No man knows his destiny, nor does any nation. The destiny that lay beyond Yorktown and Appomattox and Manila Bay, that lay mockingly behind a slogan ("Make the World Safe for Democracy") at Belleau Wood, took a new and decisive turn last year. It was in 1947 that the U.S. people, not quite realizing the full import of their act, perhaps not yet mature enough to accept all its responsibilities, took upon their shoulders the leadership of the world.
Some Americans were still unaware of the step their nation had taken. Some knew that it had to be taken; some, either through fear or lack of imagination or lack of knowledge, were unwilling to follow. But the central fact remained: if the soth Century world was to secure its freedoms, the U.S. would have to supply leadership; doing less might even jeopardize its own freedom.
No one man was responsible for 1947's great step. Like many fateful decisions, it sprang only partly from the brain. It was an act brought about by events, and their steady, unending hammering on the U.S. sense of justice. But one man symbolized the U.S. action. He was Secretary of State George Marshall. As the man who offered hope to those who desperately needed it, he was the Man of the Year.
On history's calendar, the story of 1947 could be told through three events in the official life of George Marshall. On Jan. 7, a disillusioned man, he returned from his unsuccessful mission to China to take over the job of formulating and guiding the nation's foreign policy. Near the year's end, on Dec. 15, in London's Lancaster House, he angrily and coldly ended the Foreign Ministers' conference. These two events bracketed the year; the second ended an era of false hopes and hopeful judgments.
But it was the event of midyear that was the most significant. On June 5, standing under the elms in the Harvard Yard, George Marshall, in almost casual terms, announced the beginning of the program that was to become the Marshall Plan. Then & there the U.S. at last set out to seize the initiative from Russia in the cold war.
Simple Concept. Looking back over the year, U.S.-citizens might wonder how their enlightenment had come about. Looking back, Old Soldier Marshall might wonder himself. It was a kaleidoscopic story of surprise, improvisation and counterattack. When he took over as Secretary of State, George Marshall, despite his attendance at wartime conferences, was no skilled diplomat. He had been sent to China as a special presidential envoy to bring peace between Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government and the Chinese Communists. He failed in his mission. He came back denouncing the Chinese Communists as "irreconcilable," the Nationalists as "reactionary."
Unquestionably, Marshall had inherited some of his suspicion of the Nationalists from his great friend, War Secretary Stimson (see Historical Notes). But for years Chiang Kai-shek had stood implacably in Asia against the Chinese Communists. George Marshall had caught a glimpse of the same enemy that Chiang had long faced, but he still did not recognize him as such.