America's Retreat from Victory The Story of George Catlett Marshall - Joseph McCarthy
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What questions does McCarthy raise about George Marshall’s motives and actions?
CHAPTER I. OF AMERICA'S RETREAT FROM VICTORY. THE STORY OF GEORGE CATLET MARSHALL. Background. Leading up to the Marshall speech. On June 14, 1951, I reviewed the public career of George Catlett Marshall from the beginning of World War II before the United States Senate. It was an exhaustive review, running to 72,000 words, drawn from the acknowledged sources of this period. Among the questions raised by that speech were these. What were McCarthy's motives? Why did McCarthy single out the Secretary of Defense and spend so much time preparing such a searching documentation of his history? those questions recalled the advice given me by some of my friends before i gave the history of george marshall don't do it mccarthy they said marshall has been built into such a great hero in the eyes of the people that you will destroy yourself politically if you lay hands on the laurels of this great man
My answer to those well-meaning friends was that the reason the world is in such a tragic state today is that too many politicians have been doing only that which they consider politically wise, only that which is safe for their own political fortune. My discussion of General Marshall's career arose naturally and inevitably out of a long and anxious study of the retreat from victory which this administration has been beating since 1945. In company with so many of my fellow citizens, I have become alarmed and dismayed over our moral and material enfeeblement. The fact that 152 million American people are officially asked by the party in power to adopt Marshall's global strategy during a period of time when the life of our civilization hangs in the balance would seem to make it imperative that his complete record be subjected to the searching light of public scrutiny.
as a backdrop for the history of marshall which i gave on june fourteenth there is the raw harsh fact that since world war two the free world has been losing one hundred million people per year to international communism If I had named the men responsible for our tremendous loss, all of the administration apologists in the camp following elements of press and radio, led by the daily worker, would have screamed, the big lie, irresponsible, smear, congressional immunity, etc., etc., etc. However, it was the Truman branch of the Democratic Party meeting at Denver, Colorado, which named the men responsible for the disaster which they called a great victory. Dean Gooderham, Acheson, and George Catlett Marshall.
By what tortured reasoning they arrived at the conclusion that the loss of 100 million people a year to communism was a great victory was unexplained. the general picture of our steady constant retreat from victory with the same men always found at the time and place where disaster strikes america and success comes to soviet russia would inevitably have caused me or someone else deeply concerned with the history of this time to document the acts of those molding and shaping the history of the world over the past decade however an occurrence during the macarthur investigation was the immediate cause of my decision to give the senate and the country the history of marshall a deeply disturbed senator from the russell committee came to my office for information mccarthy he said i have always considered marshall as one of our great heroes and i am sure he would knowingly do no wrong
But McCarthy, he said, tell me who prejudiced the thinking of this great man. Why, for example, did he keep from Roosevelt the complete and correct intelligence reports at Yalta? Why did he, as Roosevelt's military advisor, approve that Yalta agreement which was drafted by Hiss, Gromyko, and Jeb? who persuaded him to disregard the intelligence report of 50 of his own officers, all with the rank of colonel or above, an intelligence report which urged a course directly contra to what was done at Yalta and confirmed at Potsdam. He handed a copy of that report to me and asked, why did a man of Marshall's intelligence ignore such a report as this compiled by 50 of his own top intelligence officers?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What questions does McCarthy raise about George Marshall’s motives and actions?
0:01–12:20
2
How did Marshall’s early military career and CCC work shape his rise to senior command?
12:20–33:40
3
Why did Marshall push for a Second Front in Europe and how did he clash with British strategy?
33:40–1:02:49
4
What were the key disagreements between Marshall and Churchill over the Mediterranean and the 1943‑44 campaigns?
1:02:49–2:53:56
5
What were General Marshall’s instructions and actions that defined U.S. policy in China?
2:53:56–3:23:33
6
Why did Marshall impose an embargo on military aid to the Nationalist Chinese government?
3:23:33–3:59:49
7
How was the Wedemeyer report suppressed and what did it reveal about the China strategy?
3:59:49–4:52:46
8
What role did Marshall play in the European Marshall Plan and later U.S. foreign‑policy decisions?
4:52:46–5:56:50
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