Le General George C. Marshall (1880-1959). Par Deux Fois Il a Sauve l'Europe (review)

This readable, enthusiastic biography of George Marshall by a former French general is especially interesting for two reasons. In the first place, it is one of the very few such books published in French, which survey in a favorable manner the military life of General Marshall. (It stops in the late 1940s, after dealing briefly with Marshall's China trip and the beginning of the Marshall Plan.) The reasons for this approach can be found in the fact that Pujo, now deceased, knew and admired Marshall personally, and relies heavily on Forrest Pogue's four-volume history of the general and on the able, one-volume life by Ed Cray. Both of these scholarly studies are basically sympathetic to their subject. While Pujo cites some other authorities, these two studies set the tone of the volume.

The second quality of the book is trivial but annoying. Pujo did not have a chance to proofread the volume before his death. The book consequently includes more typographical errors than any other study of this kind. These range from the misspelling of one of his frequently used sources (Craig instead of Cray) to a host of proper names. They do not invalidate the broad narrative, but they annoy the reader.

However, there are so few coherent accounts in French of the life of General Marshall that Pujo's biography will be useful to students not familiar with English. Even taking into account the above comments, this volume remains a useful source. In short, the bias is sound and the typos are human.