The Making of a Leader

February 1, 2024
George C. Marshall is remembered as architect of the Marshall Plan, the 1948 U.S. initiative to restart the economies of Western European nations and protect them from Soviet Union expansionism after WWII. While biographies of Marshall exist, Bunting (Ulysses S. Grant, 2004) here looks for insights into the army general's abilities and accomplishments by detailing his early years. An older brother's success at Virginia Military Institute led young Marshall toward a military career. Mediocre grades denied him a West Point appointment, but he earned high marks at VMI for his strength of character and personal discipline. Fellow cadets could not break his spirit despite hazing and came to admire him, even with his Yankee ways and accent. As a young officer, Marshall stood out among his peers, and he contributed much to train other officers at the Army's Fort Leavenworth. Becoming aide-de-camp to General John Pershing in WWI, Marshall gained battlefield experience and access to the highest corridors of political power, which ultimately brought him to renown as Secretary of State and stalwart of democracy.

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Starred review from January 1, 2024
An early-life biography of one of America's greatest leaders. George C. Marshall (1880-1959) was vital to the Allies' victory in World War II. Unlike most other American military figures, his postwar career was not an anticlimax: He served as secretary of state, designed the Marshall Plan, and became the only general to win the Nobel Peace Prize. The author, a historian, doesn't aim to add another standard biography but rather to examine Marshall's formative years. Clearly an admirer, Bunting makes it clear that Marshall was a significant figure long before he became nationally known. Son of a Pennsylvania businessman, he yearned for a military career from early adolescence. Sent to the Virginia Military Institute, he didn't excel in academics or athletics but did finish as the "outstanding man of the class" of 1901 and obtained a commission in 1902. The author emphasizes that he was already demonstrating a rigorous dedication to duty, absolute dependability, and a "cool, distancing courtesy." He was so efficient that commanding officers loved having him on their staff, so that was where he spent most years before 1939. He accompanied the first American division overseas in 1917, overseeing its training and early battle success. In 1918, Commander-in-Chief George Pershing brought him in, and he performed brilliantly in planning operations, following Pershing when he became chief of staff after the war. During the bleak interwar years, Marshall occasionally fulfilled his desire to command troops, and he modernized training and operations as assistant commandant of the Fort Benning infantry school and as chief of war plans in the War Department. Although among the most junior brigadier generals when the existing chief of staff retired, everyone who mattered, including President Franklin Roosevelt, supported Marshall as his replacement. In this illuminating biography, Bunting agrees with the decision. A superb account of the early life of an unsullied American hero.

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