This happens to be kind of a happy confluence of Kansas City Public Library programming. Its the latest in our series with the u. S. Army command and general Staff College in Fort Leavenworth on marking 75 years since world war ii, but it also comes in the middle of the librarys partnership, and its from january through may with the eisenhower president ial library and foundation in abilene, and its on the Dwight Eisenhower exhibit. We have a series of programs running on Dwight Eisenhower in may. The next one of those is in fact is next wednesday. Tonight, we focus on eisenhower and George Marshall. The chief the army chief of staff who targeted ike for advancement as a military officer, keen eye for talent. Spy george patton, spied omar bradley, and he became one of ikes chief mentors from 1939 to 1945. Marshall, of course, went on to become secretary of state and win a Nobel Peace Prize. David mills is an assistant professor of military history at the command and general Staff College. He has a phd in history from north Dakota State University and the distinction of being the first person to earn a doctorate in history from the school in 2009. He spoke at the library two years ago on operation snowbound about the mammoth federal response to the blizzard of 1949 which stretched from kansas up into the canadian border. We are so welcome to have david back tonight. Please welcome david mills. [applause] well, thanks, everybody, for coming out tonight. As steve mentioned, i was supposed to be here a few weeks ago, but we got snowed out. Looks like we might have some and commit weather tonight. That may look like a pattern to you, but believe me, its just a coincidence. Thanks for coming out, and im going to go ahead and incorporate some of the information i was going to talk about a little earlier because it looks like at some point i kind of wander off on tangents talking about marshall a little bit, and thats probably why. This is the story of two great men, both revered as well as famous in their time. Since world war ii, however, it could be argued that general Dwight Eisenhower has probably eclipsed general marshall in fame, at least when it comes to what each of them did during world war ii. Most people know that general eisenhower was the commander of the invasion of france during world war ii, but they would probably be hardpressed to tell you exactly what general marshall did. Marshall built the army that eisenhower used to defeat the germans. Both men were from humble backgrounds, but both were extremely patriotic, driven by a desire to end the war quickly rather than seeking glory for themselves. This is their story. General George Marshall was born december 31st 1880 in uniontown, pennsylvania. He served as the chief of staff in the army during world war ii, and then as the secretary of state and secretary of defense. After the war was over. He advocated the Marshall Plan, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize, helping europe to recover economically from the war. One fact you may not know about general marshall is that he loved to ride horses. This is how he relaxed and he called it great exercise, although i would think it would be better exercise for the horse, but what do i know . His personal life was difficult. He graduated college in 1901. In 1902, he married lily carter cole who had a heart defect and he had to be very careful with her. He was a doting husband, making sure she was comfortable and had everything she needed. She died in 1927. They never had any children. He married catherine in 1930. She was a widow with three children of her own, and marshall became very close to the children. Two of the boys were Army Officers during world war ii and the youngest was actually killed by a sniper in italy during the war. His stepdaughter was also married to an army officer. Marshall never used his position to influence their careers. He was above all a very honorable man and would never do anything that he thought would tarnish that. Marshall served in a variety of positions throughout the world upon graduation. Before world war i, promotions were pretty slow in coming, but marshall did pretty well. When world war i broke out, he went to france and october in the summer of 1917. He was a member of the Division Staff for the First Infantry Division. His job was planning and training the draftees and National Guardsmen that rounded out the First Infantry Division that rounded out the First Infantry Division. There were two decisions that were risky careerwise but really made a difference for marshall. In the first of those episodes and the first of those episodes began during world war i and thats when general john j pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary force, came to check on training. You have to understand that pershing was under a ton of pressure from the french to get the American Army up and ready to take a position in the trenches. Pershing comes out and is looking at training and hes not happy. He thinks the training is too slow and not very challenging, and hes really upset by what he sees, so he proceeds to take it out on the division commander, a guy by the name of general william seibert, and he proceeds to chew him out in front of all of his subordinates. Marshall thought that this was extremely disrespectful and uncalled for, and as a lowly captain, he grabbed that Major General by the arm and proceeded to tell him, rather angrily, how he thought that was totally uncalled for. When he was done, general pershing kind of pulled his arm away, mumbled something, and stormed off. Marshalls friend shook his hand, wished him farewell because his career was over. Dont you know when general pershing came back, he would go find marshall and ask him how things were going. The two of them formed a relationship that would affect both of them throughout their lives. In mid1918, marshall went through the adf aef staff and worked for general pershing. After the war was over, he became an aide to general pershing, and pershing was the best man in marshalls wedding when he got married the second time. Marshall ended the war as actually, he finishes as a Lieutenant Colonel and then is reverted back to major, but he did pretty well in the interwar period. He committed a regimen, then a division, then 35 caps throughout oregon. He was brought to washington as a Brigadier General, by then chief of staff of the army wanted marshall to succeed him as chief of staff of the army, so he brought him there, made in the chief of the war camp division, eventually made him deputy to the chief of staff. Becoming chief of staff was really a dream job for marshall. Lets talk about marshall and roosevelt, and a little bit about churchill. Roosevelt and marshall worked very well together, although the two were never close. They were opposites. Marshall confessed he did not like roosevelt when he first moved to washington. General marshall was very guarded. Above all, he vowed he valued dignity. Marshall valued dignity. Nobody would ever call him funny. You notice the first picture i showed you was marshall smiling. Dont believe anything that you read. There arent that many pictures of a man with a smile on his face. He never met a person he would not shake hands with. He was always smiling. He also had the politicians deepseated deep seeded aversion to answering a question with a straight answer. He always wanted plausible deniability. It drove marshall absolutely nuts. He needs to know what direction the country is going. Marshall never let the president get too close to him personally. He never laughed at the president s jokes. He never allowed the president to call him george. And never visited the president in new york. Marshall was also an army man and the president was a navy man he served as the assistant secretary of the navy. He served as the assistant secretary of the navy. He was an accomplished sailor. Marshall had to ask the president to stop saying they when talking about the army and start saying we when talking about the navy. He had succumbed to the promise of air power. He thought that all of americas problems could be solved through buying more planes. He is constantly trying to purchase more airplanes. Marshall objected. He thought there should be a more balanced approach to how they procured equipment for the different branches. In november of 1938, roosevelt had a meeting with all of his top advisers. America ought to buy about 20,000 airplanes that would keep us safe. You know how it is when your boss comes up with an idea and everybody says, great idea, boss, and everybody is shaking their heads. He turns around and says, dont you think so, george . Marshall winced because he called him george. Marshall never allowed anybody to call him george except for his wife. He said, mr. President , i dont agree with that at all. The president was surprised because everybody else was in the meeting and they all got up and left. They shook his hand and wished him good luck because your career is over. Roosevelt never held it against him. This was the second episode that his values were always something he should stand up for. Churchill very rarely ever challenged him directly. He had Great Respect for martial. If marshall was doing something that churchill did not agree with he would talk to eisenhower, roosevelt, anybody but marshall and try to get them to change their mind. That does not mean he did not have Great Respect for marshall. Churchill called marshall the organizer of victory. He wept openly when he visited marshall on his deathbed in 1959. April 23, 1939, roosevelt brought marshall into his office and offered him the dream job, chief of staff of the army. Although it was a dream job, marshall had a list of demands if you will. He says mister president , i will work as hard for you as i can, but i need to be able to come in and speak honestly with you. I need to be able to bring you bad news. Roosevelt reluctantly agreed to that. Roosevelt had demands as well. He expected to get the very best that marshall had. They came to an agreement and marshall became the acting army chief of staff. This is in april of 1939, he was acting until the first of september, 1939. September 1, the day that germany attacked . World war ii begins, marshall becomes the chief of staff of the army. Germany attacks poland and france in 1939. It brings the u. S. Out of its complacency. Congress understands they need to begin preparing for war. The louisiana maneuvers held in 1940 and 1941 were designed to see how well the army performed. The answer was not well. The exercises had revealed a number of equipment problems such as iron pipes being labeled cannons and trucks being labeled tanks. Single seat by planes being labeled bombers. The army was understaffed. 200,000 soldiers total in the army at this point. Marshall determine it might be time to build up the army. After the first series of exercises, marshall and the president go to congress and enact the Civil Service act and bring 900,000 draftees into the army, and also activating the National Guard. Initially marshall has a large number of soldiers to train. They are only in the army for a year. Their term of enlistment is almost up, and nobody is more excited than the soldiers themselves. The louisiana maneuvers of 1941 were fundamentally different. Excuse me. Marshalls insistence on preparation and realistic training had paid off. He said repeatedly that he wanted mistakes made in louisiana rather than in europe. The 1941 exercises consisted of 400,000 service members. Twice the number that was in the army the year before. You have 19 divisions actively out there participating in these wargames. The wargames are over in 1941. We are well on our way to creating a much better army. Our army is about to go away with the expiration of the Selective Service act. Marshall, and a number of the administration goes to talk to congress to extend the Selective Service act for 18 months. Which will guarantee that we keep getting soldiers into the army. There is one other aspect of the louisiana maneuvers that deserves to be mentioned. That is that marshall came around and he was watching. He was always on the lookout for new talent. Rumor was that he had a little black book. When he spotted somebody with high potential and high talent, he would write their names down in this book. One of the people they identified was colonel Dwight Eisenhower, who was responsible for the blue force, coming up with the planning, training, and the exercises were an overwhelming victory for eisenhower. Another person was Major General george patton. A number of other folks that were supposedly had their names in this book were folks like omar bradley, mark clark, joseph bradley, and maxwell taylor. This little black book has never been found. Did it exist . Did it not exist . If there was no book then marshall mustve kept these names in his mind. These were folks that were groomed for high command once the war broke out. England had been at war with germany since 1939. Above all, they were intent on preserving the British Empire after the war. The imperial general staff, or the british general staff completely rejected the idea of ever having a cross channel attack, and confronting the germans in europe itself. They preferred an approach that attacked the periphery of germany. In other words, they would have a blockade. There maybe be would block a german ports, restricting the amount of trade coming in. What churchill believed was that this would undermine morale. You did not really need to confront them directly, you could attack them in places like north africa, italy on the borders or on the periphery of the german empire. Marshall fundamentally disagreed with that. He said the only way you will defeat germany is to fight germany. It will be a confrontation between the americans and british throughout the war. When germany invaded the soviet union in 1941, churchill and roosevelt believed that we had to supply everything that we could to the soviets to keep them in the war. Marshall fundamentally disagree. He did not believe the soviet union was going to be able to survive the attack by the germans. The Russian Air Force was largely eliminated in the first few weeks of the war. Millions of men were killed or taken prisoner. The germans on the outskirts of moscow. He fundamentally did not believe there was a way the soviets could survive, so why waste that equipment when the u. S. And british would need that. If the soviets are out of the war, it will be up to the americans and british to defeat these huge german armies. You are probably wondering when the eisenhower piece of this talk on marshall and eisenhower is ever going to kick in. Lets talk about general eisenhower for a few minutes. He is born in texas, october 14th, 1890. He is the third of seven boys. Here is the eisenhower brothers with their mother. The family moved to abilene, kansas in 1892, but they never had a lot of money. Ike and one of his brothers agreed they would alternate years and go into college. One would work, one would go to college, then they would switch. After a couple of years eisenhower says the only way he will get to college is if somebody else pays. He applied to west point and became a member of the west point class of 1915. 59 members were to achieve general officer rank. It is known as the class on which the stars fell on. At west point he makes a Varsity Football Team but not the baseball team. He is supposedly devastated by that. He meets and marries mimi dowdin 1916. He is scheduled to get on a ship november 18, 1918. Needless to say, he never makes it to france. He thinks his career is over for not having seen combat during world war i. Eisenhowers career was not bad. Not great, but pretty good for not having been in combat. He is a Brigadier General when pearl harbor is attacked. He spent five years working for Douglas Macarthur in the philippines. He does not get along well with Douglas Macarthur. Ike was a great staff officer. He made his bosses look really good. Even though mcarthur and eisenhower did not get along great, he still would not let eisenhower go because he was such a great staff officer. While other officers were being weeded out of the army, particularly during the Great Depression, eisenhower continued to get promoted pretty steadily. During the Great Depression and up to world war ii, marshall is looking for a commander that can work with senior commanders from other nations and organize diverse interests and a common goal. He had not identified that man in december when pearl harbor took place. Eisenhower and marshall were complete opposites. Marshall was reserved and proper, and ike was very very outgoing. He is ready to chat with anyone for extended periods of times. He is very social. Again, the opposite of marshall. Eisenhower was never called ike. Marshall never called anybody by their first name. It was always eisenhower, clark, bradley. No matter how high rank you were it was almost it was always a formal address by marshall. Later in life he did relent from calling him eisenhower and did call him, mr. President. [laughter] if that is loosening up a little. Less than a week after the attack on pearl harbor, eisenhower gets a phone call. Its marshalls office, hey, the boss wants to see you, get up to washington, d. C. Marshall calls ike into his office. He explains all the problems that the army has in defeating the japanese. Then he asked eisenhower, ho