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Transcription: [00:17:00]
{SPEAKER name="Martin Sullivan"}
And of course, you can go on and on with stories about General Marshall and his time. One of the reasons this room, I think, feels like a good place for him is that he is surrounded by some of the iconic figures. And one, in particular, I want to call our attention to, in fact, we can move over and talk about Winston Churchill and George Marshall, for just a second
[00:17:28]
[[sound of footsteps]]
[00:17:40]
Now, this is the United States National Portrait Gallery. What's Winston Churchill doing in it?
[[Audience member speaks]] He was an honorary--
[00:17:48]
{SPEAKER name="Martin Sullivan"}
He was made an honorary citizen of the United States, and although that in itself was a threshhold, he probably belongs in here even if that had never happened, because of his importance to the people of the United States. This is a portrait made by Douglas Chandor and
[00:18:11]
you know the Hall of Presidents, we talked about the Eisenhower portrait? Do you know the portrait of FDR that has his hands--ah, multiple representations of his hands doing different things, his glasses are in them, his pen and so forth? Same artist.
[00:18:31]
Douglas Chandor, who I think captured more of the vitality, the energy, the potency, of both FDR and Winston Churchill. And Churchill and Marshall had a particularly good relationship, and in a lot of respects, I think it would be fair to say that they had an easier relationship than General Marshall and his own boss, FDR.
[00:18:59]
One of the stories about George Marshall, who was a stickler for propriety was that when he was not the Chief of Staff of the Army but the Deputy Chief of Staff, he was one of a cluster of military men around Roosevelt's desk talking about military preparations and priorities, how to spend the limited money that Congress had appropriated to do this, that, or the other thing, and--
[00:19:26]
and the President said, 'Well, I think we need to build 10,000 new bombers,' or something like that, and went around the room to just hear from different people, who were all yes-men, and then he turned to General Marshall and he said, 'What about you, George?' and Marshall said, 'Mr President, I don't agree at all.
[00:19:46]
And--okay, that's pretty flat in a room of conviviality and two things occurred. Number one, Marshall won the argument and number two, FDR never called him George again.[[Laughter]] General Marshall.
[00:20:04]
Winston Churchill, on the other hand, came to admire the man whom he called the Organizer of Victory. They had a relationship which was not intimate. You know, think of the way this guy lived. Totally different to Marshall's. Winston Churchill up all night, garrulous, drinking champagne, brandy, massive cigars, telling stories, annoying everyone with his self-centeredness, okay?
[00:20:38]
George Marshall tight up--wrapped tight as a drum, austere in all of his habits, tried to be in bed at night at 9 o'clock or 9:30, up early in the morning to ride his horse. Somehow, these two men found a way to communicate a basis for the allies to work together successfully during the Second World War. And I think this portrait gives us one clue as to why that relationship worked. What is Winnie wearing?

Transcription Notes:
https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.65.76 Churchill portrait https://npg.si.edu/object/npg_NPG.68.49 FDR portrait