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George Marshall and the American Red Cross
Marshall was president of the American Red Cross from October 3, 1949, until November 1, 1950. He succeeded Basil O’Connor and was succeeded by E. Roland Harriman.

George Marshall might have become president of the Red Cross in 1946, but for an event that happened on November 27, 1945, the day after he was honored by President Harry Truman and others at his Army retirement ceremony at the Pentagon. Truman had spoken with Marshall about the Red Cross presidency sometime before that retirement event. Although he told Truman that the Red Cross position would be a “very great honor,” Marshall said that he could not take a job of that magnitude without having time to rest. Nevertheless, he discussed the matter “frequently and at some length” with his wife Katherine.

On November 27, however, Patrick Hurley, U.S. ambassador to China, resigned and charged that officials in the State Department were siding with the Chinese Communists and undermining his efforts to bring peace to China. An infuriated Truman decided that the appointment of a well-regarded national figure with an impeccable reputation might defuse some of the controversy over Hurley’s charges. Meeting with his cabinet for lunch that day, Truman asked his cabinet who that person might be. Clinton Anderson, secretary of agriculture, suggested George Marshall, and James Forrestal, secretary of the navy, seconded the idea.

Truman was initially opposed to the Marshall appointment because he knew of Marshall’s desire to take time off before assuming another government position. The president, however, was persuaded by two arguments from his cabinet. One, he could name Marshall as a special envoy and not as an ambassador, eliminating the need for Senate hearings and a confirmation vote. That would mean that Marshall could leave for China immediately. Two, cabinet members argued that Marshall would have to spend only a few months in China and could then return for his rest.

After lunch, Truman returned to his office and telephoned Marshall, who was moving into Dodona Manor, his home in Leesburg, Virginia. Truman asked him to go to China to try to build a coalition government between the Nationalist Chinese and the Communist Chinese.

On February 8, 1949, after Marshall’s resignation as Secretary of State, Truman called him to the White House to ask him if he would succeed Basil O’Connor as Red Cross president. On September 22, Truman announced Marshall’s appointment as president of the Red Cross, effective October 1. Marshall’s duties were to execute the organization’s policies, prepare a budget, represent the Red Cross’ national organization to local chapters and volunteers, and liaise with other federal agencies.

Scores of Red Cross workers took their lunch break to assemble at the marble staircase in the lobby of the Red Cross building at 2025 E Street NW in Washington, D.C., on October 3 to await the arrival of their new president. “The general’s face broke into a broad smile as he ascended the steps and acknowledged the greetings by nodding right and left,” said an account in The Red Cross Courier, the organization's magazine. “With characteristic modesty,” the story said, “he was obviously touched by the salute.”

Truman had assured Marshall that his Red Cross responsibilities would not be too exhausting. When Marshall accepted the appointment, he told Truman, “I appreciate so much your desire to have me in that position, and particularly what I sense to be the real fact, that you wish to provide me with a dignified post that, at the same time, would not be too demanding for my health and peace of mind.” Truman and Marshall may have believed that the Red Cross responsibilities would not be too taxing, but the realities of Marshall’s duties were far different because Marshall refused to be a figurehead in the office.

Within three weeks, however, the new Red Cross president began a grueling travel and meeting schedule. He departed October 24 on a six-day, 7,500-mile trip to 14 cities, where he inspected Red Cross chapter houses and met chairmen of 158 chapters and hundreds of workers. Marshall took a second tour of Red Cross chapters January 16-27, 1950, and a third tour February 8-25. He said at one news conference that he had no other plans for his future and that the Red Cross would be his last public effort.

A New York Times reporter marveled at his stamina and the way he approached his meetings. She told how he would quietly listen to local leaders before he began to talk and ask questions. She described how his eyes sparkled and his hands became expressive before he broke into a grin reminiscent of Franklin Roosevelt. The audience was spellbound as he talked for fifty minutes without notes.

After reading the Times article, Truman sent Marshall a hand-written note. He said that he was always interested in what Marshall was doing and added, “As usual you are doing a thorough job!” However, he advised Marshall to be careful of his health and physical well-being. “I want you to be alive and fit when I quit here so we can do some things that need to be done in this great republic of ours. You have made the greatest of contributions toward saving it. I’ve tried to make a small contribution.…I want you as a living partner to finish the job. Please take care of yourself. Don’t make me responsible for your demise. I have enough to answer for without that!”

Marshall had to counter an internal problem of low morale that resulted from the organization’s two levels of operation – the headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the thousands of volunteers in Red Cross chapters around the country. The organizational structure of the Red Cross had been the cause of the problem. Sixty-five wealthy supporters had comprised the Board of Incorporators, and they were mostly from the East Coast. The eighteen-member Central Committee, which ran the organization, included six government officials appointed by the president of the United States, six chosen by the incorporators, and six chosen by local chapters – but the Red Cross charter had no provision for how those local representatives were to be chosen.

The government officials chosen by the president considered their appointment to be honorary and seldom attended committee meetings, and the chapter delegates were from remote cities and could not attend regularly. The six incorporator members were from the Washington, D.C., area, and they attended most of the meetings and dominated the Central Committee. A reorganization in 1947 had created a Board of Governors of fifty persons, including representatives of local chapters, and Area Advisory Councils were added in 1948, bringing chapter officers and volunteers into direct contact with the Governors.

Marshall’s military experience had taught him that the way to improve morale was to show soldiers that you cared about them and that you appreciated what they did. “I know from my Army experience,” he explained, “that you’ve got to go to the people themselves to find out what the problems are.”

Raising money was another challenge, and Marshall felt that business and industrial leaders did not understand the organization’s national and international obligations that made fundraising so important. The Red Cross had received government funds during World War II, but those funds had been reduced after the war. Soon after taking office, Marshall launched the 1950 national campaign that sought $67 million in contributions from businesses, organizations and individuals.

In addition to speeches to community groups, Marshall used national radio to plead for money. President Truman launched the campaign with a radio address on February 26. Henry Fonda starred in an accompanying documentary about Red Cross disaster relief, blood banks and veterans’ services. Marshall followed that with an appeal on the National Broadcasting Corporation’s “Theater Guild” on March 5.

Poor response to the fundraising efforts forced Marshall to make another national appeal on March 27, when he spoke during the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast of "The Man Who Came to Dinner,” starring Lucille Ball and Clifton Webb. Marshall said that the Red Cross budget was larger than necessary because the organization did not demobilize after World War II. “The Red Cross has great spiritual significance,” Marshall said, “because it symbolizes love for humanity and the impulse to give generously from the heart to those in need of help. That is what is most needed in the world today. That spirit will make a stronger America and a better world.”

That same night, Marshall’s appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s national television telecast was supposed to appear to be spontaneous. He told Godfrey that he considered the Red Cross presidency “one of the most stimulating assignments I have ever had. There is so much about it that appeals to the heart and soul. It is very satisfying at last to be engaged in an effort to help people. That is the great mission of the Red Cross.”

Marshall had detected a lack of well-informed and articulate workers within the organization, and he feared that the problem might become a serious dilemma. He said that the Red Cross needed volunteers but that a more important problem was the fact that the public was not aware of the work that volunteers did. The Junior Red Cross with its 19 million members needed to be utilized more, Marshall emphasized.

The invasion of South Korea by North Korean troops at the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, set in motion a series of developments that eventually led to Marshall’s resignation from the Red Cross presidency. Marshall told Senator Arthur Vandenberg (R.-Mich.), about four important visitors who had come to see him in Leesburg on Saturday, July 1. Dean Acheson (Secretary of State), Averell Harriman (special assistant to President Truman), Charles Bohlen (special adviser to Acheson) and George Kennan (another special adviser in the State Department) “showed up down at Leesburg and stayed for lunch,” Marshall recalled, “and you can imagine the character of the discussion.”

According to Kennan’s diary, the four had called Marshall that morning to seek his counsel about Korea, and he invited them to Leesburg for lunch. They arrived at one o’clock, finding Marshall “in fine form.” He listened attentively as the group discussed the Korean situation as they sat under the trees in the Marshalls’ lawn.

On their drive back to Washington, the four discussed Marshall’s reactions and concluded that he should share his thoughts with President Truman, who called Marshall on Sunday, July 2, and invited him to have lunch on Wednesday, July 5, with him and General Dwight Eisenhower, who had succeeded Marshall as Army Chief of Staff. Truman couldn’t wait, however, and he got Marshall out of bed on July 4 with another phone call, giving Marshall an hour’s notice that he was coming to Leesburg that morning. In addition to hearing Marshall’s views about Korea, Truman wanted to see for himself if Marshall was willing and physically able to take the position of Secretary of Defense.

Sitting in the lawn under spreading oak trees, Truman and Marshall discussed China, Formosa, Japan, General Douglas MacArthur, Chiang Kai-shek and the Defense Department. Marshall told a friend on July 24 of his predicament: “Most confidentially, I have been trembling on the edge of being called again into public service in this crisis, but I hope to get by unmolested, but when the President motors down and sits under our oaks and tells me of his difficulties, he has me at a disadvantage.”

Marshall saw Truman on September 6, when the president asked him to replace Louis Johnson as Secretary of Defense. Marshall agreed, but on the condition that the appointment would be for no longer than one year and that Robert Lovett would be his deputy secretary.

Truman had hoped that Marshall would take a leave as president of the Red Cross and resume his Red Cross duties when the left the Defense Department. However, after two and a half months of serving concurrently as Secretary of Defense and president of the Red Cross, Marshall concluded that he could not do both and that the Red Cross needed an active leader. On October 2, 1950, Marshall wrote to E. Roland Harriman, a national Red Cross leader and younger brother of Averell Harriman, to say that Truman had agreed with Marshall’s plan to resign as Red Cross head in November, when the organization was to meet in Chicago.

Marshall said farewell to the Red Cross Board of Governors on November 19 in Chicago. He told them that he had known little about the Red Cross when he assumed office, and that he was bothered when he learned that many Red Cross leaders knew little about the organization and had concentrated on activities that were within their own special interests. He had made progress in trying to correct that, he said, but “not nearly enough.” He continued, “I must report to you today that I still find too little appreciation and acceptance of what the Red Cross does today, too little recognition of the threats that would – if successful – seriously impair the efficiency of the Red Cross.”

In a poignant speech to the Red Cross staff in Washington, D.C., on December 4. “My association with the Red Cross has been a tonic to my spirit,” he said. “I have learned that there are great reserves of simple goodness and altruism in human beings that, when catalyzed by an agent like the Red Cross, create good will, friendliness and helpfulness. Knowing that these qualities exist, even when dormant, is about the only proof we have that someday man will learn to live in peace. The Red Cross has the experience and the organization to give the American people the training that may be essential to survival. I know you will not fail because it is not in the Red Cross tradition to fail.”