George C. Marshall

General of the Army George Catlett Marshall was chief of staff of the United States Army through the Second World War, then secretary of state and secretary of defense, and the only professional soldier ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Churchill called him the organiser of victory. He took over an army of fewer than two hundred thousand men in 1939 and built it into a force of over eight million. He selected the commanders who ran the war, Eisenhower and Bradley among them, promoting on ability over seniority and removing officers who could not cope. Roosevelt wanted him to command the invasion of Europe and then kept him in Washington, saying he could not sleep with Marshall out of the country. He was sent to China in 1945 to mediate between the Nationalists and the Communists and failed, which he regarded as his greatest disappointment. As secretary of state he set out, in a short commencement address at Harvard in June 1947, the proposal that became the European Recovery Program. It offered American money for reconstruction to any European country that would take it, including the Soviet Union and its satellites, on the condition that the recipients plan the recovery jointly. Around thirteen billion dollars went to sixteen countries, and the requirement to cooperate did as much as the money. He insisted the plan be aimed at hunger and chaos rather than at any country or doctrine. He received the Nobel Peace Prize for it in 1953. He was also the target of a notorious attack by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of a conspiracy against the United States.

• Lived: 1880 CE – 1959 CE
• Nationality: American
• Roles: military, statesman