George Marshall: Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech

George Marshall directed the U.S. Army in the largest war in its history, building it from a tiny force to more than eight million. Before Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor of December 7, 1941, Marshall led the effort to prepare the nation for war. Afterward, he helped direct the war effort and lead the United States and its allies to victory. Marshall became President Franklin Roosevelt’s leading military adviser and helped draft many of his memos on strategy and military matters. He also helped craft American strategy to win World War II and secure peace in its aftermath. He played a leading role in fashioning American foreign policy, which centered on rebuilding Europe and containing the Soviet Union. In 1953 Marshall was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the European Recovery Program, also known as the Marshall Plan. In his Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, delivered at the height of the cold war, he returned to themes he had addressed in the past—the relevance of history and its vital role as an educational tool and and his belief that peace, prosperity, and democracy depended on one another.