throughout the night and submitted his operations plan in the morning, It was
adopted with few changes and the operation was a huge success. Colonel Marshall
was recommended for his first star as a brigadier general but unfortunately for
him personally the war ended before the promotion was finalized.
SCENE THREE: DOUBTING THE
PRESIDENT
Following the end of the war,
Marshall resumed his permanent rank of captain as his colonelcy was temporary
for wartime purposes. He also resumed staff duties as the personal aide to Pershing,
soon to be appointed as the Army Chief of Staff. But Marshall finally got field
duty by being posted to the Army regiment serving in China. A decade after
drafting an operations plan for hundreds of thousands of soldiers in combat, he
drilled soldiers in small unit tactics but with the same sense of duty and
attention to detail.
Promotion in the peacetime
Army was slow and postings were often mundane. But Marshall was assigned to a
task that paid many dividends in the coming second global conflict. As Director
of Instruction of the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Georgia he revised
combat planning and tactics, and he noticed which officers were talented,
officers who would be ready to assume greater responsibilities. Finally, in the
1930s, Marshall was promoted to general and ultimately was assigned as Deputy
Chief of Staff at the War Department in Washington, DC.
As Deputy Chief he was part of
a group meeting at the White House in 1938 with President Roosevelt. The
President had hoped that the group would rubberstamp his proposal to expand the
Army Air Corps by greatly increasing aircraft production. As FDR polled the
group members, they all agreed. When the president came to Marshall, he asked,
“George, don’t you agree?” To which Marshall replied, “No, Mr. President, I do not,
“and proceeded to brief FDR for his reasons. The others sat in stunned silence
as FDR quickly adjourned the meeting. As with his encounter with Pershing two
decades earlier, many observers felt Marshall had a career ending disagreement
with the President.
Poland to begin World War Il, Marshall
became Army Chief of Staff, a post sought by many other generals more senior
than him. Marshall would serve as Chief of Staff for six years throughout US
preparation for and involvement in the second great war.
SCENCE FOUR: DOING YOUR DUTY
Throughout the remainder of
FDR’s presidency until the president’s death in 1945, Marshall was a valued and
trusted adviser. A large measure of success in this arena was attributed to Marshall’s
management of their relationship. Marshall refused to be drawn into FDR’s
informal inner circle. When FDR persisted to address Marshall by his first
name, Marshall bluntly protested, “That’s General Marshall, Mr. President.” FDR
was initially perplexed by his formality but soon realized that he could count
on Marshall to give clear-headed counsel supported by facts. For example, when
the need for a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to coordinate the war
efforts became apparent, Marshall recommended that the president recall Admiral
William Leahy out of retirement for the post rather than lobby for the position
himself. FDR did so and Leahy became according to one biographer, the “second
most powerful man in the world.”
When he became Chief of Staff in1939
and throughout the war, Marshall gleaned the senior officer rolls of all
generals he deemed too old or infirmed to lead effectively during wartime
conditions, He also brought into higher command junior officers he thought had
potential demonstrated by their actions. One such junior officer was Colonel
Dwight Eisenhower, who was stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. Just a
few days after the Pearl Harbor attack, Marshall ordered Eisenhower to the War
Department to direct the War Plans Division. Later, in 1942, General Eisenhower
was ordered to England to commence planning for Operation Torch, the Allied attack
into French North Africa. Then came Operation Husky into Sicily ad Allied
operations into Italy proper until Ike was recalled back to England to finalize
plans for Operation Overlord, the famed D-Day invasion of France to forge the
final defeat of Nazi Germany.
Back in Washington, who was to
become the supreme allied commander of Overlord was not settled. FDR knew Ike
could handle the job, yet he also knew Marshall had earned the position. While the president could not readily make the
decision, he pre-determined that Marshall in any way desired the Overlord
assignment, he would get it and Ike would be returned to Washington as Chief of
Staff. So, FDR and Marshall had their final meeting about the Overlord command.
FDR hinted that the name of the supreme commander would make history, and the
chief of staff would be forever obscure. Then he waited for the general’s
response. Even though Marshall definitely wanted the Overlord command, he
believed in duty first. He replied, “It’s your decision, Mr. President.” FDR
decided that Marshall was too valuable to leave Washington, so Ike would be the
Supreme Allied Commander, Marshall sent the orders to Eisenhower.
SCENE FIVE: CONFRONTING THE
PRESIDENT
The death of FDR in April
1945, was a shock to the nation. Ane yet, our constitutional system worked as
Vice President Harry Truman was quickly sworn in as our new president. He
immediately face the use of the newly-developed atomic bombs, how to deal with the
Soviet Union and related Communist aggression and influences in Europe and Asia,
and the integration of the US armed forces among other challenges.
Marshall was a partner of
Truman’s throughout much of the late 1940s and early 1950s. In November 1945,
the day after he retired from the Army, he was recalled to public service at
Truman’s request to become US special envoy to China. Following his China venture,
Marshall became Secretary of State and then Secretary of Defense in the
President’s cabinet. Not only did British Prime Winston Churchill consider
Marshall to be the architect of victory in winning World War ll, and President
Truman also hailed him as the greatest American since George Washington.
Imagine Truman’s dilemma when Marshall
confronted him about another major foreign policy decision the president needed
to make- whether or not recognize Israel as an independent nation. Truman
leaned toward the humanitarian argument in that the Jewish people needed a
homeland after the Holocaust while Marshall took the pragmatic approach of
supporting the Arabs and their vast oil reserves. Marshall threatened to resign
if Israel was recognized. Truman did indeed recognize the State of Israel and
Marshall, to his credit, did not resign.
SCENE SIX: FORGIVING THE
PRESIDENT
The postwar years were also
kind to Eisenhower. After serving as Army Chief of Staff, he retired from the
military and became president of Columbia University. Eisenhower was recalled to
active duty to become the Supreme Allied Commander for NATO. He again retired
to choose a different retirement path than Marshall.
Like many other military
officers of era, Eisenhower was apolitical. He did not vote and he did not
discuss partisan politics. But after the war, things changed. As FDR
prophesized, people remembered the Overlord commander, and both the Democrats
and Republicans wanted Eisenhower as their presidential candidate. Ike finally identified with the Republicans,
and he became a candidate to become that party’s presidential nominee in 1952. He
beat his chief party rival Robert Taft of Ohio, son of President Taft and was
the victor of both the 1962 and 1956 general elections defeating Adlai
Stevenson, grandson of Vice President Stevenson during the second term of Glover
Cleveland, both times.
A big issue of the election of
1952 was the Red Scare, the supposed Communist infiltration of the US
government. Although there were Soviet spies in the US and two of them, Ethel
and Julius Rosenberg, were executed, many accused were innocent. The truth did
not hinder demigods such as Senator McCarthy of Wisconsin from exploiting the
issue. At a campaign rally held in Milwaukee in 1952, McCarthy, with Eisenhower
in attendance, accused Marshall of being a Communist sympathizer, and Eisenhower
did not utter a word of protest against this lie.
I personally have always considered
Eisenhower’s inaction in this matter as an act of moral cowardice on his part.
After all, Marshall was his chief mentor in high command and Eisenhower would
not ever been elected president if Marshall had actively sought command of
Overlord seven years earlier. Apparently, Ike had come to regret the
incident. At Marshall’s funeral service,
Ike attempted to apologize to Marshall’s widow. Mrs. Marshall replied to the
President in effect that her husband understood politics and that he did dwell
on Ike’s inaction that day in Milwaukee.
George Marshall died October
16, 1959. At his request, his body did lay in state and his funeral service was
simple, befitting a soldier and statesman who simply did his duty. He wrote no
autobiography, lest he embarrass or offend someone. And he forgave the man who
did not defend his reputation. Marshall was a hero and leader, a “Defender of
the Republic” as one biographer described him.
LESSONS LEARNED:
1.
A quiet demeanor, a stoic personality, if used consistently
and effectively, can be a “force multiplier” for leaders to inspire confidence
among their followers especially during a crisis or adversity.
2.
An effective leader knows when to break out of
the quiet, so others know that the leader is serious.
3.
A leader understands that he/she must be a
“thermostat” regulating emotions rather than being a “thermometer” merely
expressing emotions.