171. George Marshall

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George Marshall

I hadn't realized Marshall had been a staff officer his entire career. Of course I see in his story support for my belief that by "Napoleon" we really mean Napoleon and Berthier. Even the modestly sized "modern" armies of that time required some kind of a staff genius, along with a field command genius, to excel. By WW2 the ability to manage logistics and personnel was all important and so we celebrate Marshall, Eisenhower, and Nimitz. 

A good field army general -- like Patton -- had basically the same skill set as a corps commander during the American Civil War. Like Hooker, who was excellent at the head of a corps but a disaster at the head of an army. Within the context of an army group, Patton's 3rd Army was at the same level of the hierarchy as Hooker's corps in the Army of the Potomac.

And, again this suggests what was so remarkable about Admiral Spruance, perhaps the most successful fleet commander of WW2, and who, when not in command of 5th Fleet, served as Nimitz's Chief of Staff. He excelled in both roles. 

p121 As chief of staff to the US Army in 1939, Marshall was in charge of culling the officer corps. It looks like he had basically the same role as Nimitz, who was Chief of the Navy Bureau of Navigation (actually the Bureau of Naval Personnel, but that name change wasn't official until 1942). This meant that Marshall and Nimitz were personally familiar with the records of all the regular officers in the Army and Navy respectively at the start of the war. Thus they were uniquely qualified to know who to put into what position.


This chapter has talked about how people like Marshall were trained to model themselves on famous figures from the past. Either from history or from the Bible. There's nothing novel about this, a very common variation on this is the near worship of sports figures and the tendency to use them as role models. But a couple hours later, while on my way to the market, I got excited about a tweak I realized I could make to one of my main, personal spreadsheets, and I actually heard the voice of an old girl friend calling out, "Dweeb!" So it isn't just Great Figures and Celebrities that become a part of our character over time. We pick up all sorts of voices to add to our internal chorus of advice.


Puritanism revisited
Not sure why, but an old professor of mine just sent me a link to an interesting piece of writing about Puritanism and the George W Bush administration. HERE. 

Ayn Rand isn't mentioned -- because the author is going for a religious connection -- but it isn't hard to see Rand and the Puritans as the world's strangest bedfellows. 

Brooks has gone to some trouble to avoid stepping into Puritanism or Jansenism, but one does wonder what he would make of this take on "Modern" economic history. I don't think Dostoevsky would have a problem with it. 

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