Marshall, George Catlett

(1880-1959)

   Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, George Marshall was a graduate of Virginia Military Institute. He was commissioned in 1902 and served in the Philippines and then in the American Expeditionary Force during World War I helping plan several major offensives. After the war, he was aide-de-camp to General John J. Pershing, served in China, and was head of Fort Benning Infantry School in Georgia. Marshall was appointed army chief of staff in 1929 and served throughout World War II as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s chief advisor. He was made a general of the army in December 1944 and oversaw the wartime expansion of the army before retiring in 1945. In November 1945, he was sent to China as ambassador in an unsuccessful attempt to resolve the conflict between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman appointed Marshall secretary of state, and he played a major role in the early Cold War, initiating the European Recovery Program, or Marshall Plan, to encourage economic recovery as a way of combating communism. He was secretary of defense from 1950 to 1951 and was involved in the dismissal of General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. Marshall retired in 1951 and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953.