Forrest C. Pogue (1912–1996)

The third volume of Forrest Pogue’s biography of George Catlett Marshall opens with the general’s attendance at the 1943 Casablanca Conference. It’s a fitting starting point given that it represents much of the activity that would occupy Marshall during the final two-and-a-half years of the war: namely the attending of conferences and never-ending negotiations with his counterparts in the other armed services. Though often tedious and tension-filled, it was a process that was show more absolutely necessary in order to hammer out a combined strategy against the Axis powers – and one to which Marshall brought an effective array of abilities.

This is the theme that emerges from Pogue’s book: Marshall as the indispensable man. This comes across most clearly in his examination of the decision that perhaps more than any other defined Marshall’s place in history: the command of the Normandy invasion. Throughout 1943 it was expected by many in the American leadership that Marshall would trade places with Dwight Eisenhower at some point in the near future and lead the forces opening up the long-awaited “second front” in France. Pogue makes it clear that Marshall himself desired this, as it reflected what would be a career-capping challenge for any military commander. Yet as speculation of Marshall’s departure increased, the calls to retain Marshall as the Army’s chief-of-staff only grew, underscoring the vital role in played in the war effort and culminating in Marshall’s reluctant decision to stay on in his post.

As a result, Marshall has never received the public accaim given to generals such as Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, and Omar Bradley for their role in commanding American ground forces. This is unfortunate, because as Pogue makes clear Marshall’s labors were vital to their success. The scope of Marshall’s concerns was enormous, ranging from questions of manpower to the balance of divisions assigned to various campaigns. Throughout this process he coordinated the activities of theater commanders, attended meetings with world leaders, negotiated with his counterparts in the United States Navy and the British armed forces, and worked patiently with members of Congress in order to ensure the degree of harmony necessary to turn the global military effort into victory. It was an enormous and exhausting effort, and one that taxed Marshall to the fullest.

What comes across in Pogue’s text, though, is not just his capability in the role but his humanity as well. Pogue takes the space to explain how Marshall coped with the enormous strain of his role, which was both mentally and physically demanding. Even with his manifold concerns, though, Marshall made the time for human touches, whether it was personal letters to the families of fallen soldiers or his efforts to honor his good friend Sir John Dill, the British general who served as a liaison in Washington until his death in 1944. That Dill resides today in Arlington National Cemetery is entirely due to Marshall, and it reflects the lengths to which he would go to ensuring that Dill received the recognition Marshall thought was Dill’s due.

Pogue’s book succeeds in conveying the enormity of Marshall’s responsibilities during the Second World War, as well as his role in bringing about the ultimate victory over the Axis powers. While the degree of detail can often make for less-than-scintillating reading, the sheer scope of the amount of material is a real testament to the depth of knowledge about Pogue’s subject. It makes for a fitting testament to one of the 20th century’s great Americans, one that needs to be read by anyone seeking to understand Marshall’s achievements in one of the most critical moments in his nation’s history. show less

Ask most people to name the greatest American general of the Second World War and you’re likely to hear such famous names as Dwight Eisenhower, George Patton, or Douglas MacArthur. Only occasionally might someone propose the name George Catlett Marshall, despite his outsized role in the conflict. From September 1939 until November 1945, Marshall served as the military head of the United States Army, in which role he built up and directed a massive ground and air force that waged war across show more the globe. Yet Marshall’s role has long been overshadowed by those of the commanders on the battlefield, whose achievements were only possible because of Marshall’s organizational abilities and strategic guidance.
How Marshall came to occupy such an important position at such a crucial time in history is the focus of the first volume of Forrest Pogue’s tetralogy about the general and statesman. A former member of the U.S. Army’s historical division and the author of the volume in their famous “green book” series on the supreme command in Europe during the war, Pogue was invited to write Marshall’s official biography and was granted unrestricted access to both the general and his papers. These he combined with additional archival research to provide a comprehensive look at his subject’s life and career.

Pogue begins with Marshall’s upbringing in western Pennsylvania. The son of a businessman, Marshall enjoyed a comfortable childhood until a poor investment on his father’s part left his family in straitened financial circumstances. While drawn to soldiering, the challenges of gaining an appointment to West Point led young Marshall instead to enroll at the Virginia Military Institute. Upon graduation, Marshall was commissioned into an army recently engorged by the Spanish American War with new officers, making for an extremely competitive contest for promotion.

Nevertheless, Marshall rose gradually through the ranks. As Pogue makes clear, this was due to Marshall’s hard work and diligent application to his tasks. The young lieutenant soon demonstrated capabilities far beyond his rank, impressing both his peers and his superiors. After service in the Philippines Marshall returned to the United States, where he distinguished himself as both a student and an instructor in the Army’s emerging professional educational system. For Marshall, however, this proved a double-edged sword for his career prospects, as his gifts as a staff officer denied him the opportunities to serve in the line that were invaluable for an officer’s promotion prospects. As a result, Marshall found himself still a captain after the First World War, while many of his peers sported eagles or even stars on their shoulders.

Yet Marshall benefited enormously from the support of his former commander, General John Pershing. Chosen as Pershing’s aide during the general’s postwar service as chief of staff, Marshall enjoyed Pershing’s patronage and connections as he rose steadily in rank through a shrunken military establishment. During the 1930s Marshall’s service both as a regional commander within the Civilian Conservation Corps and as Deputy Chief of Staff commended him in the eyes of President Franklin Roosevelt, resulting in his appointment as chief of staff on the eve of the momentous outbreak of war in Europe.

Thanks to his access to both Marshall and his documentary legacy, Pogue provides his readers with a thorough account of his pre-Second World War military career. Though rich in detail, the text never drags thanks to Pogue’s deft writing and his ability to supply the exact right amount of explanatory context. Yet while Pogue provides an invaluable of Marshall’s activities, he falls short in terms of analysis, as he refrains from analyzing Marshall’s ideas about tactics or doctrine or strategic thinking. While this reflects in part a paucity of writing on Marshall’s part, his failure to supplement this with his interviews with Marshall represents a missed opportunity, one that Pogue himself never compensates for by offering his own suppositions based on the historical record. It’s an unfortunate omission in what will likely be the most detailed study of Marshall’s development, and limits the achievement of what is otherwise a valuable study of an underappreciated American military leader. show less

On November 18, 1945, George Catlett Marshall stepped down from his post as the fifteenth Chief of Staff of the United States Army. It was a momentous tour of duty by any standard, as over the course of five years Marshall oversaw the Army’s preparations for the Second World War and the ultimate victory of American arms over the Axis powers. As the longest-serving Chief of Staff in the Army’s history, Marshall’s retirement was overdue, and after the stresses of the war he looked show more forward to a long period of rest with his wife.

Instead, a month later Marshall flew to China as President Harry Truman’s special envoy to the region. This marked the start of a new phase in Marshall’s storied career of public service, as the general now began a six-year period undertaking a new succession of challenging tasks. As Forrest Pogue makes clear in the fourth and final volume of his account of Marshall’s life, the general’s service came at a critical moment in the country’s relationship with the world, as the United States sought to define its place in the postwar environment. Marshall played a major role in this process, first as Truman’s special advisor in China, then in the cabinet as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense. In these offices he helped shape the postwar settlement in Europe, championed the economic recovery plan that was to bear his name, and managed America’s military at a critical phase of its war in Korea.

These positions called upon the depth of knowledge and the range of skills that Marshall had developed over his long military career. As special envoy, Marshall attempted to bridge the divide between the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong’s Communists, only for his efforts to fail at the intractability of the two sides. Marshall’s experience with high-level conferences proved far more useful in his role as Secretary of State, to which office Truman named him upon his return to the United States in 1947. As the nation’s top diplomat Marshall soon found himself dealing with the enormous challenge of rebuilding postwar Europe, one made more difficult by the Soviet Union’s willingness to let policy drift regardless of the ongoing suffering.

In response, the United States developed the European Recovery Program. Though this became known as the Marshall Plan, Pogue makes it clear that this was not his brainchild but that of his department’s Policy Planning Staff. In this respect it was a triumph of Marshall’s management style, in that he defined their goal and left them to work out the solution. Yet Pogue’s description of Marshall’s efforts to convince Congress to approve the funding for it make it clear that his involvement was vital for the program’s success, fully justifying the Nobel Peace Prize he subsequently would receive for it.

Upon his departure from the State Department in 1949 Marshall accepted a largely honorific position as the president of the American Red Cross. His hopes for a permanent retirement, though, ended with the Korean War. With the incumbent Defense Secretary, Louis Johnson, blamed for budget cuts that left American forces poorly prepared, Truman asked Marshall to take up the office. As a result, Marshall found himself at the heart of the controversy surrounding Truman’s firing of Douglas MacArthur, and subject to increasing attacks by the Republican right as a consequence. It was a discordant note to what was otherwise the acclaim he received both upon his final retirement in 1951 and his death eight years later.

The final volume of Pogue’s biography completes what is an effective monument to a great statesman and public servant. In it he provides an often-meticulous account of Marshall’s labors and the problems he addressed. In the process of recounting the events of the various conferences and committee hearings in which his subject participated, though, Pogue often loses himself in the details. What he leaves out in the process is any real analysis of Marshall’s actions or his broader thinking. As a result, while giving us a biography that will long serve as a valuable resource on Marshall’s career and a testament to his labors, it falls short in providing us with any assessment of his achievements or the legacy he left through them. show less

As a fan of General Marshall, I was looking forward to finally getting and reading this book. This series is effectively the authorized biography of Marshall. However, my opinion of this first volume is mixed having read various other biographies on Marshall. There have been better and worse biographies on him.

I thought the balance of presented background history to personal experiences was alright. Some other biographies provided text with tremendous historical detail to the point of making show more you wonder if you were reading a history of WWII in general. I was slightly disappointed in this book about the level of detail of Marshall's experiences. Other books have included more details on Marshall's life experiences. The apparent shortcoming in this book was rather unexpected.

But I will admit each biography presents Marshall from a different perspective or focus. This one was from a general viewpoint.

Because I have always been interested in Marshall's personal and professional development up to 1939, this was the book of the series I was most interested in reading. I do look forward to reading follow-on volumes, but not with the urgency of other previously read biographies. show less