cover image George C. Marshall: 2volume 4: Statesman

George C. Marshall: 2volume 4: Statesman

Forrest C. Pogue. Viking Books, $29.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-670-81042-0

Army chief of staff from 1939 to 1945, Marshall directed the organization and training of U.S. land and air forces during World War II. The fourth and final volume of Pogue's biography deals with Marshall's ""other dimension'' as statesman, humanitarian and peacemaker during his tenure as Secretary of State, head of the American Red Cross and Secretary of Defense during the middle period of the Korean War. This remarkable later career included Marshall's struggle to bring peace to China in the postwar years; his initiation and implementation of the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan); his role in the establishment of NATO and the State of Israel; his reaction to assaults by the radical right led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy; and his working relationship as defense secretary with Secretary of State Dean Acheson, probably the most successful collaboration in the history of the two departments. Pogue, former director of the Marshall Library, thus rounds off his monumental study of one of the great leaders of the 20th century. Photos. (June 5)