General George C. Marshall played a pivotal role in American history between 1939 and 1951. In this work, Mark Stoler integrates an extensive variety of primary and secondary sources, including Marshall's private papers, in the story of the frustrations and successes of Marshall's attempts to forge a workable military policy in World War II consistent with the basic principles of American democracy. Marshall, best remembered for the Marshall Plan, is made comprehensible as a strategist at the center of the most destructive conflict in world history.