With the u. S. Army command general Staff College in for the eleven worth on marking 75 years since world war ii. It also comes in the middle of the librarys partnership from january through may with the eisenhower president ial Library Foundation in ablene. And its on the Dwight Eisenhower exhibit up on the second floor art gallery here at the library, the mountain gallery. And we have a series of programs running on Dwight Eisenhower through may. Next one of those, in fact, is next wednesday. Tonight we focus on eisenhower and George Marshall. The army chief of staff who targeted ike for advancement as a military officer, keen eye for talent, because among others, with ike, you know, he spied george patton. He spied omar bradley and he became one of ikes primary mentors as the army chief of staff from 1939 to 1945. Marshall of course went on to become the secretary of state and win a noble peace prize. David mills assistant of military history and has 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 snow bound. About the mammoth federal response to the blizzard of 1949 which stretched from kansas into the canadian border. Were so pleased 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 few weeks ago but we got slowed out. Looks like we might have inclement weather tonight. That may look like a pattern to you, believe me its just a coincidence. So thanks for coming out. Im going to go ahead and incorporate some of the information i was going to talk about a little earlier. So if it looks like at some point i wander off on tangents talking about marshall a little bit, then thats probably why. All right. So this is the story of two great men. Both were revered as well as famous in their time. Since world war ii however it could be argued that general Dwight Eisenhower has probably eclipse general marshall in fame, at least when it comes to what each of them did during world war ii. Most people know general eisenhower was the commander of the invasion of france during world war ii but theyd probably be hardpressed to tell you exactly what general marshall did. In fact marshall built the army that eisenhower used to defeat the germans. Both men were from humble bam ground backgrounds, both patriotic driven by desire to end the war quickly rather than seeking glory for themselves. This is their story. General George Marshall was born december 31, 1880, in union town, pennsylvania. He graduated from Virginia Military institute in 1901. He served as the chief of staff of 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 plan that bears his name, the Marshall Plan, for which he won the noble peace prize, helping europe to recover economically from the war. One fact that 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. [ laughter ] but what do i know. So, his personal life was actually very difficult. He graduated from college in 1901. In 1902 he was married with lily carter cole who was born with a heart defect and he had to be very careful with her and very doting husband, always trying to make sure she was comfortable and had everything that she needed. She died in 1927. They never had any children. He married catherine voice upper in 1930. She was a widow with three children of her own. And marshall became very close to the children. Two of the boys, in fact, were Army Officers during world war ii and the youngest, allen was actually killed by a sniper in italy during the war. His step daughter was also married to an army officer who served. Although 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 serve in a variety of positions throughout the world upon graduation from vmi. Before world war i promotions were pretty slow and coming. But marshall did pretty well. When world war i broke out he went to france in the summer of 1917. He was a member of the Division Staff for the First Infantry Division. His plan, his job was really planning and training. The draftees and National Guardsmen that rounded out the First Infantry Division. Now there were two significant episodes that were pretty risky careerwise but really made a difference for marshall when he was endeared to two very influence men. And the first of those episodes began during world war i. And thats when general john j persian the commander of the American Expedition force, came to check on training. You got to understand persian was under a ton of pressure from the french to get the American Army up and ready to take position in the trenches. So he comes out and is looking at training and is not happy. He thinks that the training is too slow and its not very challenging. Hes really upset by what he sees and proceeds to take it out on the division commander. A guy by the name of general william c bert the first infantry commander and he proceeds to chew him out in front of all of his subordinates. Well marshall thought this was extremely disrespectful and uncalled for. As a lowly captain he grabbed that Major General by the arm and proceeded to tell him very angiely how he thought it was uncalled for. When he was done general persian pulled away and mumbled something and stormed off. All of marshalls friends shook his hand and wished him farewell because his career is over. [ laughter ] dont you know, when general persian came back to check on the First Infantry Division he would go find marshall and ask him how things were going. So the two actually formed a very important relationship that would effect both of them throughout their lives. So, in mid 1918 marshall went to the aef staff and worked directly for general persian. After the war was over he became an aide to general persian and as a matter of fact general persian was the best man in marshalls wedding when he got married the second time. So after the war marshall ended the war as a actually he finishes as a Lieutenant Colonel and is reverted back to major. He did pretty well. He commanded a regimen then a division and then he commanded 35 ccc camps throughout oregon and washington and in 1938 he was brought to washington as a Brigadier General, by then, chief of staff of the army general malin craig. Craig wanted marshall to succeed him as chief of staff of the army so he brought him there, he made him chief of the War Plans Division, eventually made him deputy to the chief of staff. And becoming chief of staff was really a dream job for marshall. So lets talk about marshall and roosevelt particularly, and a little bit about churchill. Roosevelt and marshall worked very well together. Although the two were never close personally. They were almost exact opposites. In fact marshall confessed he didnt really like roosevelt very much when he first moved to washington. General marshall was very guarded. He was formal. He was serious. Above all, he valued dignity. So marshall valued dignity and nobody would ever call him funny. And there were very few pictures of him ever smiling. Although if you notice the first picture i showed you was marshall smiling so dont believe what you read, believe what im telling you, there arent many pictures of the man with a smile on his face. Roosevelt however was a politician. He never met a person he wouldnt shake hands with, he always had a joke and was always smiling and laughing. He also had that politicians deepseed add version to ever answering a question with a straight answer. He didnt want to get tied down to one particular answer. He always wanted plausibility denyability and be able to change his mind and go a different direction. Which drove marshall absolutely nuts. Because as a military guy he needs decisions and needs to know what direction the country is going so that he can actually make things happen. Marshall also 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 he never went to visit the president at his home in hyde park new york. Marshall was also a army man. Whereas the president was a navy man. He had served as assistant secretary of the navy. He loved the navy. He loved the sea. And he was an accomplished sailor himself. At one point marshall had to ask the president stop saying they when talking about the army and stop saying we when talking about the navy [ laughter ] so roosevelt succumbed to the suggestion of the promise of air power and thought all of americas problems could be solved through just buying more planes so he is constantly trying to buy more airplanes at the expense of the army but other branches as well. Marshall on theed. He marshall objected. He thought there should be more balance how to procure equipment from the different branches. One specific example, november, 1938, roosevelt had a meeting with all of his top advisors and he said off the top of his head, he said america ought to by 20,000 airplanes to keep us safe and we ought to give couple thousand to england for being a good ally. You know how it is, boss comes up with an idea, everybodys like, great idea, boss, shaking their head yes. And off the top of his head turns to george and says dont you think so. So marshall winced. Because he called him george. Marshall never allowed anybody to call him george except for his wife. And he fundamentally disagreed with the president and told him so. He said mr. President im sorry i just dont agree with any of that at all. So the president was rather surprised as everybody else was in the meeting. They all got up and left, again, shaking his hand, wishing him good luck because youre career is over. [ laughter ] but roosevelt never held it against him. And so, this was the second episode in his life that proved to marshall and only reenforced the idea that his values were something that he should always stand up for. Church hill also had Great Respect for marshall. In fact, he very rarely ever challenged him directly. If marshall was doing something that church hill didnt agree we would go talk to eisenhower or roosevelt, anybody but marshall and try to get them to change his mind. Churchill called marshall the organizer of victory and he went openly when visiting marshall on his death bed in 1959. So in april 23, 1939, roosevelt brought marshall into his office and offered him the dream job. Chief of staff of the army. And although it was a dream job marshall had a few a list of demands, if you will. So he says, you know, mr. President i will work as hard for you as i can, i need to come in and speak honestly with you, i need to be able to bring you bad news and roosevelt reluctantly agreed to that but roosevelt also pointed out that he had some demands. You know. He expected to get the very best that marshall had. So they came to an agreement. And marshall became the acting army chief of staff. So this is in april of 1939. He was acting in that capacity up until the 1st of september 1939 when craig retired. So september 1st the day germany attacks poland, world war ii begins, marshall becomes the chief of sfaf staff of the arta army. Germany attacks poland in 1939. They attack france in 1940. The loss of france is a complete shock to the United States. Begins to bring the United States out of its complacency. Not out of isolation. Congress and the American People wanted absolutely nothing to do with a war in europe but congress understands that they got to begin preparing for war. And so the louisiana maneuvers held in 1940 and 1941 were designed to see how well the army performed and the answer was, not well. The exercises had revealed a number of equipment problems such as iron pipes being labelled cannons and trucks being labelled tanks and single seat by planes being labelled bothers. That sort of thing. The army was not only under staffed theres about 200,000 soldiers total that point. We also had number of equipment problems. So marshall decided it is time to build up the army. October 1920 after the first series of exercises marshall and the president go to congress and enact the Selective Service act bringing 900,000 draftees into the army. And also activating the National Guard. So initially marshall has a large number of soldiers to train. But soon theyre only in the army for a year. So their term of enlistment is almost up and nobody is more excited about that than the soldiers themselves. So the louisiana maneuvers of 1941 were fundamentally different. Excuse me. Marshalls insistence on training paid off. He wanted mistakes made in louisiana rather than in europe so the 1941 exercises consisted of 400,000 service members, twice the number that was even in the army the year before. You got 19 divisions actively out there participating in these war games. So the war games are over in 1941. Were well on our way to doing, to creating a much better army, but our army is about to go away with the expiration of the Selective Service act. So marshall and a number of members of the administration go talk to Congress Members and get them to extend the Selective Service act for 18 months. Which will guarantee that we keep getting soldiers into the army. So theres one other aspect of the louisiana maneuvers that deserves to be mentioned, and that is, that marshall came around and he was watching and he was always on the look out for new talent. Rumor was he had a little black book, when he spotted somebody with high potential and high talent hed write their name in this little book and one of the people they identified in these maneuvers was colonel Dwight Eisenhower who was responsible for the blue force coming up with the planning and the training and the exercises were an overwhelming victory for eisenhower. Another person that he identified in these exercises was Major General george patton. So a number of other folks that were supposed by supposedly had their name in the book omar bradley, mark clark, joseph collins, courtney hodges, and maxwell taylor. Now this little black book has never been found. So did it exist . Did it not exist . If there was no book then marshall must have kept those names in his mind. But these were the folks identified and groomed for higher 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 also thoroughly and completely rejected the idea of ever having a crosschannel attack and confronting the germans in europe itself. They preferred an approach that attacked the periphery of germany. They would have navy blockade german ports restricting trade coming in and Bomber Campaign would keep hitting german cities night after night. So what churchill believed is this would under mine morale you didnt need to confront them directly you could attack the borders or periphery of the german empire but marshall fundamentally disagreed with that he said the only way to defeat germany is to fight germany. This is going to be a fundamental confrontation between the americans and british throughout the war. When germany invaded the soviet union in 1941 both churchill and roosevelt believed that we had to supply everything that we could it to the soviets to keep them in the war. Marshall fundamentally disagreed with that. He didnt believe that the soviet union was going to be able to survive. The attack by the germans. If you think about it, 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 are on the outskirts of moscow. He fundamentally didnt believe there was anyway the soviets could survive. So why waste that equipment when the u. S. Needed that. The soviets are knocked out of the war its up to the soviets and british to defeat german armies. You are probably wondering when the eisenhower piece is going to kick in. Here we are. Lets talk about general eisenhower for a few minutes. So he is born in texas. October 14, 1890. He is the third of seven boys. Heres the eisenhower brothers with their mother. The family moved to kansas in 1891. Abilene, kansas. But they never had a lot of money. Ike and his brother agreed to alternate years going to college. One would work and the other would go to college and then switch. S]j so he applied to west point and eisenhower became member of the west point class 1915. 59 members of this class were to achieve general officer rank. Nolan as the class the stars fell on. So while at west point makes varsity team meters and marries his wife in 1916. He asks for combat continuously. W4 world war i breaks out and they say okay and hes schedule to get on ship november, 1918, he never makes it to france. So he thinks his career is over for not having seen combat during world war i. So eisenhowers career was actually not bad. Not great but pretty good for not having been in combat. Hes a Brigadier General when pearl harbor is attacked. He spent five years working for Douglas Mcarthur in the philippines. Not surprisingly he doesnt get along well with dog lawsuit mcarthur. But ike made his bosses look really good. So even though mcarthur and eisenhower d