General George C. Marshall

General George C. Marshall

By Tom Kirvan

The 1953 recipient of the Nobel Prize for Peace, General George C. Marshall was the chief architect of the European Recovery Program, more commonly known as the “Marshall Plan” following the Allied triumph in World War II.

Born in Uniontown, Pa. on December 31, 1880, Marshall was a product of the Virginia Military Institute, where he showed a special proficiency in military subjects. Marshall served with honor during World War I, heading the First Army’s operations during the Meuse-Argonne offensive that led to the Allied victory in the fall of 1918.

When World War II began in September 1939 with Germany’s invasion of Poland, Marshall was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, a task in which he was assigned the duty of expanding a U.S. military force of 200,000 to more than 8.3 million troops within a five-year period. For his work, Marshall was credited by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill as the “organizer of victory” in World War II.

General George C. Marshall*

Two years after the war ended, Marshall was appointed Secretary of State by President Harry Truman and within six months proposed the European Recovery Program that proved pivotal in the reconstruction of war-torn Europe.

“Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos,” Marshall said during a 1947 speech at Harvard University. “Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”

In 1953, Marshall received the Nobel Prize for his role in the successful recovery effort that helped Western European countries get back on their feet after six years of devastating military conflict.

After several years of ill health, Marshall died in October 1959 at the age of 78 and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery where his words, “The only way human beings can win a war is to prevent it,” are immortalized.

Other Marshall quotes of note:

“Military power wins battles, but spiritual power wins wars.”
“We must stop setting our sights by the light of each passing ship; instead, we must set our course by the stars.”
“Democracy is the most demanding of all forms of government in terms of the energy, imaginations, and public spirit required of the individual.”
“I must have assistants who will solve their own problems and tell me later what they’ve done.”

*Marshall Foundation Archives, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons