George Cartwright Marshall

George Catlett Marshall, Jr. (December 31, 1880 - October 16, 1959) was a U.S. Army general, politician, and diplomat. His highest military rank was a five-star general. He held important positions during World War II and the Cold War, and served as Army Chief of Staff, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense. Marshall led the Allied forces to win the war during World War II, and then went to China as an ambassador to try unsuccessfully to mediate the civil war between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. Later, he advocated that the United States should help Europe recover after the war. In 1953, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the "Marshall Plan" and was the only U.S. Army general to receive this honor. Marshall was born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, in 1880 and graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1901. In February 1902, he became a second lieutenant in the infantry and immediately went to the Philippines. He has held various positions in the United States and overseas and has been promoted through the ranks. In 1907, he was ranked first among five honorary graduates of the Infantry and Cavalry School course, and the following year he graduated first from the Army Staff College. In 1916, Marshall became aide-de-camp to J. Franklin Bell, commander of the Western Military District. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Marshall was sent to the staff of the 1st Division to assist the division in mobilizing and training in the United States and planning its combat operations in France. Thereafter, he was transferred to the staff of the American Expeditionary Forces Command and became an important formulator of U.S. military combat plans. After World War I, Marshall served as aide-de-camp to Army Chief of Staff John Pershing. Later, he served on the Army Staff and served as the executive officer of the 15th Infantry Regiment in China and an instructor at the Army War College. In 1927, he served as the vice president of the U.S. Army Infantry School and began to reform command and staff operating procedures, contributing to the subsequent performance of the U.S. military in World War II. From 1932 to 1933, he commanded the 8th Infantry Regiment at Fort Scriven, Georgia. From 1936 to 1938, Marshall served as commander of the 5th Brigade of the 3rd Infantry Division and Vancouver Barracks, and was promoted to brigadier general. At the same time, he was also responsible for overseeing 35 Civilian Conservation Corps camps in Oregon and southern Washington. In July 1938, Marshall was transferred to the Operations Planning Division of the War Department's General Staff Headquarters; he later became the Army's Deputy Chief of Staff. In 1939, after Army Chief of Staff Marlin Craig retired, Marshall first took over as acting chief of staff, and then officially became the Army Chief of Staff.