George C Marshall Soldier Of Peace

George C. Marshall served as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II and as secretary of state during the rebuilding of Europe. A master of mobilization and organization, he did as much as any national leader in achieving Allied victory in the war; afterward, as architect of the Marshall Plan, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for that massive and highly effective effort on behalf of Western European economic recovery. Winston Churchill called him "the noblest Roman of them all." This colorful collection of Marshal portraiture and memorabilia commemorates and humanizes this giant of a man, about whom comparatively little beyond his career achievements is known. The book will accompany an exhibit on Marshall that will open at the National Portrait Gallery in November 1997. "He was certainly no flamboyant general, he was not a character, there were no pearl-handled revolvers or corncob pipes of crusty anecdotes to spice up the legend of Marshall. He never wrote a book to tell his story. He never ran for election to public office. He never sought popularity. He never exploited his fame. He never asked for recognition or favors. He was a man driven more than anything else by a sense of duty, by the powerful, overpowering obligation of service. To him, it was never George C. Marshall that was important; it was the task at hand." -- Colin Powell Distributed for the National Portrait Gallery

In a career that paralleled the emergence of the United States as an international power, Marshall was a participant in every significant event contributing to the nation's status as a superpower. From his first combat duty in the Philippines at the turn of the century, through both World Wars, into the cold war and the Korean conflict, Marshall was a key figure in devising and implementing US military strategies and foreign policies. Stoler emphasizes the years 1939-1951, when Marshall served as World War II army chief of staff, special presidential representative to China, secretary of state at the beginning of the cold war and Korean War secretary of defense. The book is unique in its merging of military and diplomatic history with biography. It includes a chronology and a bibliographic essay. “Drawing on more detailed works, supplemented by his sound judgments based on his own careful research, Stoler has successfully caught the spirit of the man and his work.” — Forrest C. Pogue, official biographer of Marshall, former director of the George C. Marshall Foundation “Useful, fascinating and very informative... Stoler illuminates many historical debates and events...” — David Eisenhower, author of Eisenhower at War: 1943-1945 “A very readable book based on the most recent scholarship and presented in a way that students can understand.” — Michael J. Hogan, Ohio State University “In a skillful work of compression and synthesis, Mark A. Stoler... sets himself an ambitious dual task: to render comprehensible the life of an individual almost no one knew well and to ground this life firmly in the context of the revolution in American foreign relations during the first half of the twentieth century. The enterprise succeeds admirably, partly because Marshall’s career lends itself to such treatment and partly because Stoler demonstrates a flair for selecting the essential from the immaterial.” — H. W. Brands, The American Historical Review “This is the best available one-volume biography of this distinguished man... Stoler demonstrates Marshall’s intellectual growth as he came to understand international politics and the limits of power.” — Daniel R. Beaver, The Historian “[A] richly researched and balanced assessment... Stoler’s insights into Marshall are many and valuable. He perfectly captures his sterling integrity and the extent of his exemplary nonpartisanship... this is the best single-volume about a true hero.” — Barry F. Machado, The Journal of Military History “[A]n excellent book... There have been short one-volume biographies of Marshall before, but this is the best of the lot... Among the strengths of Stoler’s treatment are his careful exposition of the factors in Marshall’s youth crucial to the formation of his character, the importance of his various experiences with the National Guard, the Plattsburg volunteers, and the Civilian Conservation Corps in conditioning his faith in citizen soldiers, and the formative role of his professional education at the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and the Infantry School at Fort Benning.” — I. B. Holley, Jr., The Journal of American History “[Stoler] is able to present the issues faced by the new chief of staff lucidly and with great insight... In sum, Professor Stoler, with style and verve, has produced an excellent summary volume on George C. Marshall and his times... the book [is] insightful, readable, provocative, and manageable. I highly recommend it.” — Douglas Kinnard, Naval War College Review “[T]he book breaks through the general’s deliberately cultivated stoic persona and demonstrates the humanity that made him so admired in public and private. Stoler’s work stands as a model of its genre, a concise study that incorporates themes from the large body of current scholarship in the field without ever losing sight of its central character... Stoler captures the complexity of the man and his times in a book that is a pleasure to read.” — Donald A. Ritchie, The Oral History Review “This is a useful volume for those who lack the time to read all four volumes of Forrest Pogue’s biography.” — Gaddis Smith, Foreign Affairs

A captivating and fanatically thorough reevaluation of Marshall's life and times.

As the U.S. Army's Chief of staff through World War II, George Catlett marshall (1880-1959) organized the military mobilization of unprecedented number of Americans and shaped the Allied strategy that defeated first Nazi Germany, then Imperial Japan. As President Truman's Secretary of State, and later as his Secretary of Defence during the Korean War, Marshall the statesman created the European Recovery Act (known as the Marshall Plan) and made possible the Berlin Airlift. Ed Cray in this masterful biography brings us face-to-face with a genuine American hero and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Harry Truman called him 3the greatest living American.2 Winston Churchill referred to him as 3the organizer of victory2 in WW2. Franklin Roosevelt said he was the most indispensable army officer in that conflict. This biography of George Marshall tells the inspiring story of a man who devoted his entire life to the service of his country. Marshall was the chief coordinator of both training and strategy for the military throughout WW2. This thoughtful and vivid account of the general1s life probes Marshall1s significance in American history and chronicles his vast achievements not only as a soldier, but as the main architect of the plan to rebuild Europe and establish a peaceful post-war world. Photos.

Bringing together a who's who of Marshall scholars, this volume examines the major roles assumed by Marshall over his five-decade career - soldier; statesman and peacemaker; and leader and manager - to illuminate key issues and themes surrounding the man and his era.

A military analyst delivers a revelatory account of the remarkable, evolving relationship forged between George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower during World War II and into the Cold War.

This is the story of the life and mind of George C. Marshall, soldier and statesman, as told by a distinguished writer whose own background makes him particularly qualified to discuss some of the more controversial aspects of General Marshall’s work since World War II. Robert Payne carefully places George Marshall against the Virginia background from which he came and takes him from there through his education at V.M.I., his experiences as a young officer, the first indications of his genius in World War I, his work between the wars, his colossal achievement as one of the architects of victory in World War II, his ill-fated mission in China, his contribution to the Marshall Plan and his work in the military effort. Showing in quite an extraordinary way how Marshall represents the strengths and weaknesses of the American tradition, this book’s study of the life of a great contemporary American illuminates the American scene with an insight rarely equaled in a biographical work. The Marshall Story is neither a “white wash” of General Marshall nor an attack on him. His errors of judgment are studied at some length, partly because the same pattern of behavior is visible in each of these errors, but chiefly because the consequences of error were disastrous. But against these errors are set his triumphs: the first a personal one, the others impersonal and prodigiously important because they affected the conduct of the war and the conduct of the peace—his generalship and the Marshall Plan. In this book, Robert Payne’s subject is a man who has been described by President Harry S Truman as “the greatest living American.” And Payne’s treatment of the subject makes The Marshall Story a study of a man who knew exactly where he was going, went there, made mistakes, and seemed perhaps not to belong to our own time. This book will shatter some illusions about George C. Marshall, but it will also place him in the perspective of his time and demonstrate that he may be even greater than many of us have thought him to be.