U.S. At War: Marshall to England?

The U.S. Army’s quiet Chief of Staff, General George Catlett Marshall, 62, has never wanted to ride out World War II with his boots planted behind a Washington desk. The man Pershing called the finest officer in World War I wants to see some action. Months ago the rumors of General Marshall’s next move simmered down into a strong possibility: the President would transfer George Marshall to England to lead the Allied invasion of Europe.

The unofficial but authoritative Army & Navy Journal, freshly studying this probability last week, decided it did not like the idea, and even suggested that the move might be against the U.S. interest. The Journal hinted cryptically: “General Marshall, of course, has come into conflict with powerful interests which would like to eliminate him from the Washington picture. . . .”

“Powerful interests” was all the hint the America-Firstish press needed. The Washington Times-Herald’s British-baiting Frank C. Waldrop (whose capital dope is reverently quoted by the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News) picked up what appeared to be the ball and ran panting across several vacant lots. Lumping Franklin Roosevelt and Adolf Hitler together for firing good generals, Waldrop wrote: “. . . The fundamental question is whether our Army is to be used first for United States purposes or for the purposes of British Empire strategy General Marshall right today is out as Chief of Staff, because he won’t further subordinate his ‘technical’ views on global strategy to Messrs. Roosevelt and Churchill.”

General Marshall, good friend of Messrs. Roosevelt & Churchill, refused to make any comment whatsoever.