1880 to 1959 He went to a Military High School but his parents did not intend him to go into the army but he enrolled to become an officer.
He was a very modest man and said he wanted to be buried as an ordinary military officer. He fought 3 active wars and the cold war. He discouraged Pershing from going into politics and Eisenhower went into politics despite he advice, and never took any political stand.
1914 he was leading an exercise in the Luzon Peninsula incase Japan invaded after seeing Japan beat Russia in 1904-1905. There Henry Hap Arnold recognized that he would one day be a Chief of Staff.
1902 He married Lily Carter Coles who could not have children she died in 1927
1946 Together: Annals of an Army Wife, by Katherine Tupper Marshall.
George Marshall served under 10 US presidents, he was the one who led the containment against the Soviet Union. He fought in 4 wars 3 hot and one cold.
In 1904 Japan won the Russo Japanese War and 5 years later occupied Korea after a Korean had assassinated a Japanese statesman to stop Japanese encroachment on Korea. Marshall in 1914 was in the Philippines doing a military exercise in case Japan decided to now invade.1916 Wilson expanded the regular army with the National Defense
Act to 175,000 and 450,000 to the National Guard. Americans who fought the Germans in WW1 were called the "dough boys" and 9 and a half million men registered for the draft on June 5th 1917.
John Pershing was 57 when he was appointed by Wilson the lead the American Expeditionary forces in Europe, this was the only time he met Wilson. Pershing left with the vanguard for Europe which included George Patton. The French had lost 2 million men since the beginning of the battles. The Germans were suffering from being cut off from food and fuel by the British blockade. Pershing resisted the calls to include the doughboys in the French or Britsh units and wanted them to preserve their identity as an American Force.
Marshall was the only one who stood up to Pershing when he thought a decision was wrong and others though it would end Marshalls career but Pershing realized Marshall ability and turned to him for advice. Ludendorff's long awaited Spring Offensive was meant to split the English and French forces, it failed. The British and French now agreed to a unified command with Marshall Ferdinand Foch as supreme commander. Pershing agreed to allow Foch to select a sector that would fight as part of the America Army. General Phillipe Pertain was the one who selected the positions. The Big Red One was the first American division bloodied in the war
It became Marshall custom to go at midnight to reconnoiter the battle field close to the German lines to prepare to capture the heights of Cantigny. He also sent out soldiers to capture German prisoners and to identify positions of enemy guns, sniper posts and strongpoints. Cantigny village was in the American hands after the first hour with few casualties. After a few counter battle the Germans finally left altogether. This showed the French that the Americans were serious fighters.
Approximately 116,516 American soldiers died during World War I, with 53,402 dying in battle and another 63,114 due to disease and non-combat incidents.
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1945 April 12th -Harry Truman
James Baynes was appointed Truman's secretary of State.
1939 , to November 18, 1945 George Marshall handed in his resignation as Chief of Staff 2 weeks after VJ day. On his holiday Truman phoned him and asked him to go to China.. The civil war between Communist China and Nationalist China. The Soviet in Manchuria were providing the Communists help. Patrick Hurley the US ambassador claimed that Truman's government were siding with the communists. He was one of the first to plant the seed of Mc McCarthyism and red baiting. The US would not intervene militarily to influence the China internal strife. China was supposed to be under a coalition government and the US was withdrawing troops from China. Marshall sent a message to Truman that he could not achieve this coalition and was wasting his time in China. This was one of Marshals few failures.
In 1937 Nanking had been China's prominent city and in 1937 the rape of Nanking the Japanese had bayoneted as many as 300,000 civilians. It was Chiang's capital and It was also the place of the mausoleum of Sun Yatsan.
Marshal could not trust the Generalissimo. He met Chou en Lai the most important person from the CCP who represented Mao in Chunking.. After the Japanese surrender most towns in Manchuria were occupied by The Red army. No agreement made were kept by both sides. This was an area that dry loess caused dust everywhere.
1946 March This was when Churchill Fulton speech was made about the Iron Curtain across Europe. Churchill was also anxious about Manchuria. In Washington Secretary of State James Byrnes was resigning due to ill health and Truman wanted Marshal for the job. The Republicans supported a campaign that claimed the Democrats were appeasing the Communists. Truman had announced that the US would not take sides in the Chinese problems. The Communist victories were attributed to superior morale and leadership, not military equipment.
1947 the US law was changed so that the line of succession on the death of the President is vice President then Speaker of the house. Marshal became the fiftieth Secretary of State.
1949 Moa on capturing Nanking proclaimed the Peoples Republic of China and the Generalissimo fled to Formosa (Taiwan) China was lost by Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt demoralized and unpopular government, despite massive economic aid provided by the USA. In the last 4 months the Communists had captured 75% of Chaings US financed weapons.
1949 August The Soviets detonate their first nuclear bomb. Senator McCarthy now burst on the US scene, till he was censured by the Senate in 1954 He accused State Dept. workers of being communists and queers. who sold out China. In 1945 Roosevelt had spurned a secret offer of Mao to come to Washington and establish a working relationship.
When Marshal entered the department of state he found there was no planning dept. and appointed George Kennan to set this us. GK was the leading expert on Soviet Issues. He was the one who came out with the policy of containment to halt Soviet expansionism. The was formalized by the Truman Doctrine.
The British ambassador Archibald Kerr asthe US for money to help Greece which was being taken over by communist insurgents. Also in Turkey the Soviets were demanding a revision of the Dardanelles treaty. In fact the entire Middle East was in danger of Russia intentions.
Winter 1946-7 was the coldest since 1880 with coal shortages and people dying from exposure and hunger from bad harvest and lack of transport. Marshall was at the Paris Conference and Molotov was demanding reparation from Germany. for the Soviets. Marshall realized that the Soviets wanted to forestall the recovery of Europe see it fall into economic ruin and social chaos to make the countries ripe for their domination.
Kennan's dept. was given 2 weeks to come up with a plan now sad down and Kennan drew up what was to be called the Marshal plan which was the integration of European Economies. The US would provide Billions of $ of goods because the US was in need of markets. This assistance was offered to all Europe including the Soviets and satellites. Kennan knowing that Stalin would not accept this plan as he would not allow the Soviet economy to open to Western Inspection. " Let the Soviets take responsibility for dividing Europe. Meanwhile there was a Soviet Coup in Hungary.
Marshal gave his Harvard Speech and the world realize that American had changed its policy of retreat into isolationism and was offering help for it friends and enemies alike to European Integration for trade and production. Truman realized that to get it to pass Congress it could not be called the Truman plan and so it was called the Marshal plan. The actual getting the bill through Congress was done by Republic Senator Arthur Vandenberg. 8891 48%
Reparation would not be paid to Russia from the American zone. Russia considered that their achievement of WW2 was bringing these countries under their control. 22 countries including Turkey but excluding Russia and Spain were invited to a gathering in Paris. All the Easter block countries refuse to participate Czechoslovakia wanted to join but because of Stalin's control had to cancel their decision. 16 nations now became the Western Bloc.
The French feared the German resurgence to get the aid they had to agree to the liberalization of trade barriers throughout Western Europe. Interim aid was sent so that the could survive the winter.
1948 in the spring the main recovery plan started. The plan costing between $12 and $17 billion would not endanger Americas security nor was it likely to cause inflation and bringing increase taxes. A news bureau was set up to advertise and explain the plan. "The future of the free world and Europe hangs in balance"
The European Recovery Plan was the key to the struggle against "government tyranny" Marshal could not have realized at the time that the Common Market and later the European Union was to follow. Marshall had explicitly blamed the Soviets and Communist Party for exploiting the economic chaos in Europe and that if Congress failed to pass the bill the Soviets would gain. The Soviet backed communist coup of Czechoslovakia galvanized Washington into a sense of urgency.. Remember a decade earlier Hitters invasion of Czechoslovakia had triggered WW2. 11 days after the Soviet invasion Jan Masaryk the Czechoslovakia foreign minister was found dead assassinated. Former President Herbert Hoover's support was a major tipping point for the wavering Republics. 1948 April , 11 days after Truman signed, the bill 150 ships were on their way carrying cargoes to Bordeaux Liverpool , Rotterdam , Genoa. This was an International New Deal. The last of these $ were spent in 1952.
1948 April 6th Finland agreed to a Mutual Defense Pact with Russia though she retained her independence. Thus Finland was force to be a neutral country between Russia and the West. This was replaced by a new treaty in 1992 on the fall of the USSR. Finland finally joined NATO in 2023.
1948 June The Vandenberg Resolution This paved the way to the formation of NATO
Berlin Crises
1948 June General Lucius Clay began circulating the "west mark" and this caused the split with the Soviets. They circulated the "ostmark" into East Germany and all East Berlin. This challenged the sovereignty of West Berlin and Stalin cut off all road transport to West Berlin , all roads canals, rail and electricity. They could not cut off the air as it was written into the agreement. Marshal predicted that the Soviets would back down if West Berlin was supplied by air. For 11 months till May 49 Berlin was supplied by air. About 1500 flights a day. Stalin gave up on this as it failed to achieve its goals and became an embarrassing, ineffective, and costly diplomatic disaster for the Soviet Union, it made a laughing stock of the Red Army.
Truman's support for Israel was despite Marshal advise. Truman insisted that the US supported partition and was the first country to recognize Israel as a State. Marshal had supported trusteeship and not partition. 1)He was worried that US troops might have to get involved 2)The Arabs would be driven into the arms of the Soviets 3) The US might be denied access to Middle East Oil. However one thing that Marshall was correct was that there would be no end to the conflict.
Truman won the 1948 election because he ran a strong whistle stop campaign. For Labor challenged the Taft-Hartley Act that significantly restricted labor union powers. As a farmer he supported the Federal price support.. His civil rights initiatives gained the support of African Americans, and in 1948 by executive order desegregated the army. The pollsters got their figures wrong because they stopped polling before the late momentum of his campaign and predicted a Thomas E. Dewey victory for the Republicans.
Korea
1949-50Louis Johnson was secretary of defense but was using that position to try and advance his political position. Marshal was appointed in his place and was not you in the position when the Korean War broke out. Korea was a Japanese colony and when the war ended the norther half on the 38th capitulated to the Red Army with the south to the US. The Soviets boycotted election here and installed Kim Il sung they then pulled out and left a well trained and equipped army of 135,000 men the North Korean Peoples army. Kim though he could easily capture the south and got the go ahead from Stalin, while Ho Chi Minh attacked the French in Vietnam. .The Chinese gave back up support. The US was supported by the UN to defend South Korea. Truman declared war without Congresses support as he thought it would be short. McArthur led the American troops, and Marshall was immediately called by Truman.
Marshal said they must avoid action that back Chiang in a renewed war against the Chinese Communists. McArthur made an surprise amphibious landing near Inchon that was successful. They were able to divide the communists and recapture Seoul and the North Koreans started withdrawing so as to not be caught in a trap. MacArthur wanted to cross into the north in hot pursuit and depose Kim. However the Chinese troops started crossing he Yula River into North Korea.
Truman relieved McArthur over the radio before he could resign. America must not go into communist territory and fall into a Soviet trap as power to contain the Soviets in Europe would be weakened.. General Matthew Ridgeway took succeeded MacArthur. He later took Eisenhower NATO position when he retired from the army and shattered the better part of 14 Chinese Communist Divisions. McArthur was a potential candidate for presidency in 1952 but never got far on the primaries. MacArthur's strategy was said to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time, at the wrong enemy.
McArthur "Old soldiers never die the just fade away" i.e. quiet passing in dignity to the next generation.
The Soviet Government informed Kennan that they wanted a solution to the Korean question.1.8million Americans had fought in the Korean war 33,652 killed 7747 missing in action and 92,134 wounded. The Communist Chinese suffered between 360,000 to 1500,000 deaths.
1951 Dean Acheson Secretary of State concluded the Japanese Peace treaty or San Francisco Peace Treaty that came into effect in 1952.
Anne Rosenberg a expert in labor relation became assistant secretary for manpower. They faile to bring about universal military training.
63%Epilogue
1953 Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the European Recovery Program or. He thanked the late Senator Vandenberg who died in 1951, Churchill received the Prize for literature on the same day. The Marshal Plan was at a time when the US was short of money but this contained the Soviet Union and repay in future trade with American companies. The command of Overlord went to Eisenhower when it was Marshal's for the taking but he was magnanimous.
1943 and 1947 .Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on it cover
Time Line
1929-1933 President Herbert Hoover
1933President Franklin D Roosevelt
1943 and 1947Time proclaimed Marshall "Man of the Year" on its cover
1945 -President Harry Truman
1947 -1949 George Marshall Secretary of State
1949 August The Soviets exploded an atomic bomb.
1949 October Mao declared the Peoples Republic of China
1953 President Dwight D Eisenhower
