DOCSLIB.ORG

George C. Marshall: the Last Great American?

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
George C. Marshall: the Last Great American? Reprinted, with permission, from Followed by bis dog.,F1eet, the· Army SMITHSONIAN Magbine, August 1997 ChiefofstQ,ffbritJIy escapes his military issue. @ 1997, Smithsonian Institution. cares by riding at Fort Myer in 1941. GEORGE C. MARSHALL THE LAST GREAT MERICAN? BY LANCE MORROW be true. But when I put Washington and Marshall side by side, and look at them against the background of the NO SOLDIER SINCE WASHINGTON HAS HAD HIS ROMAN national leadership now in office, it is VIRTUES, AND SO SIGNIFICANTLY SHAPED A PEACE easy to think that I am looking at the first American grown-up-and the last. As much as any man, Marshall saved IN MY MIND, A DIAGRAM OF AMERICAN is unfair, perhaps. Custer's curtain call world democracy at the moment of its military history might begin with a was an act ofself-immolating folly; Pat­ greatest danger. He took up his duties parallelogram of Georges-George ton, by contrast, was a brilliant tacti­ as U.S. Army Chief of Staff on Sep­ Washington and George Marshall; cian and a superb combat leader who tember 1, 1939, the day that Hitler George Armstrong Custer and George redeemed his excesses when he marched into Poland. He began with Patton. A geometry of paired oppo­ brought the Third Army slashing an absurdly ill-equipped army of sites. In some ways, George Marshall is across Europe toward Hitler's throat. 174,000 men, ranking 17th in the world the best of them all. The other two sides of the parallelo­ behind such nations as Bulgaria and Custer and Patton are the Hotspur gram, the Stoic Georges, shaped larger Portugal, and turned it into a global sides-martial peacocks, brave, vain­ American business. Washington and fighting force of more than eight mil­ glorious and, in Custer's case, fatally Marshall were·soldiers ofmaturity and lion, an army without which the Allies heedless. The cavalier Georges favored gravitas: father figures, not sons. In could not have defeated Nazi Germany flamboyant touches: Custer with his both generals duty evolved beyond ego and Japan. Ulysses Grant was the first personal flag and a regimental band, and broke through to a sort of higher master of industrial warfare. Marshall mounted on white horses, playing self-effacement, an identification by was the first genius of bureaucratic "Garryowen" across the Montana which they merged themselves with warfare, a Napoleon riding a desk. Not plains; Patton with ivory-handled pis­ their country's purposes. The Greeks martial flamboyance but logistics saved tols and his warrior-mystic's deja vu­ might have thought Patton and Custer the world in 1939-45, although the he thought that he had fought with embodied hubris; they would have world still may not be mature enough Alexander the Great in another life. assigned Washington and Marshall to to understand that. Well, as George Marshall said, rue­ the realm of arete, or virtue-the self Could anyone else have done the job fully, a democracy's leader, even in fulfilled in noble accomplishment for as well as Marshall? No. Was Marshall war, must keep the people entertained. the state. Washington and Marshall indispensable? The question has no Custer and Patton were performance were not only warriors but, after their answer, except perhaps a quotation artists who filled the stage with strut wars, something more constructive from the Tao Te Ching: "The Master u w U and plumage and flame. They con­ than that. doesn't talk, he acts, when his work is 0: 8 ceived that the battle was essentially a As Emerson said, "Every hero be­ done, the people say, 'Amazing: We u dramatically amplified projection of comes a bore at last." Washington and did it all by ourselves!'" ~ >o themselves. Pairing Patton with Custer Marshall both may seem too good to The recent anniversary of the Mar- u April 1945: triumphant Red Army soldiers wave a flag over the ruins of Berlin; in a 1947 cartoon (right), Europe hauls itself up from a "rubble heap" with help from the Marshall Plan. West Berlin was rebuilt, but the U.S.S.R. and its satellites refused Western aid. shall Plan notwithstanding, as a soldier shall was. That is one of the reasons greater man than Dwight Eisenhower, George Marshall is half-forgotten now, why I want George to have the big yet it was Ike who went to the White or four-fifths forgotten, as he knew he command. He is entitled to establish House for eight years. Marshall was a would be. That was part of his virtue. his place in history as a great general." greater general, and a better man, than There was a moment around Thanks­ Eisenhower listened in silence. He, theatrical and self-promoting Douglas giving of 1943 that might have changed of course, wanted to command the MacArthur. Yet MacArthur lives on everything and propelled Marshall into invasion but, like everyone else, as­ more vividly in whatever remains of higher historical orbit. Franklin Roo­ sumed the job would go to Marshall. American historical memory. Despite sevelt needed to settle upon the gener­ In Cairo in early December, FDR tried the offer of seven-figure publishers' al who would lead the Allied invasion to get Marshall to state a preference. advances, Marshall refused to write his of France and the reconquest of Eu­ Marshall said only that he would do memoirs after the war; to do so, he rope. Everyone assumed that Army what the President wanted him to do. suggested, would require him to tell Chief of Staff George Marshall would Days later, FDR made his decision. the full story, and such truth-telling get the job he had magnificently earned. He reasoned that no one else could wo~d sometimes wound old colleagues. On his way to meetings in Cairo deal with Congress as effectively as His concern for others was usually and Tehran, Roosevelt discussed the Marshall did-no other soldier would concealed behind an on-duty, crisply z question with Dwight Eisenhower, have Marshall's immense moral author­ serious command manner that rarely o ;:: then the commander ofAllied forces in ity and credibility. No one else knew permitted warmth or familiarity to ~ North Africa and the Mediterranean. the world military situation so well. As show. The jovial Franklin Roosevelt on o u As they flew over Tunisia, the Presi­ the Cairo Conference ended, Roosevelt several occasions called him "George," ::i u dent thought out loud: "Ike, you and I told Marshall: "I feel I could not sleep but Marshall rejected it as not suitable z <: know who was Chief of Staff during at night with you out of the country." from his Commander in Chief. He had '"u Z" the last years of the Civil War but It was done. Marshall accepted the a sense of humor, but one so rarely z <: practically no one else knows, although decision without question or comment. indulged, and so sly and dry that oth­ ....:>i ~ the names of the field generals-Grant, Both Roosevelt and Marshall were cor­ ers could miss the point. At a World "'U> of course, and Lee and Jackson, Sher­ rect in predicting that being kept at his War I armistice celebration, a French ;0 man, Sheridan and the others-every desk in the War Department would attache and a British observer debated '"o ~ deprive Marshall of the honor in his­ the postwar distribution of Germany's ~ schoolboy knows them. I hate to think o > that fifty years from now practically tory that he deserved. colonies. When the Frenchman gener­ o Z nobody will know who George Mar- History is not fair. Marshall was a ously proposed giving Syria to the United States, Marshall declined: career fell into two acts-the Great debt of gratitude, a soldier and states­ "America is opposed to any colony Depression and World War II. Mar­ man whose ability and character brook that has a wet or a dry season, and an shall played his two acts in the oppo­ only one comparison in the history of abnormal number of insects." He site order, from war to peace-first as this nation." Conant understood the allowed, however, that Bermuda the organizer of global battle, then as a symmetry: the comparison was of would be acceptable. The Englishman preeminent statesman of the postwar course to George Washington. was not amused. period. During the 1930S, when Amer­ By June 1947, the relief attending vic­ Colin Powell and Norman Schwarz­ ica was basically isolationist and large­ tory two years earlier had been lost in kopf, heroes of a 42-day video war, ly pacifist, Marshall, along with some new anxieties. Churchill, deposed as made millions for their memoirs. Mar­ others, had the historical imagination prime minister and leading the loyal shall belonged to a pretelevision, to anticipate war on a scale that would opposition, rumbled: "What is Europe almost Plutarchian, order. In some have seemed to most Americans an now? It is a rubble heap, a charnel ways the burden that he bore was apocalyptic fantasy. It took great dar­ house, a breeding ground of pestilence greater than that of Churchill or Roo­ ing and steadiness to prepare for such and hate." The wartime alliance with sevelt, because Marshall was the man an apocalypse. Again, after the war, he the Soviet Union had all but disinte­ who turned policy, mere ideas, into led America out of isolation with the grated; the threat of Communist men and steel, into facts. He was held Marshall Plan. regimes in Europe and the Mediter­ more mercilessly than the others to the Marshall's two great acts intersected ranean was real.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • George Washington and George Marshall: Some Reflections on the American Military Tradition” Don Higginbotham, 1984
    'The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, Department of Defense or the US Government.'" USAFA Harmon Memorial Lecture #26 “George Washington and George Marshall: Some Reflections on the American Military Tradition” Don Higginbotham, 1984 Though this is my second visit to the Air Force Academy, it is my first opportunity to present an address. I have had more exposure in this regard to one of your sister institutions: West Point. I must be careful not to speak of you as army men and women; but if I forget it will not be out of partiality. Gen. George Marshall at times was amused and at other times irritated by the partiality shown for the Navy by President Franklin Roosevelt, whom you may recall loved the sea and had been assistant secretary of the navy in the Wilson administration. On one occasion Marshall had had enough and pleaded good humoredly, "At least, Mr. President, stop speaking of the Army as 'they' and the Navy as ‘us’!” The title of this lecture suggests the obvious: that I consider it informative and instructive to look at certain similarities of experience and attitude shared by George Washington and George Marshall. In so doing, I want to speculate on their place in the American military tradition. These introductory remarks sound as though I am searching for relevance, and that is the case. No doubt at times historians, to say nothing of their readers, wish that the contemporary world would get lost so as to leave them unfettered to delve into the past for its own sake.
    [Show full text]
  • Army Downsizing Following World War I, World War Ii, Vietnam, and a Comparison to Recent Army Downsizing
    ARMY DOWNSIZING FOLLOWING WORLD WAR I, WORLD WAR II, VIETNAM, AND A COMPARISON TO RECENT ARMY DOWNSIZING A thesis presented to the Faculty of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF MILITARY ART AND SCIENCE Military History by GARRY L. THOMPSON, USA B.S., University of Rio Grande, Rio Grande, Ohio, 1989 Fort Leavenworth, Kansas 2002 Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE Form Approved OMB No. 0704-0188 Public reporting burder for this collection of information is estibated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burder to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED (FROM - TO) 31-05-2002 master's thesis 06-08-2001 to 31-05-2002 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER ARMY DOWNSIZING FOLLOWING WORLD WAR I, WORLD II, VIETNAM AND 5b.
    [Show full text]
  • General Douglas Macarthur S Private Correspondence, 1848-1964
    Guide to the Microfilm Edition RG-10: GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR S PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE, 1848-1964 Filmed from the holdings of the MacArthur Memorial Archives Norfolk, Virginia A Microfilm Publication by Scholarly Resources Inc. An Imprint of Thomson Gale Scholarly Resources Inc. An Imprint of Thomson Gale 12 Lunar Drive, Woodbridge, CT 06525 Tel: (800) 444-0799 and (203) 397-2600 Fax: (203) 397-3893 P.O. Box 45, Reading, England Tel: (+44) 1734-583247 Fax: (+44) 1734-394334 ISBN: 0-8420-4358-6 All rights reserved, including those to reproduce this microfilm guide or any parts thereof in any form Printed and bound in the United States of America 2006 Table of Contents Biographical Essay Douglas MacArthur, iv Introduction to the Collection, vii Reel Contents to RG-10: General Douglas MacArthur s Private Correspondence, 1848-1964, 1 Biographical Essay Douglas MacArthur Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on January 26, 1880, to Captain (later Lieutenant General) Arthur MacArthur and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur of Norfolk, Virginia. Douglas was the youngest of three sons. The eldest, Arthur, went to the U.S. Naval Academy and died in 1923, a captain in the Navy; Malcolm died in childhood in 1883 and is buried in Norfolk. Douglas and his family lived on various military posts from New Mexico to Fort Leavenworth to Washington, DC. In 1899 he was appointed to the U.S. Military Academy from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After graduating first in his class from West Point, where he held the highest rank in the Corps of Cadets, MacArthur was commissioned second lieutenant, Corps of Engineers, on June 11, 1903.
    [Show full text]
  • Macarthur, DOUGLAS: Papers, 1930-41
    DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER LIBRARY ABILENE, KANSAS MacARTHUR, DOUGLAS: Papers, 1930-41 Accession: 03-17 Processed by: TB Date Completed: June 24, 2003 The microfilm copy of the papers of Douglas MacArthur, 1935-41 were deposited in the Eisenhower Library by the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial Archives and Library in June, 2003. Approximate number of items: 3 reels of microfilm The original documents remain with the General Douglas MacArthur Memorial Archives and Library of Norfolk, Virginia as RG-1 Records of the U.S. Military Advisor to the Philippine Commonwealth, 1935-1941. Researchers should contact that repository directly regarding copyright restrictions. SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE This collection consists of microfilm copies of correspondence, orders, speeches, reports, newspaper clippings and other printed material relating to MacArthur’s work as military adviser to the Philippine Commonwealth during 1935-41. This collection contains materials relating to the creation of a Philippine Army, Philippine Defense, Philippine politics, and general correspondence with MacArthur’s contemporaries. This collection is described at the document or case file level; each folder description contains many individual entries. Reels 1 and 2 contain documents within the MacArthur papers; some of these letters and telegrams are authenticated copies, and not originals. Reel 3 contains photocopies of selected documents from the Official Military Personnel File of Douglas MacArthur, also known as a “201” file. The original documents currently are held by the National Archives and Records Administration at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, but the documents contained in this microfilm were copied when the file was housed at the Washington National Record Center in Suitland, Maryland.
    [Show full text]
  • 10, George C. Marshall
    'The views expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Air Force, Department of Defense or the US Government.'" USAFA Harmon Memorial Lecture #10 “George C. Marshall: Global Commander” Forrest C. Pogue, 1968 It is a privilege to be invited to give the tenth lecture in a series which has become widely-known among teachers and students of military history. I am, of course, delighted to talk with you about Gen. George C. Marshall with whose career I have spent most of my waking hours since1956. Douglas Freeman, biographer of two great Americans, liked to say that he had spent twenty years in the company of Gen. Lee. After devoting nearly twelve years to collecting the papers of General Marshall and to interviewing him and more than 300 of his contemporaries, I can fully appreciate his point. In fact, my wife complains that nearly any subject from food to favorite books reminds me of a story about General Marshall. If someone serves seafood, I am likely to recall that General Marshall was allergic to shrimp. When I saw here in the audience Jim Cate, professor at the University of Chicago and one of the authors of the official history of the U.S. Army Air Forces in World War II, I recalled his fondness for the works of G.A. Henty and at once there came back to me that Marshall once said that his main knowledge of Hannibal came from Henty's The Young Carthaginian. If someone asks about the General and Winston Churchill, I am likely to say, "Did you know that they first met in London in 1919 when Marshall served as Churchill's aide one afternoon when the latter reviewed an American regiment in Hyde Park?" Thus, when I mentioned to a friend that I was coming to the Air Force Academy to speak about Marshall, he asked if there was much to say about the General's connection with the Air Force.
    [Show full text]
  • General Lesley J. Mcnair: Little-Known Architect of the U.S
    General Lesley J. McNair: Little-Known Architect of the U.S. Army By [Copyright 2012] Mark T. Calhoun Submitted to the graduate degree program in History and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ________________________________ Dr. Theodore A. Wilson ________________________________ Dr. Robert F. Baumann ________________________________ Dr. Christopher R. Gabel ________________________________ Dr. Jeffrey P. Moran ________________________________ Dr. Brent J. Steele Date Defended: April 6, 2012 The Dissertation Committee for Mark T. Calhoun certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: General Lesley J. McNair: Little-Known Architect of the U.S. Army ________________________________ Dr. Theodore A. Wilson Date approved: April 6, 2012 ii ABSTRACT General Lesley J. McNair demonstrated an innovative spirit and exceptional intellectual capacity in his efforts to organize and train the U.S. Army for World War II. The influence he exerted on Army doctrine, training, equipment development, unit organization, and combined arms fighting methods placed him among the handful of generals most responsible for both the effectiveness and the flaws of the force that the United States sent to war in 1942. Through his strong views and aggressive leadership, McNair played a key role in guiding the Army’s interwar mechanization and doctrinal development efforts. Many studies of this period have described aspects of his participation in that process. However, no comprehensive study of McNair’s forty-year military career exists, largely because he did not survive the war, and he left behind no personal memoirs or diaries when he died of wounds inflicted by errant American bombs in Normandy on July 25, 1944.
    [Show full text]
  • Handout #4: Eisenhower and His Times
    Handout #4: Eisenhower and His Times 1890 Dwight David Eisenhower is born on October 14 in Denison, Texas, the third son of Ida and David Eisenhower. “If we were poor-and I’m not sure that we were by the standards of the day- we were unaware of it. All in all, we were a cheerful family. We would have been insulted had anyone offered us charity: instead my mother was always ready to take home remedies or food and start out to help the sick.” --Dwight D. Eisenhower, In Review: Pictures I’ve Kept, 1969 1891 Eisenhower family moves to Abilene, Kansas, a small farm town. Dwight grows up as the third of six brothers. “You get to meet anyone face to face with whom you disagree.” --Dwight D. Eisenhower, quoted in Relman Morin, Dwight D. Eisenhower, A Gauge of Greatness, 1969 1907 Eisenhower is an outstanding high school athlete, playing football and baseball. “I believe that football…tends to instill in men the feeling that victory comes through hard—almost slavish—work.” --Eisenhower, At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, 1967 1909 Eisenhower graduates from high school. He does not have the money to go to college. “[My father’s]…sterling honesty, his insistence upon the immediate payment of all debts, his pride in his independence earned for him a reputation that has profited all of us boys. Because of it, all central Kansas helped me to secure an appointment to West Point in 1911.” --Eisenhower, Diaries, March 12, 1942, the day his father is buried 17 1911-1915 Eisenhower wins an appointment to West Point and takes the oath as a plebe.
    [Show full text]
  • Seventy-Second Annual Report of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, June
    SEVENTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York June 10, 1941 C-rinted by The Moore Printing Company, Inc. Newburgh, N. Y¥: 0 C; 42 lcc0 0 0 0 P-,.0 r- 'Sc) CD 0 ct e c; *e H, Ir Annual Report, June 10, 1941 3 Report of the 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association of Graduates, U. S. M. A. Held at West Point, N. Y., June 10, 1941 1. The meeting was called to order at 2:02 p. m. by McCoy '97, President of the Association. There were 225 present. 2. Invocation was rendered by the Reverend H. Fairfield Butt, III, Chaplain of the United States Military Academy. 3. The President presented Brigadier General Robert L. Eichel- berger, '09, Superintendent, U. S. Military Academy, who addressed the Association (Appendix B). 4. It was moved and seconded that the reading of the report of the President be dispensed with, since that Report would later be pub- lished in its entirety in the 1941 Annual Report (Appendix A). The motion was passed. 5. It was moved and seconded that the reading of the Report of the Secretary be dispensed with, since that Report would later be pub- lished in its entirety in the 1941 Annual Report (Appendix C.) The motion was passed. 6. It was moved and seconded that the reading of the Report of the Treasurer be dispensed with, since that Report would later be published in its entirety in the 1941 Annual Report (Appendix D).
    [Show full text]
  • WHEREAS, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1
    SENATE RESOLUTION 8617 By Senators Hasegawa, Hobbs, Brown, Dammeier, Roach, and Chase 1 WHEREAS, On February 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt 2 issued Executive Order 9066 which authorized the military to forcibly 3 remove and incarcerate more than 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry 4 from the West Coast, including 12,000 Japanese-American residents of 5 Washington State; and 6 WHEREAS, The first Civilian Evacuation Order gave Japanese- 7 Americans from Bainbridge Island less than one week to leave behind 8 homes, farms, businesses, friends, and family and to report to 9 hastily constructed detention centers like Camp Harmony on the 10 grounds of the Western Washington Fair in Puyallup; and 11 WHEREAS, This drastic course of action allegedly aimed to prevent 12 acts of espionage and sabotage by Japanese-Americans who were deemed 13 untrustworthy and disloyal to the United States; and 14 WHEREAS, On March 23, 1943, the War Department organized a 15 segregated unit of Japanese-Americans, many of whom reported for 16 military duty from concentration camps surrounded by barbed wire in 17 which they and their families were detained; and 18 WHEREAS, More than 12,000 volunteers responded to unfounded 19 questions of their loyalty and patriotism by amassing a battle record 20 unparalleled in United States military history that, according to 21 General Douglas MacArthur's chief of intelligence, "saved a million 22 lives and shortened the war by two years"; and p. 1 8617 1 WHEREAS, Equally loyal and patriotic Japanese-Americans fought
    [Show full text]
  • The Bastards of Bataan: General Douglas Macarthur's Role
    The Bastards of Bataan: General Douglas MacArthur’s Role in the Fall of the Philippines during World War II By: Lahia Marie Ellingson Senior Seminar: History 499 Professor Bau-Hwa Hsieh Western Oregon University June 8, 2007 Readers Professor Kimberly Jensen Professor John L. Rector Copyright © Lahia Ellingson, 2007 On December 8, 1941, just hours after having attacked the United States’ fleet on Pearl Harbor, the Japanese army turned their attention toward another American stronghold, the forces stationed on the Philippines. Here the Japanese attacked Clark Field, an American airbase on the island of Luzon.1 The subsequent battle and surrender that ensued has become known as “…the worst defeat yet suffered by the United States, a source of national humiliation.”2 With all of the confusion and horror that happened to the men in the Philippines it is hard to understand where blame should be placed. Was it General Douglas MacArthur, the Commanding General in the Philippines at the time? Or were there other factors such as war in Europe and conflicting beliefs on how best to defend the Philippines that led to the defeat? Historians have debated MacArthur’s role in the Philippines for some time. There are those who believe that MacArthur should be held accountable for the fall of the Philippines and those who see him as a commanding general who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. In this paper it will be argued that MacArthur’s actions in the Philippines prior to his escape to Australia hastened the fall of the Philippines, which led to more death and brutality at the hands of the Japanese.
    [Show full text]
  • Ranking Us Army Generals of the Twentieth Century
    ABSTRACT Title of thesis: RANKING U.S. ARMY GENERALS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY USING THE GROUP ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS. Todd Philip Retchless, Master of Science 2005 Directed By: Professor Bruce Golden Department of Decision and Informatio n Technologies The group analytic hierarchy process (GAHP) is a mathematically based decision making tool that allows groups of individuals to participate in the decision making process. In this thesis, we use the GAHP and the expert opinions of 10 pro fessional and amateur military historians to rank seven U.S. Army generals of the 20th Century. We use two methods to determine the priority vectors: the traditional eigenvector method and the recently introduced interval linear programming method. We co nsider the effects of removing outlier data and compare the rankings obtained by each method. RANKING U.S. ARMY GENERALS OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY USING THE GROUP ANALYTIC HIERARCHY PROCESS. By Todd Philip Retchless Thesis submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science 2005 Advisory Committee: Professor Bruce Golden, Chair Professor Edward Wasil Pr ofessor Charles D. Levermore © Copyright by Todd Philip Retchless 2005 Table of Contents List of Tables ............................................................................................................... iv List of Figures ..............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Purple Heart
    The Purple Heart It is one of the most recognized and respected medals awarded to members of the U.S. armed forces. Introduced as the “Badge of Military Merit” by General George Washington in 1782, the Purple Heart is also the nation’s oldest military award. In military terms, the award had “broken service,” as it was ignored for nearly 150 years until it was re-introduced on February 22, 1932, on the 200th anniversary of George Washington’s birth. The medal’s plain inscription “FOR MILITARY MERIT” barely expresses its significance. --------------------------------- On August 7, 1782, from his headquarters in Newburgh, New York, General George Washington wrote: “The General ever desirous to cherish virtuous ambition in his soldiers, as well as to foster and encourage every species of Military merit, directs that whenever any singularly meritorious action is performed, the author of it shall be permitted to wear on his facings over the left breast, the figure of a heart in purple cloth, or silk, edged with narrow lace or binding. Not only instances of unusual gallantry, but also of extraordinary fidelity and essential Gen. George Washington’s instructions for service in any way shall meet with a due the Badge of Military Merit reward. Before this favour can be conferred on any man, the particular fact, or facts, on which it is to be grounded must be set forth to the Commander in chief accompanied with certificates from the Commanding officers of the regiment and brigade to which the Candidate for reward belonged, or other incontestable proofs, and upon granting it, the name and regiment of the person with the action so certified are to be enrolled in the book of merit which will be kept at the orderly office.
    [Show full text]