This—one of the greatest educational feats in military history—was done by a man who lacked all the normal trappings of “leadership,” such as the personal magnetism or the towering self-confidence of a Montgomery, a de Gaulle or a MacArthur. What Marshall had were principles. “What can this man do?” was his constant question. And if a man could do something, his lacks became secondary. Marshall, for instance, again and again came to George Patton’s rescue and made sure that this ambitious, vain, but powerful wartime commander would not be penalized for the absence of the qualities that make
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