In a speech on “Marshall and His Generals” at the George Marshall Foundation on July 20, 2017, Dr. Stephen Taaffe talked about the four criteria that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall used to pick the high-ranking officers1 for the U.S. Army during World War II.2 Let me mention them, in reverse order:
1. General Marshall wanted to know them personally or know somebody who knew them personally.
2. Age. (Sorry. I realize it is politically incorrect today, but General Marshall didn’t want older generals.)
3. Education. Not West Point but having attended either the Army War College or the Command and General Staff School in Leavenworth, Kansas.
4. Character.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that President Trump has directed the Army to reduce U.S. Army troop numbers in Germany by 9,500 (from 34,500 to 25,000) by September. This decision comes within a week after German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she wouldn’t attend President Trump’s G-7 meeting in Washington later this month because of pandemic concerns, thereby effectively cancelling President Trump’s big meeting. While the Administration is saying that this idea has been under discussion since September of last year and that it has no connection with Chancellor Merkel’s decision, the optics are different. And given some of President Trump’s other decisions, it is hard to believe Chancellor Merkel’s refusal to come didn’t play at least some part in President Trump’s decision. That is not what a President does or the way he or she makes decisions.
Which gets back to General Marshall’s most important criteria for the U.S.’s top generals during World War II: character. It needs to be our number one criterion in November.
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1 By high-ranking officers, Dr. Taaffe was talking about generals at the corps level and above.
2 Dr. Taaffe has also written a book on this subject: Marshall and His Generals: U.S. Army Commanders in World War II.
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