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Although British Prime Minister Winston Churchill continued to have grave reservations about the strategy, at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943, he and U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt affirmed their tentative commitment to a cross-channel invasion of German-occupied France. As the initial plan called for the invasion force to be composed primarily of British troops, they agreed that a British officer should be supreme commander of the operation, a position Churchill reportedly promised to General Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial Staff and the highest-ranking officer in the British army. But as the planning of the operation progressed it became clear that the invasion force would be predominantly American, so that at the Quebec Conference in August 1943 Churchill acknowledged that the Supreme Commander should be American. That officer, he and Roosevelt agreed, should be General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff.
Marshall seemed an obvious choice. The highest-ranking U.S. army officer at the time, he had demonstrated outstanding competence, performing impressively as Chief of Staff. Nevertheless, many in the U.S. chain of command, including Roosevelt, had reservations about tapping Marshall for the post—not because they doubted his ability (none did) but rather because he had become so valuable as Chief of Staff.
Each of the other members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff counseled Roosevelt not to appoint Marshall to command the invasion (which had been dubbed Operation Overlord), arguing that Marshall’s continued presence as a member of the Joint Chiefs was crucial to the success of the war effort. “We have the winning combination here in Washington,” Fleet Admiral Ernest King, Chief of Naval Operations, told Roosevelt. “Why break it up?” Marshall, King argued, was “indispensable” to the Join Chiefs and “could not be spared, however desirable he might be as supreme commander.” Retired General John Pershing agreed, writing Roosevelt in September to urge him to keep Marshall in Washington. “I know of no one at all comparable to replace him as Chief of Staff,” Pershing wrote. To transfer Marshall to another position, no matter how important would be to “deprive ourselves of the benefit of his outstanding strategical ability and experience.”
Roosevelt understood (and shared) the concerns, but believed Marshall deserved and had earned the opportunity to command the invasion. In his reply to Pershing, Roosevelt wrote, “I think it is only a fair thing to give George a chance in the field. The best way I can express it is to tell you that I want George to be the Pershing of the Second World War, and he cannot be that if we keep him here.”
While en route to the Tehran Conference, on November 21 Roosevelt stopped in Tunis to meet with General Dwight Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, and FDR’s choice to replace Marshall as Chief of Staff. At the meeting, Roosevelt explained his reasoning for appointing Marshall to command Overlord: “Ike, you and I know who was chief of staff during the last years of the Civil War but practically no one else knows, although the names of the field generals—Grant, Lee, Jackson, Sherman, Sheridan and the others—every schoolboy knows them. I hate to think that 50 years from now practically nobody will know who George Marshall was. That is one of the reasons why I want George to have the big command—he is entitled to establish his place in history as a great general.” Eisenhower nodded, but said nothing in response.
At the Tehran Conference, Stalin continued to pressure Roosevelt to name a commander for the operation, interpreting the delay in doing so as a lack of resolve to proceed with the invasion, but Roosevelt, still torn and undecided, refused to commit.
On the way back to the U.S., Roosevelt and his entourage stopped in Cairo. There, on December 5, the president invited Marshall to a private lunch, where he discussed his concerns, then put in the decision in Marshall’s lap. “What do you want to do?” Roosevelt asked.
Had Marshall asked for the Overlord command, no doubt Roosevelt would have given it to him. Instead, Marshall put the interest of the country above any personal ambition. He told the president that they should avoid a mistake common in previous wars, that of “the consideration of the feelings of the individual rather than the good of the country.” Roosevelt paused, then said, “Well, I don’t feel I could sleep at ease if you were out of Washington.”
Whatever Marshall may have felt at that moment, he betrayed no emotion. The following day, when Roosevelt asked who Marshall would recommend for the assignment, he said the decision should be Roosevelt’s. “Then it will be Eisenhower,” Roosevelt replied.
Marshall then wrote out a message to be sent from Roosevelt to Stalin: “From the President to Marshal Stalin. The immediate appointment of General Eisenhower to command of Overlord operation has been decided upon.”
When Roosevelt met with Eisenhower on December 7 and informed him that he would be Supreme Commander of the operation (“Well, Ike, you are going to command Overlord.”), Eisenhower replied, “I hope you will not be disappointed.” That same day, Marshall sent him the handwritten note that Roosevelt had signed, writing at the bottom of it, ““Cairo, Dec. 7, 43. Dear Eisenhower, I thought you might like to have this as a memento. It was written hurriedly by me as the final meeting broke up yesterday, the President signing it immediately. G.C.M.”
Operation Overlord, as we all know, was a great success. Eisenhower was promoted to five-star general in December 1944 and would go on to be elected to two terms as U.S. president. Marshall was also promoted to five-star general in December (four days earlier than Eisenhower). He would go on to serve as Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense in the Truman administrations.
The photo of Eisenhower and Marshall was taken in October 1944.
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“A veteran is someone who at one point in his life wrote a blank check made payable to the ‘United States of America’ for an amount of ‘up to and including my life.'” -Anonymous
Hard to imagine that a prima donna like Patton would be as selfless.
“A soldier accepts personal responsibility for the safety of the body politic of which he is a member, defending it, if need be, with his life. The civilian does not.” — Lt. Col. Jean V. Dubois (Ret.) and student, p. 26 Starship Troopers (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein
I never knew this story growing up but Marshall exemplifies the second Heinlein quote!
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Reinke Faces Life 