George C. Marshall's Appointment as Secretary of State

George C. Marshall's appointment as Secretary of State in January 1947 brought a respected military leader into the center of a strained and increasingly consequential foreign policy. Truman had quietly chosen him as James Byrnes's successor months earlier; when Marshall arrived, his reputation reassured a troubled administration, and his leadership quickly altered the department's direction and organization.

Background and Succession

By July 1946, Byrnes was struggling to advance peace-treaty negotiations with Vyacheslav Molotov at the Council of Foreign Ministers in Paris. His relations with Truman had also become strained. In April, Byrnes had privately asked to resign, citing health problems, but Truman persuaded him to remain at least until the end of the year. Through General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Truman confidentially told Marshall, then in China, that he wanted him to take over the State Department when Byrnes departed.

The succession was not yet public, but events sharpened the need for a change. Senator Arthur Vandenberg returned from Paris describing appalling disagreement over Germany and intense suspicion between the Soviet Union and the West. Meanwhile, Communist forces were gaining ground in China, and Truman acknowledged that the situation there was very bad. The administration needed a secretary who could command confidence amid several connected international difficulties.

Appointment and Confirmation

A presidential address helped prepare the ground. Written largely by Clark Clifford, with help from George M. Elsey, it maintained Truman's domestic program while adopting a more optimistic tone and advocating a balanced budget, a streamlined military establishment, and international control of atomic energy. The following evening, Truman announced that Byrnes had resigned and Marshall would be the new Secretary of State. Marshall was already on his way from China.

The appointment drew almost immediate, nearly unanimous approval. Henry Stimson wrote that Marshall's selection gave him a great sense of security about the country and called it wise and shrewd. In the Senate, Vandenberg moved the nomination through the Foreign Relations Committee without a hearing or opposition, then used a suspension of the rules to secure unanimous approval that same day. Some Republicans wondered whether the appointment might make Marshall a future presidential candidate. Marshall dispelled that possibility on the morning he arrived in Washington, saying he would never seek political office.

On Tuesday, January 21, 1947, Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson swore Marshall in at the White House. Truman, beaming, thanked him for accepting the burden; Marshall replied that he would do his best. At sixty-six, he became the first career soldier to serve as Secretary of State.

A Reputation Forged in Service

Marshall brought a long military career to the civilian post. Born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on the last day of 1880, he graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1901 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the infantry. He served in the Philippines, Oklahoma Territory, and Fort Leavenworth. During the First World War, as an aide to John J. Pershing, he directed the American advance to the Argonne. He spent three years in China between the wars, and Franklin D. Roosevelt made him Army chief of staff in 1939.

His latest China mission had ended in failure. Marshall had tried to mediate between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and Mao Tse-tung's Communists, managing only a tentative cease-fire. He described the two sides' irreconcilable political aims and was deeply frustrated by the Nationalist government's corruption and military dominance. The Communists, meanwhile, fostered disorder and anti-American propaganda while their strength grew. Yet the scale of the problem, and Marshall's standing, meant that his failure did not diminish confidence in him. His new post was widely regarded as a major advance for the administration.

Reorganizing the State Department

Marshall's arrival made an immediate difference. Byrnes had worked hard, but he was fiercely independent, tried to handle matters himself, and spent much of his time away from the department. In 546 days as secretary, he had been absent for 241. Under Marshall, the department gained clearer purpose and direction. Charles E. Bohlen later recalled greater clarity in its operations and emphasized that Marshall, unlike Byrnes, never forgot that Truman was President.

With Truman's approval, Marshall established a Policy Planning Staff under George Kennan, recalled from Moscow, and brought greater order and efficiency to the department. When section heads argued in front of him, Marshall directed them to solve the problem rather than fight over it. He also persuaded Dean Acheson, who had wanted to return to private life, to remain as Under Secretary for another six months. When Acheson explained that the department had outgrown its old quarters beside the White House and that a new building was available in Foggy Bottom, Marshall's response was direct: “Move.”

Partnership and Public Responsibility

Marshall's authority soon mattered in decisions extending beyond departmental management. As the administration considered assistance to Greece and Turkey, Truman called congressional leaders to the White House on the morning of February 27. Marshall warned that the United States faced the first of a series of crises that might extend Soviet domination across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. The choice, he told them, was “acting with energy or losing by default.” Truman later said that Marshall had made the choice plain and recorded his emphatic agreement. The episode showed Marshall helping define the stakes while Truman retained responsibility for the policy and its appeal to Congress.

For Truman, the appointment was also an act of trust in a formidable, independent colleague. He privately wrote that the more he saw and spoke with Marshall, the more certain he was that Marshall was “the great one of the age,” and described him as a tower of strength and common sense. That admiration did not mean Marshall merely reinforced the President's views: his stature allowed him to bring his own judgment into the administration. His appointment gave the State Department a more coherent direction and gave Truman a trusted partner whose counsel could carry weight at home and abroad.