Transcripts For CSPAN2 George 20240704

I hope you enjoyed this the Marshall Foundation was begun by president truman before left office. He declared general marshalls papers from his long should not be gathered at the National Archives as other government officials, but that should have a foundation in his name and the papers and memorabilia be gathered in something akin to a president ial library. How are you funded . Privately funded. We are a501c3. Were not associated with the state of virginia or, the National Park service. And although are surrounded by the vmi campus, were not part of the Virginia Military either. Tell us more about. The foundations work, its outreach of teachers and and the kinds of goals that you have. The foundation exists to tell the story specifically general marshall and others whom we hold collections for here. And we do this. We have researchers who come to the library. I have students working on history day reports in eighth grade. We a Teacher Education conference coming up this spring where teachers will spend a week here in lexington and develop lesson plans that they can use in their Middle School High School classrooms. We are in the library at the Marshall Foundation and lots to look out here. But lets first talk about george c. Marshall himself. Of course, he lived a long life in service to this country and has roots right here in lexington. Thats true. Marshall actually from uniontown, pennsylvania, which is in western pennsylvania, not far from. He decided that he wanted to come to the Virginia Military institute to go to school, much to his older brother stewart chagrin because stewart had been a cadet here and graduated from vmi, he threw a fit and we cant let george go. Hes a terrible student and hell ruin the family name. But but he did come. He was still a fair to middling student. But when he became in his senior year, he was the the first captain, which is now called the mental commander whos in charge, the cadets and it was also here in lexington that he met his first wife, lily, whos was just off of the campus. And so they they say that he would run the block and leave campus without permission, go visit lily. So after where did he go . His first tour of duty was in the philippines. He and lily had only been married a couple of weeks, and he was sent on an unaccompanied tour of the philippines, where she stayed here in the United States, and he went to the philippines. It was just after the the the spanishamerican war. There was still some insurrection going on in the philippines. At 20 years old, he was the mayor, not only of a community, but an entire island in the philippines trying to to bring peace to the area. It was a challenging first tour. How about the years leading into World War Two . Where was general marshall at that time . He spent some time working with troops in the United States and overseas in china. He also spent time to going to military school, the army and then called school of the line, now called commanding general Staff College in fort leavenworth, kansas. He was one of the last lieutenant boys to attend school there and was kept on as an instructor. So he, as a first lieutenant, was junior to most of the students that he was teaching. He also spent time working with the National Guard in summer times during their active duty training. And i think that that time was extremely valuable to general later on because he really began to understand what it meant to be a citizen soldier, a part time soldier, a National Guardsman. He said that you cant take a man from behind the counter of a store, throw army boots on him and have him march all over the countryside because youll tear his feet up. You have to work him into it. And so i think he gained rare insight that was going to prove very useful as we get into World War Two. So lets talk about those years into, World War Two and George Marshalls relationship with franklin d. Roosevelt and what was his role then . Because when we think of george, one of the things youll read about is he was a great planner. Right. Yes. He really actually discovered that he had a great talent for planning and logistics in world war one. He had a run in with general pershing that could have ended his career. And instead it landed him in general headquarters planning. He the battle of kentucky was the first world war, one battle that the United States had participated in as a standard lone force. He wasnt with the maps that he had so. He spent nights going behind enemy lines to his own peril, not only from enemy attack, but from his own field. Artillery that was being fired in the evening to create his own maps for this and for that effort, he was awarded a silver star in intervening years after the war, he served as aide de camp to general pershing, which i think was a good time for him to see how it worked in the senior echelons of the. He then was back in china. He spent time fort benning rewriting the Infantry School curriculum. He said that this is what they were teaching before world war one. The armys changed lot since then, and the army gotten very mobile. We had Radio Communication pins, we had airplanes. It had to be different. And then he was pulled into to the the general headquarters in 1938 as assistant chief of staff. His first meeting with roosevelt did not go very well. Marshall has a reputation, rightfully so, speaking truth to power, as he did with pershing and this in this meeting with roosevelt with president roosevelt. There were about a men there, and they were talking about air power and how air power would be completely different. We got involved in this war that we wouldnt boots on the ground, that the airplanes take care of everything and. Everybody was agreeing with the president. They got to general marshall and general marshall said, mr. President , i respectfully disagree. And said that you could hear the air leave the room. And after meeting people patted him on the shoulder and said, well, you know, general, thats the shortest tour in d. C. Ever. Have a nice time out in the back of beyond because you just entered career. But president roosevelt saw what general pershing had seen which is someone his own peril would tell him the truth and he felt like he needed that. If they got involved in this, what would turn out to be a global war . And what was his specific role during World War Two . He was chief of staff of the army, which is the leader of the armed forces, of course, then and also included the army air corps, which became the army air forces, the war. And he was in charge of of the entire army National Guard and regular army. He also was the pusher behind creating the joint chiefs of staff in their first meetings with the british, he saw the cooperation that was taking place the british chiefs of staff and wanted that same kind of organization in the United States. And so so that they created this this joint chiefs, which wed never had before for better communication, cooperation. We are here in the library at the george c. Marshall foundation with Melissa Davis, who is director of library and archives for the foundation. Lets do a little bit of a tour inside this library, beginning with this table and this map. Tell us what were looking at. So this is a copy of the last core level dday map in existence. It belonged to general leonard giraud, who graduated from vmi in 1911. He is in this picture on the left. He was the Corps Commander of omaha beach and is the copy of map that he carried ashore. We have the original here at the foundation. You said its your favorite artifact. And here it is my favorite artifact in here, because my father was part of the 29th and was on omaha beach on dday. And ive learned more from this map, his experiences that day than he ever told himself. Now, this desk has history itself, right . It does. It does. This desk was purchased with a suite of furniture by general Phil Sheridan for the War Department in the 1880s. And this was actually general sheridans private desk. This is the one that he used. We believe that he sat at the desk right here, the green men are the drawer pulls, and this one has extreme wear. Now, you to know that general sheridan wasnt very tall and he was a cavalryman, and he wore his spurs to the War Department. He wanted everybody to know that he was cav and. If you look underneath there, you can where he parked his spurs. Now, general marshall, when he moved from the munitions building, small office on constitution avenue to the bigger, almost complete id pentagon, he needed a map table and a conference table. He in storage and found this one and this the one that he used in his general headquarters office. You can see some of the staff from general headquarters gathered around another map at this desk. So the map is an artifact and the desk is as well. So, melissa, you can feel the temperature change in here inside the vault. What happens here . This is a three story vault . One way in, one way out. It holds the marshall papers as our largest and most important collection, but also about 500 other collections. We do keep the temperature and humidity controlled here differently than the library, is what youre feeling. This is also the workspace we have for items that come in the collection continues to grow and archive is never done. Secretary state George Marshall goes to harvard, goes to boston. The date is june 5th, 1947. He a speech. Its preceded this press release. It looks like the day before from the department of state. Tell us about this press release leading up to this big event at harvard. So George Marshall had come back from the moscow Foreign Ministers conference, very displeased. He didnt feel like the soviet union was living up to their end of the end of the war bargain at ty hamade he was very, very that the future of europe was in danger. And he gave a Multi Network radio address. The evening he got back from moscow where he said the patient is sinking while the doctors deliberate. And then had someone get in touch with harvard whove been trying to give him an Honorary Degree for several years. But he hadnt had time and said, can we get on the docket for june . And they said, sure. And as marshall was flying up to boston, he was delivering the essence of his speech back the state department. Neither the state department nor the white house knew exactly he was going to say that day. He requested that no american be invited to the speech. He asked that it be given very little attention as possible. The press release for the speech was issued single spaced print, which told all the radio announcers that it wasnt important because Important Press releases were issued in double spaced print to make it easy to read on the radio. Let me jump in and ask you why he didnt want the attention here in the u. S. . He was very afraid that if the idea of helping in an organized fashion was first react to by the United States that there were some elements of isolation ism that would kill it before it ever ever had a chance to grow. He knew that only by getting the reaction from europe first would it have a chance at life inside this vault, at the george c. Marshall foundation is the actual Marshall Plan speech. You have it there. You look. It is right here. This is the actual reading copy of the speech. If you look carefully, you can see the fold where he folded it the long way and stuck it in his pocket. It was delivered the day after commencement. He wrote on there. He delivered it at 2 50 p. M. , june 5th. The speech lasted for 12 minutes and literally changed the world in a logical that the United States should do, whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal Economic Health in the world, without which can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine, but against hunger poverty, desperation and chaos. Its purpose should be to revive a little working economy in the world so as to prevent the emergence of and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. Such a system. I am convinced, must not be on a piecemeal basis as crises develop any assistance that this government run in the future should provide a cure rather than a mere. Any government that is willing to assist in the task of recovery will find or cooperate. I am sure on the part of the United States government, any government which maneuvers to block the recovery of other countries cannot expect help from us. Furthermore. Furthermore government Political Parties or groups which seek to perpetuate human misery in order to profit from politically or otherwise, will encounter the opposition of the United States. What was the Immediate Reaction here, not just in boston, but here in the United States, in the u. S. Congress, and then in europe, of course . Well, was very canny. He, dean acheson, get in touch with a gentleman, the bbc named leonard mitchell, and said, Pay Attention to this speech. Youre going to want to hear it to make that the bbc would have ability to to the speech. It was not a popular this this idea of europe planning making the plan and the United States financing it was not popular in the United States with many, including a lot in congress. I mean, lets face it, the United States had just spent the equivalent of 3 trillion fighting a war. A lot of loss of life. A loss of time for these young people. The men and women who served wanted to come home, use that va loan and gi bill and start their families. They didnt want to think about europe, the things that they had seen and done. And so it was a tough sell that that he really, really had to do a lot of talking. He talked to chambers of commerce. He talked to farmers. He talked to university groups. He talked to every politician he could find. And really, he d Robert Lovett talked to everyone that fall convincing that this was a good idea. The most amazing thing is that from time that he gave the speech in uniform, even to president truman signing the act into was ten months Melissa Davis how did an oscar statue make its way to the library at the Marshall Foundation . The oscar was awarded to frank for producing the movie patton. I think everyone remembers George C Scott starred in the movie patton and he didnt come to get his oscar that night. But frank was awarded this one. Theres actually a picture of him holding two oscars because he stepped and picked up George C Scott. And the question is always, well, what happened to scotts oscar . Frank returned it the next. I suppose they pop the label off front, slapped on one for next year and used it again. Frank mccarthy during the war was chief of the secretariat, a general headquarters, and he traveled extensively with general marshall, which is a very good thing. Frank mccarthy had worked for a as a journalist before the war. Hed done some pr for the broadway show brother rat, and he was a note taker, which is a very, very good thing because marshall didnt take notes for anything. He didnt take notes at meetings, didnt keep a calendar, he didnt keep a journal, he didnt write down things. He kept everything in his head. And so having frank travel with him was wonderful. Theres this great picture of marshall talking to a general, and franks in the background just down everything because of that. We know who marshall talked with, where he stayed, he ate with what they conversed about at dinner, all of these conferences at yalta, potsdam and these international conferences. After the war took his writing talents out to hollywood and did pr and then went producing movies and he stayed close with marshall even after the war. He would go and visit. He was from richmond and he would go and visit. The marshalls at their home in leesburg. And so when frank was retiring in downsizing, he chose to donate all of his military and his hollywood papers, along with the oscar here to the foundation. Another stunning item here in the library is an actual Nobel Peace Prize awarded to George Marshall in 1953, correct . Right tell us the story. Well, when marshall was nominated for this peace in 53. It was a very controversial. There are people who said that a career soldier not receive a peace prize, but he wasnt nominated for the work that he did during World War Two. He was nominated for the work that he did after the war in saving europe with the Marshall Plan. And so being awarded this said having an a nobel prize being given to a soldier did make sense to him in that context. He and his wife were just getting over pneumonia when it was time to go to oslo to receive the award and she wasnt able to attend. But marshall did go. He took the southern route, so he sailed across the south atlantic and through the mediterranean and and he sat out on the deck and one of those deck chairs in the sun trying to dry the congestion so that he could feel better. But when he arrived by train in paris, speech was not yet done. And they dragged. Then colonel andrew good pasteur out of bed and handed him a pencil and a yellow line legal pad and said, help the general writing his speech, which he did. And thats one of my favorite things in the archive. Are those notes on that legal pad and good passers handwriting. Handwriting in the secretarys handwriting. Marshall did go to and receive the award, and i think that for him this was real recognition that the work that he had done during the war, he knew, but the work that he had done after the war matter just as well. How important is having that here in the library . I think its very important. I think that its important to understand the different facets of his career called for the same talents over and over the Marshall Planning the Marshall Plan trying to congress to pass the Marshall Plan was the same skills that he had used in Building Army during World War Two. And the way it got called the Marshall Plan is kind of interesting. At first, people it the truman plan and president truman said, no, dont call it the truman plan only half of congress will vote for it. And and so they called it the Marshall Plan. Not really, because wanted it to be. In fact, i think, you probably found it a little embarrassing, but he had established such an stature at us during the war that he was willing to work with both sides of the aisle the entire and that he would always tell the truth and he would always try to do the right thing. That i think that that allowed the congress to look at it as a whole and say, yes, this is something we want to do. What are we looking at here . This is mussolinis ceremonial sword that hung in his office in rome. It wasnt in a container, just hung on the wall. If you look at the blade you can see where theres pitting and marks probably from the pollution in rome when the allies were close to the city. He escaped took this and some other items to his villa at lake como where he thought he would be safe. But 10th Mountain Division captured him there they captured this sword. They gave the sword to general lucian who gave it to general George Marshall, who gave it to the foundation here. And it was displayed in the museum for many years. And when the Museum Closed 10th Mountain Division, one of the sword back and i told them no and theres a second sword in here, tell us that story. This sword belonged to cadet George Marshall. It was his first captains sword that was given him at graduation here at vmi it was given by the cadet in recognition of his great leadership. Here it is absolutely a work of art. And although it was made in 1901. It looks brand new in part because very it was stored at his mother in laws home here in lexington for many years. So after graduation, george, a Second Lieutenant in the army and Second Lieutenants have household baggage allowances about that big. And so anything that they wanted to keep, but they couldnt take with them. They stored here in lexington, and consequently it looks brand new. Theres not a mark on it. He didnt wear it again. Graduation because he had an officer sword from the army. And what else do we have here . We have the scabbard covering the sword. That is beautiful. The gold work on it is incredible. Someone, me, where it was made, i said most likely new york city. Im not sure where. Id like to find out if we can. If it was tiffany because theres a chance that it is a tiffany sword, but it is absolutely gorgeous. The first captains are now called regimental commanders. They still have separate swords. They dont look like this. We in an area now called the friedman room Melissa Davis, who are william and elizabeth friedman. William and elizabeth smith. Friedman were some of the foremost for the Us Government in the 20th century. They met as people working on a project trying to find codes in shakespeare and an Organization Called riverbank labs in illinois. And the man who ran it was convinced that bacon had written shakespeare. There were codes in their. Elizabeth realized very quickly werent. But they spent a lot of time learning about codes and for as as the us got involved and got closer to being in world war one, they were volunteered because of their knowledge to break codes for the Us Government. And for six months before we entered world war one, they broke every encrypt communication from the War Department, the commerce department, the justice department, everything. Then after we got involved in the war. They were volunteered to teach a class to the army soldiers. So that they would know how to encrypt and decrypt messages. And so they were literally writing the curriculum at night and then teaching it the next day and writing in the next day at night and teaching it next day. The picture here is of their first graduating class. Its an unusual photo because youll notice that not everyone in the photo is facing the camera. Some are facing off to the side. It is an a, b code that says knowledge is power. So each four people are a letter, the alphabet. So a is a, a and b is a b after the war, william or elizabeth moved to the the district of columbia. William stayed with the army signals intelligence. Elizabeth went to work for the coast guard. She was the only woman worked for the coast guard. She was their chief cryptographer. During prohibition. She pioneered, the Law Enforcement use radio triangulation to locate smugglers. And there were times when she was called on to testify. There was one big case in new orleans where she was testifying. There were 24 or so defendants with attorneys, and one of the defendants was named capone and she was given security for that. As we enter into World War Two, william stayed with the army. Elizabeth was pulled into the navy and she was using the same talents that she had used to find up and down the coast of north and south america and although william and elizabeth were married and they had the same job, one for the army, one for the navy, because of laws they werent allowed to speak with each other about what they were doing at work, which is kind of funny. At one point, a new supervisor, william, about being married to elizabeth and he said, what are you to tell me . I cant sleep in the same bed with my own wife. And and so they they worked through the war. He worked, of course, his group at Arlington Hall broke, purple, the japanese diplomatic code before the war. And they worked through the war decoding messages, one for the army, one for the navy. Now have a fondness for elizabeth specifically because my dad was in the 29th and they took the queen mary over from new york to england. And we know that several times from her records, we know that several times she saved queen mary by discovering a code. And being able to transmit it to the navy fast that they redirected the ships and. I dont know if she did that for my fathers trip, but im certainly grateful for her work. After the war, she was made and retired from government. She was considered after 25 years as a temporary employee, so the government never kept her papers. We have them all here. William went on to be the first director of the nsa, and after his retirement, after working together in the beginning, the career being separated in the middle, they came back again at the end of their career and they wrote this book called the shakespearean examined, where they prove that is absolutely no code in shakespeare. Now, the friedmans didnt just do codes for work. They enjoyed codes for family. Their children would write coded notes and letters and they would reply, this is one of their christmas cards, and you had to cut the red square and poke the holes in it and lay it. The graph here and turn it appropriately to read the message. They also had dinners where the was encoded and people have to choose their there salad in their soup and their entree and their dessert without knowing what they were actually ordering. So they really enjoyed codes. Also in the friedman room, we have a pretty rare item here to look at. What is this this is a german field enigma. It is actually one that was used during the war germany honestly thought the enigma be unbreakable, that it would create codes, could not be broken and the the english and the americans proved that was not so this field the new enigma weighs about £40 it does require electricity to work so that was something to think about taking to the field and they there arent that many left. This one does no longer work. But im awfully glad to have it. It basically operates that you type on it like a typewriter and the request goes down through these stickers and back the machine through the rotors, back through the rotors. Back through the stickers. And then it pops up as a different up here, lights up as a different letter and the same letter can be a different letter. So it might be a c the first time in a q the second time, which is one of the reasons it made it difficult. They also were able to change the settings on the rotors now the the the allies learned very quickly the the germans were very specific and how they started it into their messages with heil hitler and it gave them a foot in the door to help break the enigma. Now next to it we have the m209, which was the United States encoding machine during World War Two. Much smaller, much smaller weighs about two and a half pounds. It is completely mechanical, does not require electricity so it could be carried way in the field into the jungles of of the pacific without regard for needing power. And personally if i were private tasked with this around i would rather be an American American Melissa Davis in this part of the galaxy, we see a series portraits. What do these depict . These are posters that are from the European Program Poster Contest that took place at the Halfway Point of the four year Marshall Plan. All 18 countries were invited to participate, and theyre foremost graphic designers are the ones who created these posters. Youll see some themes over and over. Youll see a lot of doves representing peace. Youll see regrow both from plants and trees youll see some things of interest. Re and a lot about cooperation. The idea for this contest was to increase enthusiasm of of the people in europe for the Marshall Plan. Was there a lack of enthusiasm at any point . I dont know that there was a lack of. I think that possibly a couple of years of reconstruction, maybe war on the people. And and so this was a way of them excited again for the future. It also really was the new cooperation between countries that historically had not cooperative. We have france, britain, who were trading equally, which they always tariffs on each other before. So its really highlighting that new unity in europe how much money was spent on the Marshall Plan overall 13 billion. And that was considered a lot of money. That was considered a lot of money. But when look at everything that it did, the Marshall Plan had some on how the money was spent to begin with. It was administered by businessmen and not politicians to get rid of the idea of graft businessmen were used to accounting to the penny for what they spent. Also that the countries had to trade with each other. They could not play trading favorites that the cooperation had be there the money. First of all, had to be spent on the needs of the people. I mean, there was a humanitarian crisis for food, for shelter, for clothing, medical care. After that, it had to be spent only on infrastructure, roads and bridges and, railways, hospitals, schools, housing, what were the biggest critiques of the Marshall Plan . I think that it it it didnt maybe perhaps for some go on long enough it was foreshortened a little bit by the the entry of the United States and other countries into the korean war and, refocusing finances. I think that there were of course, were some countries that decided not to participate. Perhaps they regretted that. But i think overall, the people were very happy. Theres a lovely photo of a young boy about six years old, sitting on stairs, hugging pair of shoes. This is these are the flags of the countries that were participating in the Marshall Plan you see here machinery and wheat and i think that really represented a lot of what the Marshall Plan did a hook and a chain the hook almost like you would see at a port offloading goods from the ship to the land. We see a couple of posters here, the three right here involving hands that idea of a hand up, shaking hands, the strength of four hands together, you know, the the firemen carry works because its two people and four hands. Thats really thats what were seeing here is is the hands of the people joining together together. People really like the idea of, the windmill. And you can see the flags of the countries. And i think its its worth noting that italy and, germany were both participants. You know, they had recently been our enemies, but they were participants in the Marshall Plan, the rebuilding back in the us. Was the congress happy the process after they approved the. I think they really were. I it financially helped the states of course you know the United States factories were longer making tanks and b 17 as theyre making fords and frigidaire and they were sitting on the docks and on the east coast, europe had historically been our largest trading. And at the end of the war they had nothing to trade with. And so certainly getting europe back on feet, producing and consuming helped the United States out financially. How much work did George Marshall do in promoting the plan around the world once he made big speech in 47 . Well, of course, after getting it passed through congress. He did he did some traveling in europe. He was there in france at the Halfway Point when they noted that, you know, were halfway there, were halfway done and spend time in europe. And in fact, the summer of 47, as the countries together and hammered out the plan, france, he went and spoke with them in 47 as they were creating what the plan would be, whats the legacy of the Marshall Plan in your view how the of the Marshall Plan is the european as we see today, is certainly a free and peaceful europe for the most part. I dont think that we have counted on that. I think of all the history of europe, the art, the culture that could have disappeared, its nice to know that in the rebuild they didnt just throw up the cheapest buildings they could but they really tried hard to recreate. Would have been there before. So whatever church like that was destroyed before the war was rebuilt the same way after the war to retain the architectural history of europe and find lee tell us more about what the Marshall Foundation hopes to achieve in its education around the world. Absolutely. To help people realize that marshall, someone we shouldnt forget when George Marshall died in october of 1959, Winston Churchill said, that this was a great man who should never be forgotten and generation should remember him. And i think because he was not in front of cameras as eisenhower was or as macarthur was, that he tends to be forgotten he he worked in the background he worked in the planning who worked in the operations he worked in and getting things done. And he was not a fan of being in the camera. He was really rather an introvert with the public life. And so he do himself favors in the future by, not creating a name for himself in pictures, in films and in, in ways. He was very happy, just to retire and work in his vegetable garden at his home in leesburg. Well, good morning, everyone. Us by facebook and youtube here at white house history live. This is a special edition coming you from historic