George+C.+Marshall

George Catlett Marshall Jr. was born on December 31, 1880 in Uniontown Pennsylvania and died October 16, 1959. He was in the Army from 1902-1959. His parents were George C. Marshall Sr. and Laura Emily Marshall. Marshall went to college at Virginia Military Institute and played college football. After he graduated from VMI he became a Second Lieutenant. In December, 1944 Marshall became a general.

George Marshall made the United States army strong because there were fewer than 200,000 U.S. officers and soldiers. In less than four years, Marshall built the army into a well-trained and well-equipped force of 8,300,000. He also picked or recommended most of the important leaders during World War II; for an example, Dwight D. Eisenhower, George S. Patton, and Omar Bradley. One of the biggest accomplishments of George Marshall's career was the Marshall Plan. The Marshall Plan was to help poor suffering European countries that needed help to rebuild because most of their country was destroyed during World War II. The Marshall Plan gave 13 billion dollars (around 100 billion dollars today) to help sixteen European countries, even satellite nations controlled by the Soviet Union. But the Soviet Union did not accept the offer. The Marshall Plan was in effect from 1947-1952.

George Marshall affected the places we are visiting because without the Marshall Plan those countries could still could be poor if nobody helped them.