For his great support which and night which allowed us to invite so many historians to New York Historical kit i would like to recognize and thank some of our trustees with us this evening. Mr. Michaelkett and weissberg. Thank you so very much for all you do. On our behalf. All ofo like you thank our Chairmans Council members who are with us this evening and of course my very talented colleague, dale gregory, our Vice President for public programs. Lastevenings program will about an hour, and it will include a question and answer session. You should have received a note card and pencil as you enter the auditorium this evening. If not, colleagues are going up and down the aisles with them. The no cards with your questions will be collected later on in the program. We are thrilled to welcome Josiah Bunting iii back to the New York Historical society. Prior to retirement in 2016, he served as president of the Guggenheim Foundation in new york city, and is the former superintendent of the Virginia Military institute in lexington, virginia. He has been a great fan to New York Historical for many years, serving as advisor to our fabulous exhibition and most recently at the New York Historical society. He is the author of several books including ulysses s grant, and a forthcoming biography of george c marshall. Before we begin as always, i would like to ask you to make sure your cell phones are switched off. And now, please join me in welcoming general bunting to the stage. [applause] josiah thank you. Good evening. It is a pleasure and an honor to be here and to talk about my favorite person, excluding those of you. [laughter] josiah i should begin by talking a little bit about our cultures feeling about the Second World War. I work from time to time at the museum, or rather the program that honors the second what were itscond world war, veterans, on the National Mall. About 15 times a year we have a commemorative event in fact, we had one last week commemorating the rate of Jimmy Doolittle in april 1942, the first time we struck back. I doubt if there are people who remember it, but possibly. But we bring in the veterans from all over the United States on what are called honor flights for these various commemorations. Ahead of us, we have the ve day of surrender, and soon after that of course memorial day. Ve day, just remind you, was a joyous and happy occasion for the allies, for the majority of our soldiers fighting in france and by that time in germany come but it was not quite as joyce or about third ofr them as you might expect. Because according to the protocol of the times, you were what should i say liable to continue your service in the Pacific Theater in what was then expected to be the invasion of japan, the lesser Southern Island of japan, so that you felt wonderful about the victory, but you have that ahead of you, and i have talked to a number of people who have been through that experience, including a person who once spoke here. You got 15 days at home, then went to the philippines to continue your training, and he soon there afterwards was moved to write an early draft of his book, thank god for the atom bomb. That is something we might talk about a little bit later in connection with general marshall. The feeling that audiences at the National Mall communicate through their applause is not only one of gratitude and admiration, but of a kind of romanticized yearning for what they believed to have been the culture of the United States at the time, particularly the United States at home. The unity of the time. Stephen ambrose, eisenhowers principal biographer, loves to tell a story about arriving late at a funeral in indiana of a veteran and was struck by the rapt silence of the church. The silence was interrupted however when the friend mentions jack served with the fourth Infantry Division. He came ashore on utah beach on the morning of the day, soldiered across europe, was wounded twice, and was present for the surrender and came home safely to us, and suddenly there is an corruption of exciting conversation throughout the church. What are they saying to each other . This is the point of the ambrose story. I never knew that. The veterans of the Second World War are singularly modest, even humble, about their Service Almost uniformly. I think that is one of the things that commends them and the memory we have of them however romanticized it may be. That particular quality, which in the age of selfie sticks, is often absent from american public, not to say, military life. The war began, as you know, on the first of september, 1939, the same day that George Marshall was sworn in as chief of staff, or rather head of the american army. The army at that time was in size ranking between portugal and bulgaria, roughly 260,000 soldiers, all of them volunteers. Marshall himself said it was a rather fragile, scattered force. There was no deployable Infantry Division. When we talk about the, we are talking about Tactical Units typically of 14,000 or 15,000 men. The stem of the army, the roots of the army, were the continuing officers and soldiers, ncos, who it stayed with the colors after 1918, 1919. Marshall is not a bad example himself. He went over as a major. He came home as a kernel and principle eight to general john pershing, and after that was promptly reduced to the grade of captain again, salary was about the same. They let them keep their rather pittance of compensation, but to a large extent, the small cavalry hung in there. Many of you are familiar with the name henry steele commager. If you went to a good college and took a course in American History between 19551980, there is a good chance your text was the growth of the american republic. Well, in the summer of 1960, he noticed there was a saturation of sad gossip all over the country about the quality of the president ial candidates for that year. This is a continuing feature of our politics. Richard nixon and john f. Kennedy, and being henry steele commager, he was moved to examine the phenomenon back to the beginning, and further move to essay a trip into a subset of history that is the study of groups allied in a common purpose in a common field, ordinarily at the same time and the same place. He uses as examples the literary renaissance of england. He talks a little bit about the vienna of mozart and their contemporaries. He talks about the american founding generation. How does it happen that we suddenly have when we need them ordinarily this cornucopia of apt talent . Between 1940, 19411945, the american army, and indeed, the navy, although that is not my topic tonight, but i will mention that, suddenly found a fluorescence of enormously talented general officers and admirals. How did that happen . How do we account for that . And this brings me to a number of things, but also particularly to George Marshall, whose own career was spent largely in education between the wars and was able to identify young captains and majors and had an uncanny ability Peter Drucker writes about this the best pickers of leadership talent in our history. He could infer, and the proof is what these people became, from what he knew of them when they were relatively young, their capacity for growth, and what they were likely to become when the larger challenges of life were presented to them. It is quite extraordinary, and some of the names you will here in a few minutes were recognized even as captains and majors at the Infantry School at fort benning, which really function as what one writer calls Mother Church for the army. During that period, leisure was not begrudged. There was no certain career path which required you to move every 68 months from one ticket getting punched to another. Excuse me. And as a consequence, officers tended to develop expertises which would be normally helpful in wartime. Excuse me again. I am thinking particularly of people like joseph j stillwell, who did three tours in china. Nowadays that would not happen. Nowadays, and certainly starting in 1950, the chances were overwhelming that you would have a prescribed sequence of career moves, but in those days, it idiosyncrasies, expertises were indulged so that when they were needed, they were there for it and i should mention also probably this has occurred to some of you social media as we understand and know them did not really exist at that time, so in some ways you could be a relatively naughty boy and nobody particularly cared. They might have cared somewhat, but not enough to destroy your prospects when they were needed. Well, marshall was born in 1880. He is an exact contemporary of Douglas Macarthur. He is part of a generation of people who became generals and admirals in the 1930s and perhaps a little bit later for whom west point and the Naval Academy were essentially a way out of dodge. An astonishing large percentage of these men, and most of them at this time were men, indeed all of them at this time were men, they tended to have an been born in what people and new york called the outback, the midwest. A large number of them grew up on farms. Chester nimitz grew up in fredericksburg, texas. I will tell you a story about nimitz in a moment. Omar bradley was a missourian. Ike was from abilene, kansas. Hard work was expected. Responsibility is assumed without calculation of reward. You do the thing because it is right. And this element of character tends to persist through life. Well, i will not unduly stress that, i will mention it at least once or twice again this evening because sometimes the decision which were required of marshall and his men were the kind that tested character unduly. Well marshall hung in there like most of these people. His First Experience was in the philippine insurrection. He was put in charge of an island. Lieutenant, you are in charge. Best of luck. You will get a letter every seven weeks. Good luck, sir. This was a fairly common experience for these people. After that experience, he came back and had a number of assignments, relatively smallscale assignments, but eventually he became known as an officer of great promise and was selected to a company the First Division on its sail from new york in 1917. He was an aidedecamp officially, and he had an extraordinary experience in world war i. One of the episodes it was an interesting one the division had been in its encampment for only couple of months this is what has evolved into the big red one division and they had been out all night on maneuvers. They had come back and they were told that general pershing would be visiting, and pershing would like to see a certain operational demonstration. They concocted some kind of operational demonstration. Pershing watched. And after the demonstration was over, he called the officers of the division around him and said that he was embarrassed and deeply disappointed in this performance of americas First Division in france. And he continued in that vein, was quite specific in his criticism, and then turned to walk to his limousine just a minute, general pershing. There is something that needs to be said here. And if nobody else is going to say, i will. Pershing is a very scary person, six feet four, never smiled, very erect, very formidable. Who are you . Major marshall, sir. What have you got to say for yourself . Marshall been unleashed a torrent of accurate facts, and while most of the other officers, including the division commander, were appalled and very fearful for marshalls future, pershing then turned to his limousine. Marshall laid a hand on the great mans forearm and said, just a minute. Im not through. [laughter] josiah and continued on in that vein until purging was finally pershing was finally released and went back to the safety of paris or wherever headquarters was. The officers gathered around major marshall and full of consolation were awfully sorry for you. You will probably go to the front somewhere and bulgaria or something. I dont know what will happen to you. Thereafter however when general pershing visited the division, he always asked to see marshall first. Marshall observed of pershing a quality which he cultivated in himself. He always wanted to hear criticism from people who knew what they were talking about. And towards the end of the First World War in which marshall had served as an operations officer, and then had been brought up to headquarters to understudy a really remarkable soldier called fox conner, who was chief of staff of the whole operation. He sent word to one of his subordinates of marshall asking him to consent if he would be his aide. The only time a general asked his subordinate officer is when they request that you come aboard as my aide. Well marshall now spent five years with general pershing as his aide, and pershing, a great soldier and a great what should i say identifier of talent, wonderful ability in most things come but he hated the administration, so that virtually everything that came into headquarters would be signed at the top, major marshall see to this, and i will see what goes. Marshall as a consequence as a still young officer got to know an awful lot of important people in congress, and this would be enormously helpful to him down the road. He suffered a tragedy after serving in china with the 15th regiment. His beloved wife lily died of a heart condition. Their marriage was idyllic. They had no children. And the letter that general pershing wrote marshall in his bereavement is one of the most beautiful letters of its kind i have ever read. Pershing, having suffered the terrible tragedy of three of his children and his widow, his wife, being burned in a fire in 1921 or thereabouts, everybody was worried about marshall. What can we do with him . He was sent to fort benning as an assistant in the Infantry School, and there and his position was first summer to that of a college dean, academic dean he was given free reign to modify the curriculum, to hire the teachers, to keep an eye on the young students, and these are mainly men in their late 20s and 30s, and virtually every recognizable name in the army, and even some Exchange Officers from the marines in world war ii, came from that cohort identified by marshall while they were there as students, identified and followed. This is where the commager identification really has its roots, and suddenly and 1941, 1942, 1943, we had an extraordinary array of talented military and naval people. The british were amazed, and so were we. I mentioned the navy briefly. Just think about this little cohort for a moment. Leahy, king, nimitz, halsey, lockwood, all Naval Academy class of 1905, 1906. Again, they hung in there. They studied their profession. They were ready when they were needed, and chester nimitz i may pause there for a moment the naval equivalent of George Marshall. The morning after pearl harbor, the president talked to admiral king, who by that time had become head of the navy. Tell nimitz to get out of and dont come back until the war is over. Chester nimitz went out to pearl harbor. He called together the officers who had been there and who in the time were complicit in the terrible strategy of the enemy surprise attack them up with the exception of one admiral and when general who were already on the way home, and said to them, will you do me, will you do your country the honor of serving with me to fix this situation . Nice little lesson in leadership. All these people expected to be fired, and of course they werent. Not long after pearl harbor, and i cant forbear mentioning this, Franklin Roosevelt, who was an extraordinarily active picker of military talent, wondered out loud he said, is there something we can do to get back at the intimate . At the enemy . It was a terrible time for the armed forces and the country. Yes, there are probably certain things we can do. Two or three weeks later, one of roosevelts assistants came into the office and said, the newspapers are talking about how we bombed tokyo. Is that true, sir . Well, i think it is true. You know, we have a secret base in the himalaya mountains that most people dont know about and it is called shangrila, and we have had so far good luck with the training of our airmen at that base. He was having a little bit of fun with the public. In fact, this is doolittles raid on the two aircraft carriers within six under miles 600 miles of the japanese coast led by general doolittle. They dropped their ordinance on a number of japanese cities, make their way to china, and eventually most of them made it home. One exception you might remember, one exception was a crew that was interned in the soviet union for the duration. In any case, general marshall at that time was head of the army, and there had been a military draft, but the draft itself had only produced about 1. 5 million men, and until the early days of 1942, 1943, we were not prepared to invade or do anything at all. What was marshall like . We will talk about that a little bit later in my presentation. Adjectives like austere, remote, unselfregarding. I talked to a friend of yours not long ago. He came to our base. He did not have on any ribbons or anything. Marshall would not allow himself to be decorated. It is not appropriate for generals to be decorated while young citizens, young men, are in harms way. How about that . His only decoration in the war was an oakleaf cluster on a distinguished Service Medal given by president truman on the last day of the war. Interestingly, when marshall was given this award with a