Book Review | George Marshall

Georgre Marshall - Defender of the Republic - BUY NOW

GEORGE MARSHALL: Defender of the Republic | David Roll, Dutton Caliber, (2019), 704p.

In reading a tome on Pershing, the vignette of Marshall in World War I, stepping up to the General and correcting him respectfully but forcefully intrigued me to learn more about this pivotal military leader. This episode was replayed in many ways throughout his career. Marshall always spoke the preverbal “Truth to power.” yet was quiet and excessively calm in nearly all instances. 

Most of us know George Marshall as the architect of the “Marshall Plan,” the infusion of US taxpayer treasury into Europe to rebuild and prevent further lapses into totalitarian impulses. He fought hard with Congress as Sec of State and allied with Michigan Republican U.S. Senator Arthur Vanderburg. 

A VMI graduate, he spent his career in the military, rising to a 5-star Army General as Chief-of-Staff of the War Department during WWII. 

The author, Roll spends extreme detail on marque events in his career, like the U.S. military failure to prevent the attack at Pearl Harbor. In the biographer’s judgment, it was a series of incompetence underlined by US hubris in underestimating Japan’s capability. Additionally, he provides a detailed account of Marshall’s brief but failed service as Special Envoy to China in attempting to prevent the Communists from taking over. 

Marshall never commanded troops in combat. He demonstrated substantial talents in strategic planning and masterminded the first major U.S. offensive in WWI and thereafter was tasked with the planning and administration of the military. Meanwhile, his contemporaries like MacArthur and Patton were winning battlefield glory. It was with extreme humility that he backed the appointment of Eisenhower as Supreme Allied Commander at a time when Truman would have approved Marshall had he chosen to push himself. 

While he had great victories, he also suffered big losses. However, throughout all of it, his unyielding commitment to his country and servant leadership is an example of real patriotism akin to the character of a Washington or Jefferson now lost in the modern milieu of self-aggrandizement and pompous parading.

Georgre Marshall - Defender of the Republic - BUY NOW