Marshall, George Catlett (1880–1959)
US general and diplomat. He was army chief of staff in World War II, secretary of state 1947–49, and secretary of defence September 1950–September 1951. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1953 for initiating the Marshall Plan for European economic recovery in 1947.
| Marshall, born at Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was commissioned in 1901, served in World War I, and in 1939 became chief of staff with the rank of general. Franklin Roosevelt promoted him to the newly created rank of general of the army. |
| Following Marshall's retirement from the army, President Harry Truman recalled him to serve as a special envoy to China in November 1945. He attempted to secure a coalition between the Nationalist and Communist forces against Japan. As defence secretary (a post not normally held by a soldier), he backed Truman's recall of General MacArthur from Korea. |
