George C. Marshall once said it best: “Don’t fight the problem, decide it.” That decisive philosophy turned a man who couldn’t even get into West Point into the only general ever awarded the Nobel Peace Prize—and the architect of the Marshall Plan that rebuilt postwar Europe and saved it from communism.
Quote of the Day by George C. Marshall
“Don’t Fight the Problem, Decide It.” – That quote belongs to George C. Marshall, and that decisive, take-charge attitude goes a long way toward explaining why he played such major roles in (1) America’s WWII victory as U.S. Army Chief of Staff and (2) the United States’s eventual triumph in the Cold War as U.S. Secretary of State.
Accordingly, we now take a look at the remarkable life of this leader, soldier, and statesman.
Early Life of George C. Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. was born on December 31, 1880, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the youngest of three children of George Catlett Marshall and Laura Emily (née Bradford) Marshall.
He was the first cousin, three times removed, of former Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall.
Early on, young George Jr. decided he wanted to be a career soldier, but he was unable to secure an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point because of his decidedly lackluster high school grades.
Undeterred from his goal to become a military officer one way or another, he instead gained admission to the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), despite active discouragement from his own brother Stuart, himself a VMI alumnus.
VMI
Accordingly, George enrolled at VMI in 1897 at the tender age of 16.
Soon enough, he was subjected to a particularly brutal act of hazing by the upper-class bullies. Some of those first-year students (AKA “rats”) stuck an unsheathed bayonet into wooden planks on the floor, tip-up.
Author Greg Behrman picks up the story from there in his book “The Most Noble Adventure: The Marshall Plan and the Time When America Helped Save Europe”: “They had Marshall squat over the weapon. He held his lanky frame above the tip, praying that they would relent. They did not, and after twenty minutes, he fainted…Marshall woke up with a deep gash in his buttocks. Had the angle of his fall been an inch or two in another direction, he would have died.” He didn’t rat on the “rats,” and the upperclassmen, “awed by this courage,” didn’t harass him any further.
Marshall played left tackle on the Keydets football team. He ranked first in military discipline, attained the position of senior first captain in the Corps of Cadets, and graduated 15th out of 34 in the Class of 1901. George finally received that long-coveted commission as a second lieutenant of infantry in February 1902.
Initial Military Career
After serving in posts in the Philippines and Stateside, Marshall graduated with honors from the Infantry-Cavalry School at Fort Leavenworth in 1907 and from the Army Staff College in 1908.
During World War I, he distinguished himself as one of the chief planners of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, successfully transferring almost 600,000 men to the front without provoking the German army into deploying additional troops.
On October 15, 1930, he married Katherine Boyce Marshall (née Tupper), with whom he had three children. On October 1, 1936, he was promoted to Brigadier General.
WWII: Army Chief of Staff
Marshall earned both his fourth star and his appointment as Army Chief of Staff on September 1, 1939, coinciding with the start of World War II. By 1941, he had transformed the Army from one of 174,000 men and ranked 17th in the world in terms of strength to an Army of 1.25 million men.
On December 16, 1944, GEN Marshall became the first-ever General of the Army (5-star), the equivalent of a Field Marshal in foreign armies (he didn’t relish the thought of being called “Marshal Marshall”).
GEN Marshall resigned his position as Chief of Staff on November 18, 1945. His public life was far from over. President Harry S. Truman appointed Marshall as Secretary of State the following month.
Harry S. Truman National Portrait Gallery 19FortyFive.com Photo Taken in Washington, DC on 1/23/2026.
Crowning Achievement: The Marshall Plan
Ever mindful of the depressing economic doldrums in Germany the interwar years (described in eye-opening detail in Albert Speer’s bestseller “Inside the Third Reich”) that enabled the rise of Adolf Hitler and thus necessitated World War II in the first place, Secretary of State Marshall—during a June 5, 1947 speech to the graduating class at Harvard University—called for a comprehensive program to rebuild Europe.
Spurred by the fear of Communist expansion and the rapid deterioration of European economies in the winter of 1946–1947, Congress heeded Secretary Marshall’s call by passing the Economic Cooperation Act in March 1948, approving funding that would eventually rise to over $12 billion for the rebuilding of Western Europe.
As noted by the U.S. State Department’s Office of the Historian, “Economic historians have debated the precise impact of the Marshall Plan on Western Europe, but these differing opinions do not detract from the fact that the Marshall Plan has been recognized as a great humanitarian effort.”
Indeed, Marshall became the only general ever to receive a Nobel Peace Prize. He was also named “Man of the Year” by Time Magazine (his second time so honored) in 1948.
General Douglas MacArthur. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Later Life
In September 1950—in the midst of the Korean War—Truman named Marshall to another Cabinet post, this time as Secretary of Defense.
Due to a provision in the National Security Act of 1947 prohibiting a uniformed military officer from serving in the post, Marshall needed a congressional waiver before he could be confirmed for the post.
As SECEDF, he played a role in Truman’s controversial firing of Gen. Douglas MacArthur.
Crew of an M-24 tank along the Naktong River front. On the ground is Pfc. Rudolph Dotts, Egg Harbor City, N.J. gunner (center); Pvt. Maynard Linaweaver, Lundsburg, Kansas, cannoner; and on top is Pfc. Hugh Goodwin, Decature, Miss., tank commander. All are members of the 24th Reconnaissance, 24th Division.
NARA FILE#: 111-C-6061
He finally retired from public service in September 1951.
George C. Marshall died on 16 October 1959 at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, at the age of 78, after a series of strokes. He was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery, Section 7, Grave 8198.
Lasting Legacy
Dodona Manor, Marshall’s former home in Leesburg, Virginia, is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Meanwhile, institutions named in his honor include the now-defunct George C. Marshall Institute think tank in Arlington, Virginia, and the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
In the 1998 Best Picture Oscar-winning film “Saving Private Ryan,” Marshall was portrayed by Harve Presnell.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr is a Senior Defense Editor. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (with a concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He is also the author of the book “Five Decades of a Fabulous Firearm: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Beretta 92 Pistol Series,” the second edition of which was recently published.
