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Vol. 26:3 ISSN 0160-8460 September 1998
George C. Marshall Returns to the White House
by Sharon Ritenour Stevens
Editors Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens present President Clinton with the initial four volumes of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, covering the years 1880-1944. Photo courtesy of the White House.
In a White House ceremony on July 23, 1998, representatives of the George C. Marshall Foundation, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), and the German Embassy presented to President Bill Clinton the initial four volumes of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall. Edited by Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens at the Marshall Foundation in Lexington, Virginia, and published by Johns Hopkins University Press, these volumes cover the period from December 1880 to December 1944. The ceremony commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan, for which the soldier-statesman George C. Marshall is most remembered. Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his role in proposing, supporting, and gaining legislative approval for the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan), which was instrumental in rebuilding war-torn Western Europe.
Although the documents thus far published concentrate on Marshall's career as U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War II, the remaining volumes will include his career during Harry S. Truman's presidency. Following Marshall's retirement as Army Chief of Staff, President Truman called on him to serve his country as its Special Representative to China, as Secretary of State, and as Secretary of Defense. Before anyone jumps to conclusions as to Marshall's political party affiliation, he had none. "As to my political faith," Marshall wrote in 1941, "I have never voted, my father was a Democrat, my mother a Republican, and I am an Episcopalian." Thus he exerted much influence during World War II and the postwar years as U.S. presidents and members of Congress, as well as world leaders, listened to Marshall because of his trustworthiness, honesty, and fairness.
Truman and Marshall's mutual respect and friendship is well-known. We recall another presidential ceremony involving a documentary publication. On May 17, 1950, President Truman was presented the first copy of the first volume of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited under the direction of Julian P. Boyd and published by Princeton University Press. President Truman praised the endeavor and expressed his hope that the Jefferson Papers project would "inspire educational institutions, learned societies, and civic-minded groups to plan the publication of the works of other great national figures." Truman directed the National Historical Publications Commission to prepare for him a report on "what can be done - and should be done - to make available to our people the public and private writings of men whose contributions to our history are now inadequately represented by published works." The President believed that "we need to collect and publish the writings of men and women who have made major contributions to the development of our democracy." Thus were launched modern documentary editions.
The presentation of the first volume of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, May 17, 1950. Left to right: V.W. Clapp, acting Librarian of Congress, President Harry S. Truman, George C. Marshall, and H.W. Dodds, President of Princeton University.
At the same ceremony, George C. Marshall was presented the second copy of the first volume of the Jefferson Papers. Princeton University President Harold Dodds invited Marshall (at that time President of the American Red Cross) for several reasons. "One is that your life and thoughts have been in the Jeffersonian tradition," wrote Dodds. "However, the chief reason is that in my private book you are America's number one citizen measured by standards of wise and self-denying public service."
Marshall spoke briefly about the relative youth of Jefferson and his immediate associates when they held such great power. He appreciated the value of history, but, unfortunately, Marshall did not comment on the value of documentary editions as Truman did following Marshall's remarks. Harry Truman not only encouraged the documentary editing profession, he was instrumental in founding the George C. Marshall Foundation and providing a repository for Marshall's papers and preserving his place in history. Concerned that the self-effacing General Marshall refused to write his memoirs, in September 1951 President Truman called the superintendent of Virginia Military Institute to the White House and presented his ideas for collecting and properly preserving the personal and official papers of George Marshall.
One of Truman's last official acts as President in January 1953 was to direct the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the National Archives to cooperate with the Marshall Foundation in procuring documentary material and providing access to records. Truman requested the government agencies to bring his directive to the attention of their successors in office to support the efforts "to provide suitable recognition to one of the greatest Americans of our age." President Truman would be pleased to know that George Marshall, who was so often in the Oval office to help make important decisions, is now the subject of a documentary edition.
(Sharon Ritenour Stevens is Associate Editor of The Papers of George Catlett Marshall.)
