[Please note: The word “Featured” on the left side above was NOT inserted by this blogger, but apparently was inserted by WordPress, and it cannot be removed. NO post in this blog is sponsored.]
The Book of the Week is “The Making of A Leader, The Formative Years of George C. Marshall” by Josiah Bunting III, published in 2024. This short volume detailed the career of a war hero, up until the late 1930’s.
George C. Marshall, whose name is fading from the public’s memory, was best known for playing second fiddle to Eisenhower in WWII, but he still did a good job. He was born in December 1880 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. As a military officer, he played well with others, even his subordinates.
During WWI, Marshall got glory for deploying American troops and equipment across France, more efficiently than was thought humanly possible. He made a small dent in reducing the total number of deaths (close to 52,000) and wounded (close to 200,000) in that war.
In summer 1919, after having experienced or heard about the horrors of the war gone by, most Americans’ attitude was anti-authoritarian and pacifist. They highly doubted a new dictator would rise up anytime soon; moreover, military aggression was so expensive. Contradictorily, perhaps desperately clinging to his job, General Peyton March, secretary of war, believed the United States should have a large military of half a million already-trained men at-the-ready to deal with future threats. General John Pershing, a WWI hero, thought half of that might be necessary, as additional men could be trained quickly.
The government assigned Marshall to be an instructor at military schools on and off through the years. In the early 1920’s, he became gatekeeper and assistant to the aforementioned Pershing, military chief of staff. This new Washington, D.C. administrative job also stalled his career. Commanding soldiers in a war was the fastest way to win medals, and get a promotion to a better military title and rank.
One time, a group of men from the Tennessee GOP came to Marshall’s office when Pershing happened to be out of town, to urge Pershing to run for president. Marshall turned them away. For, he knew Pershing would be another Ulysses S. Grant as president– a naive leader whose administration was horribly corrupt.
Through the decades, Marshall was paid very little money, but when stationed overseas, his family was provided with household help in what was considered luxury accommodations in those locales.
Read the book to learn much more about: Marshall’s personality, his colleagues, and how his talents were arguably wasted when he was assigned to sit behind a desk and push paper instead of training men to fight; and the first forty years of his working life.