MARSHALL INTERVIEWS In 1956-57 Marshall recorded on eape some forty hours of answers and comments in response to questions submitted by me. This material was recorded in sessions at the Pentagon, at Leesburg, and at Pinehurst. Some of the comnients were recorded without my being present, with his orderly, Sergeant William Heffner, run- ning the machine. In addition, General Marshall talked to me about fifteen hours without a tape recorder. Part of the comments in these sessions was recorded by his secretary, Miss Mary Louise Spilman, and part by me. The interviews and this biography began with a project first suggested in 1951by friends and admirers of General Marshall. In 1953 a group of graduates of his alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute, headed by the late John C. Hagan. Jr , estab- lished the George C. Marshall Research Foundation to collect material on the Gen- eral’s career which would furnish information for a definitive biography and for numerous special studies on the period in which Marshall served as soldier and statesmen. Earlier the group had been assured of the backing of President Harry S. Truman in the collection of documents and the development of a Research Center. Shortly before leaving office, Mr. Truman issued a directive to the General Services Administrator, the Secretary of State, and the Secretary of Defense “to cooperate with Virginia Military Institute and the proposed George C. Marshall Research Founda- tion in procuring documentary material relating to the activities of General Marshall as a soldier, as Secretary of State, and as Secretary of Defense.” In 1956 President Eisenhower wrote a similar letter, and this official support was reaffirmed by Presi- dent Kennedy in 1962 and President Johnson in 1965. In 1956 funds to start the collection of documents and the writing of a biography were provided by a generous personal gift from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Impressed by the actions of President Truman and President Eisenhower and the urgings of many friends, General Marshall agreed in 1956 to cooperate with a biographer in recording, on tape, information on high points of his career. In the late summer of 1956 I was employed to head the project and was directed to begin at once with the interviews. I hoped that it would be possible to conduct the interviews so that the General would virtually write his own memoirs. Unfortu- nately he did not feel up to these demands on his time and energies. Instead he sug- gested that I prepare, on the basis of his personal and official papers, rather detailed questions which would furnish a general outline to be filled out by his dictated com- ments. Following his advice, I prepared summaries of information from documents and official histories and listed questions raised in the summaries. I would say, “The authors indicate that it is not clear why General Marshall took this step,” “General Marshall wils criticized for this action,” “Information is lacking on the background of this decision,” “Is this summary of your action in the official history accurate,” “In retrospect do you feel that your decision was correct,” and the like. I was given a desk in his Pentagon office, where part of his papers were kept and where the remainder was brought, and began at once the research necessary to pre- pare the outlines and questions he requested. As a means of expediting this work the General handed me a manuscript copy of Matloff’s Strategtc Planning for Coalition 4% Bibliographical Note 443 Wurfare, 1943-44, which he had been asked to review for the Department of the Army, and asked that I base some of my questions on material cited in that work. I proposed that I follow the same procedure on earlier periods of his career, using references from Matloff and Snell’s Strategic Planning for Coalition Warfare, 1941-42, Watson’s Chief of Stafl, Prewar Plans and Preparations, and materials collected by Mr. Watson and his assistants for a projected volume (never published) covering the Chief of Staff’s office during the war years. Since the citations in these and other volumes made frequent references to General Marshall’s handwritten accounts of meetings at the White House, to the minutes of meetings of the Combined Chiefs of Staff and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in which the General took part, and to folders of material the General had taken with him to the great conferences, to White House meetings, and to congressional hearings, it was pos- sible for me to locate documents he had used and to base my outlines and questions on these. Much of the material was already in the General’s personal files; additional information was delivered to his office for my use. In some cases I went over papers with former members of his staff, such as Gen. John E. Hull, who would check on documents they had prepared for the Chief of Staff, identifying specimens of hand- writing and giving the background of some of them. General Marshall’s appointment books, memoranda for the record prepared by members of his staff, his corrected drafts of key papers, his copies of minutes of the great conferences, and correspond- ence with key political and military leaders were drawn on. I was also aided by earlier research that I had conducted between 1946-52 while preparing the Department of the Army’s The Supreme Command, the official ac- count of Eisenhower’s command in Northwest , 1944-45.I had collected hun- dreds of pages of notes in the and Great Britain, which I left with the Officeof the Chief of Military History when I completed the volume. These papers were sent to the General’s officefor my use. Since the collection included my notes on Allied planning from January 1941 through Casablanca and Yalta to Potsdam. this phase of preparation was simplified. General Marshall was quite willing to deal with specific statements or charges, but he declined to accept my suggestion that he comment generally on a number of public figures that I listed for his consideration. He declared: “You give a long list of names of officers and others to have me analyze them and comment on their efficiency.I am not going to do this. I think if this got into the book in any way, the books rather, all the attention would go to that, and all the acrimonious debate would go to that and nothing to the really important part of the text. ,I don’t think it would be quite fair because the officers would have no chance to answer it at all.” He did agree to comment on views or actions of individuals in those cases where they or their biographers had raised questions concerning Marshall’s decisions. His pur- pose here was to give additional background on which I could judge the points at issue. In this connection he said to me on another occasion: “The accusations are so numerous, so altogether remarkable at the time, that you can hardly believe what you read. But, of course, you have a number who want to get into publlc print. And you have others who feel very deeply and are quite prejudiced. And you have other historians who really try to get at basic truths in the matter. Unless you diagnose which crowd you are dealing with, it is very hard.” Aware of the limitations of interviews and of the skepticism that might greet the accuracy of his recollections, Genera1 Marshall once remarked: ”I am dictating this without a mass of records about me. . . . I am doing this out of hand-off the cuff, as it were-and it should be . . . checked for that reason. You must be very care- 444 Bibliographical Note ful not to publish in any way or broadcast or arrange for later publication just Out of hand what I say here-speaking off the cuff and at considerable length and of course at times when I’m a little bit tired. I am covering a vast amount of ground in a short time.” Some of the General’s comments have been quoted for their flavor and as guides to problems that he considered vital during the war, but at his in- sistence I have rested the main narrative on his personal and official records. The General’s interest in getting the record straight led to his expression of con- siderable interest in historical methods. .He asked one day: “How do you know whether you can depend on what I tell you?” I replied that from time to time I gave him “loaded” questions to which I already had the answer from his papers. I dis- covered that if he had ever testified on a subject or had drafted a paper on it, he was likely to remember exact statistics and repeat the same illustrations he had used ten or fifteen years earlier. Inasmuch as General Marshall had no opportunity to check the transcripts of his interviews and perform the careful editing at which he excelled, I have taken the liberty of making occasional slight corrections in the text without in any way altering the sense or flavor of the language. Exact transcriptions will be placed on file with the Marshall papers. (It should be noticed that in those cases where I have quoted from my handwritten notes, the quotation marks denote the language of my tran- scription of his remarks rather than an exact reproduction of his statements.) LETTERS The General’s personal files contained copies of much of his correspondence €or the years 1939-42. I have supplemented these by papers from the official files. Bernard M. Baruch permitted the author to copy all letters pertaining to General Marshall in his files. I was able to supplement these from notes on General Eisenhower’s corre- spondence with General Marshall, which I had taken from the former’s files in 1946. OTHER INTERVIEWS More than three hundred friends and former associates of the General’s have granted the interviews. Of these, 163 pertain to the period covered by this book. In- dividuals whose names are starred gave material on General Marshall both in inter- views and in the form of letters, photographs, clippings, newspapers, and the like: Dean G. Acheson,# Gen. Sir Ronald Adam, Brig. Gen. and Mrs. Claude M. Adams,’ Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Mrs. H. H. Arnold,+ Lord Attlee, Bernard M. Ba- ruch,* Col. William Baumer, Brig. Gen. T. J. Betts, Gen. Charles Boltt, General of the Army Omar N. Bradley,# Lt. Gen. Lewis H. Brereton,* Lt. Gen. George H. Brett,* Rear Adm. R. V. Brockman,* Lt. Gen. E. H. Brooks,’ Maj. Gen. William Bryden,+ Maj. Gen. Kenneth Buchanan,+ Lt. Gen. Harold R. Bull, Harvey Bundy, Lady Mary Burghley, Maj. Gen. James H. Burns, Brig. Gen. Frederic B. Butler, James F. Byrnes, Brig. Gen. B. F. Caffey, Lt. Gen. Marshall S. Carter,, Maj. Gen. James G. Christiansen, Gen. Mark W. Clark.’ Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, Henry C. Clausen, Gen. J. Lawton Collins, Philip E. Connelly, Adm. C. M. Cooke, Jerc Cooper, Col. William Couper,* Maj. Gen. Frank L. Culin, Adm. of the Fleet Lord Cunningham of Hyndhope, Ralph A. Curtin, Gen. John E. Dahlquist, Maj. Gen. John R. Deane, Gen. Jacob L. Devers,’ Lady DIU, Lewis W. Douglas,* Sgt. George E. Dumcke, Col. R. E. Dupuy, Lt. Gen. Ira C. Eaker, Sir Anthony Eden, Gen. of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower,* Lt. Gen. Delos Emmons, Sgt. William Fan, Leo Farrell,+ Brig. Gen. Louis J. Fortier,” Justice Felix Frankfurter, Col. wil- liam F. Friedman, William Frye,a Maj. Cen. Philip E. Gallagher, Frederick V. 445 Gier, Gol. 6. J. George," Cen. Leonard T. Gerow,* Gerhard A. Gesell, Dr. Kent R. Greenfield," Maj. Gen. C. C. Haffner, Gen. Wade Haislip,@ Gen. Thomas T. Handy, Maj. Gen. H. S. Hansell, Maj Gen. E. F. Harding, William D. Hassett, Maj. Gen. Charles D. 'Hex-ron,o Et. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, Maj. Gen. John H. Hilldring, Mrs. Qveta Culp Hobby, Gen. Courtney Hodges, Gen. William M. Hoge,* Gen. Sir Leslie Hollis, Mrs. Nan Wood Honeyman, Charles R. Hook,+ Gen. John E. Hull,o Carlisle Humelsine, Gen. Lord Ismay, Et. Gen. Reuben E. Jenkins, Louis Johnson, Thomas M. Johnson,# Et. Gen. C. E. Kilbourne, Capt. T. B. Kittredge,* Gen. , Gen. Laurence S. Kuter, Maj. Gen. Charles T. Lanham, Maj. Gen. Samuel T. Lawton, Cen. Ben Lear, Maj. Gen H. B. Lewis, Col. G. A. Lincoln, ' Robert A. Lovett," Scott Lucas, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Col. J. E. McCammon, Brig. Gen. Frank McCarthy,# John J. McCloy, Mrs. Frank R. McCoy,* Maj. Reginald Macdonald-Buchanan,Q Gen. Joseph T. McNarney, Donald Mace,* Mrs. George C. Marshall,# Brig. Gen. S. I,. A. Marshall, John Martyn, Maj. Gen. Russell L. Maxwell, Mrs. Henry F. Meyer," Maj. Gen. Sherman Miles, Francis Bickens Miller, Maj. Cen. Luther D. Miller, Brig. Gen. H. M. Monroe, Field Marshal Lord Montgomery of Alamein, Maj Gen. Richard C. Moore,@Lt. Gen. Sir Frederick Morgan,# Admiral of the Fleet Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Miss Mona Nason, Fleet Adm. Chester W. Nimitz, Maj. Gen. Thomas North, Brig. Gen. Frederick Osborn, Arthur W. Page, Gen. Sir Bernard Baget, H. Merrill Pasco,' William D. Pawley, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal of Hungerford, Sgt. James Powder,* John Lee Pratt," Sam Rayburn," Col. Russell P. Reeder,* Gen. Matthew B. Ridg- way," Walter S. Robertson, Brig. Gen. Paul McD. Robinett," Mrs. George H. Rock- well," Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt, Maj. Gen. H. M. Roper, Brig Gen. Charles H. Royce (interviewed by Dr. E. M. Coffman), Maj. Gen. William T. Sexton,. Field Marshal Lord Slim, Col. Truman Smith,O Gen. ,# Maj. Gen. Howard M. Snyder, Gen. , Col. William Spencer,e Adm. Harold R. Stark, Maj. Gen. M. C. Stayer," Adlai Stevenson, Mrs. , Lt. Cen. Richard K. Suther- land, Charles P. Taft, Gen. Maxwell Taylor, Miss Cora Thomas, Maj. Gen. Thomas S. Timberman, President Harry S. Truman, Gen. L. K. Truscott,* Brig. Gen. H. A. Twitchell, Maj. Gen. Fred L..Walker, Maj. Gen. Orlando Ward,* Mrs. E. M. Watson," Mark S. Watson," Gen. A. 6. Wedemeyer, Maj. Gen. Lawrence Whiting, Field Marshal Lord Wilson, and Col. and Mrs. J J. Winn. For backbound 1 have used notes on interviews that I conducted in 1946-47 while gathering material for The Supreme Commund. In addition to Alanbrooke, Betts, Bradley, Cunningham, Eisenhower, Morgan, Mountbatten, Portal, and Smith, listed above among those 1 interviewed later, I received information pertinent to this volume from Maj. Gen. Ray W. Barker, Maj. 6en. Robert W. Crawford, Gen. Charles de Caulle, Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Davis, Maj. Gen. Julius Holmes, Marshal Alphonse Juin, Fleet Adm. Ernest J. King, Capt. C. E. Lambe, Fleet Adm. William D. Leahy, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Brig. Gen. Arthur S. Nevins. ADDITIONAL SOURCES OF INFORMATION The following have supplied information in various forms, such as letters, photo- graphs, clippings, speeches, articles, or general information pertaining to General Marshall or the events covered by this volume: Et. Gen. Edward M. Almond, N. J. Anthony, Ray H. Balken, M K. Barber, Brig. Gen. Clifford Bluemel, Edward L. Bowles, F. Gorham Brigham, Jr., Jack Burness, John M. Camp, Leo Cherne, Robert Coakley, Brig. Gen. Robert F. Cocklin, Hugh M. Cole, Richard C. Corbyn, John DeM. Cine Crane, Brig. Gen. Robert Cutler, Willu J. Dance, C. E. Dornbusch, L. M. Dorsch, Mrs. Louise B. Duntze, Col. Trevor Dupuy, Sherrd Ease, Wear Adm. E. M. Eller, Stanley Falk, Detmar Finke, Mrs. Hazel W. Frese. Col. J. J. Fulmer, Ward Gib- son, Brig. Gen. Raymond E. Goodridge, R. L. Gorny, Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, Rep. Kenneth Hechler, Sgt. William Heffner, Col. R. D. Heinl, Jr., Maj. Gen. Guy V. Henry, Et. Gen. Thomas F. Hickey, Miss Cynthia Hill, Brig. Gen. C. 6. Hillman, Wilber Moare, Maj. Gen. J L. Homer, Col. Morgan Hudgins, Bert Ivry, Gen. Harold K. Johnson, Lt. Col. Robert A. Johnston, Col. Bertram Kalisch, Col. Joseph C. King, Col. Herman 0.Lane, Richard Eeighton, Misses Eugenia and Laura Lejeune, Sir Basil Liddell Hart, Ernest K. Eindley, Russell Lynes, Speaker John McCormack, E. A. Minnich, Jr., Louis Morton, Miss Buell Mullen, Col. Homer C. Munson, Col. R. V. Murphy, Richard Newman, Eugene Overstreet, John C Parker, Et. Gen. W. S. Paul, Milton F. Berry, Irving Peterfreund, Robert Proenneke, Gapt. Edgar F. Puryear, Jr., Col. Julian E. Raymond, Thomas B. Rogers, Charles F. Romanus, R. G. Ruppenthal, Don Russell, E. A. Sale, Jr., Robert Sherrod, Mrs. James W. Simpson, Col. Frank S. Singer, Mrs. Brehon B Somervell, John P. Spore, Brig. Gen. Alexander N. Stark, Rep. Frank A. Stubblefield, Riley Sunderland, Gen. W. 6. Sweeney, Jr., Col. Arthur Symons, Marcel Vigneras, Col. John M. Virden, Arthur Webb, Et. Gen. Walter E. Weible, Egon Weiss, Lt. Col. C. W. Westlund, James T. Williams, Col. F. PI. Wilker- son, Lyle Wilson, Rudolph H. Winnacker, William H. Worrilow, Jr., Mrs. Harry Wright, Donna H. Traxler, J. E. Hughes, and Ted Wycoff. DIARIES I have drawn heavily on the Diary of Secretary of War Henry E. Stimson, which is at the Yale University Library. Since Stimson saw General Marshall almost daily, when the two men were at the War Department, and made frequent summaries of their conversations, it is an invaluable source on the wartime Chief of Staff. Unques- tionably the Diary contains comments by both men, made when they were tired or angry, which later they would have preferred to revise. In fact, Secretary Stimson omitted many of them from On Active Seruzce, which he wrote in collaboration with McGeorge Bundy. I have included some of these on the ground that they reflected War Department thinking at the time. (Quotation marks around statements from the Stimson Diary may refer to the Secretary of War’s paraphrase rather than to General Marshall’s exact words.) Material from the Morgenthau Diaries, to which H was directed by John Blum’s Years of Urgency, was furnished me by the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York. For those portions of the Diary entries not open to the public, I have relied on Blum’s book. Brig. Gen. Paul McD. Robinett, who served as a member of General Marshall’s staff during the first half of 1941 and as Chief of Intelligence of General Headquarters during the last half of 1941 and the first few weeks of 1942, kept a diary during this period which he kindly permitted me to use. It is valuable not only for information on the workings of the office of the Chief of Staff and GMQ but for insight on prob- lems he gained as Assistant Secretary, WDGS, and from attending and recording the proceedings of the Standing Liaison Committee and of the Combined U.S.-U.K. Chiefs of Staff at the Arcadia Conference. MEMOIRS, AUTOBlrOGRAPHPES, AND BIOGRAPHIES The best volumes on British policies and the views of Prime Minister Churchill and the British Chiefs of Staff in the 1939-42 period are Churchill’s three volumes, Their Pinest HQW, The Grand Alliance, and The Hinge of Fate, and Sir Arthur 447 Bryant’s Tuna of the Tide, based on the diaries of General Sir Alan Brooke (later Lord Alanbrooke). Sherwood’s Roosevelt and Hopkins, based on Hopkins’ personal papers and notes and many official files, British and American, is particularly valuable on American military and political leaders and policies durisg the war period. Two excellent volumes, On Active Service, written by Secretary Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, and Elting Morison’s Turmoil and Tradition, A Study of the Life and Times of Henry L. Stimson, are especially valuable for the background of the period, the workings of the War Department, 1940-45, and the relationship between Secretary Stimson and General Marshall. In addition to General MacArthur’s Reminiscences, the following books are val- uable for the Pacific commander’s views and policies: Hunt, The Untold Story of Douglas MacArthur, Willoughby and Chamberlain, MacArthur, 1941-1951; and Whitney, MacArthur, His Rendezvous with Destiny. Hunt’s volume was based in part on material gathered during several months at General MacArthur’s head- quarters during the war. Willoughby, General MacArthur’s chief of intelIigence, drew on the “MacArthur Histories,” written after the war under Willoughby’s supervision He indicates that his book was expanded from an original group of ten chapters read and annotated by General MacArthur. General Whitney, aide to Gen- eral MacArthur for many years and at the time he wrote the book, had full access to his superior’s files. General RlacArthur said that “his actual participation in the events and his intimate knowledge of the concepts underlying my actions cannot fail to ensure the historical accuracy and corresponding value of the book.” Mrs. George C. Marshall’s Together has many delightful anecdotes on the General during the war period and gives valuable insights into his thinking The only two biographies of General Marshall, those by William Frye and Robert Payne, while containing some material taken from interviews with General Marshall’s colleagues, were written without access to the Chief of Staff’s papers. DeWeerd’s collection of General Marshall’s speeches for the war years is valuable for the student of the period. The Sttlwell Papers contains colorful extracts from General Stilwell’s diary and letters for the war period. My Three Years with Eisenhower by Butcher is based on the “Diary, Commander- in-Chief.” which he kept for General Eisenhower from 1942-45.I was permitted by General Eisenhower to make notes from the manuscript diary in 1946. Sir John Kennedy’s The Business of War, based on his diary, Leasor’s The Clock with Four Hands, based on the diary of Sir Leslie Hollis, and Lord Moran’s Churchill contain valuable material on personalities in the war period. Volumes by some of the other key figures of the war years include: Leahy, Z Was There: Arnold, Global Mission; King and Whitehill, Fleet Admiral King, A Naval Record; Lord Ismay, Memoirs; Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports; Eisenhower, Cru- sade in Europe; Clark, CaZculated Risk: Murphy, Diplomat Among Warriors; Cun- ningham, A Sailor’s Odyssey; Truscott, Command Missions; de Gaulle, War Memoirs. ARCHIVES AND LIBRARIES General Marshall’s personal papers were given to the George C. Marshall Research Library before his death and title was confirmed by Mrs. Marshall. Many of the papers are now deposited in the Marshall Library at Lexington, Virginia. Others are still in Washington being processed for shipment to Lexington. These files are not yet open to researchers. The prinapal official records pertaining to the Chief of Staffs activities for the period 1939-42 are in ehe custody of the National Archives. Record collections that have been used for this volume include: RECORD CROUP 31g-Records of the Army Stag, 1939: Office of the Chief of Staff (OCS)-to March 1942; War Department Chief of Staff Amy C$%rDCSA)-after March 1942; War Plans Division (WPD)-to March 1942; Operations Division (OPD) -after March I 942; Personnel Division (G-1); Intelligence Division (G-2);Operations Division (G-3). RECORD CROUP g4-Records of the Adjutant General’s Ofice (TAG). RECORD CROUP 337-Records of Headquarters, (ACF). RECORD GROUP 33g-Records of Army Air Force Headquarters. The author has drawn on material from the National Archives, the World War Records Division (Alexandria, Virginia), The Office of the Chief of Military History, The Department of the Army Library, The National War College Library, The Library of Congress, The Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, The Office of Naval Recorda and Library, U. S. Marine Corps Historical Section, The Yale University Library, and The Virginia Military Institute Library. H wish to thank their directors and staffs for their willing cooperation. OFFICIAL HISTORIES I am heavily indebted eo the Department of the Army’s official volumes in the in World War I1 series. Based on all of the available official records and presented in great detail, they were invaluable for background informa- tion and for guides to the official sources. Although 1 have attempted to check the original sources wherever available to me, I have bcen influenced in my selection of material and in my interpretations in many cases by these volumes. Although H have listed the location of original sources as a means of indicating to the reader the nature of the materia’l, I have noted in a master copy of the manuscript, filed with the Marshall Library, the citations to the official volumes. Volumes that were espe cially valuable are listed in notes to the chapters to which they pertain. For the British side of the story I have relied heavily on Grand Strategy by Sir J. R. M. Butler and J. M A. Gwyer. Pertinent volumes by Samuel E. Morison on the operations at sea and the Air Force volumes edited by Craven and Gate, in the Army Air Forces an World War 88 series, were frequently consulted. NEWSPAPERS AND PERIODICALS Miss Lejeune, Mrs. Prate, Mrs. Pites, Mr. Marken, and Mr. Gauntlete have checked the files of the following newspapers and periodicals for the period 1939-42 for editorial and general comments: New York Times; Washington Post; Washrngton Star; Chicago Tribune; The Times of London; Army and Navy Journal; Army and Navy Register; Time; Newsweek; and Life. Several years ago the Marshall Library acquired the New York Times’ own clipping file of its stories on World War HI[, arranged by topic. This collection, now at Lexington, fills some 164 boxes. The Library also has an extensive clipping collection on General Marshall from the UP1 collection at the New York World Telegram and Sun; a collection made by Don Russell and presented to the Library; and a collection made over a number of years by Arthur Webb, former U. S. correspondent for the London Mail. Also of assistance was the annotated bibliography of articles, editorials, and books pertaining to General Marshall for the war years which was prepared by my wife, Christine Pogue, as her Master2 thesir; at Catholic University. Copies are on file at the university, at the Department of Amy Library, and at @e George C. Marshall Library.