#5-133
To Major General Henry Conger Pratt
May 14, 1945 [Washington, D.C.]
Dear Pratt:
First, I have just received your note regarding the matter of the expense account for the trip and Halifax’s insistence on handling his share personally. That is perfectly agreeable to me so long as he knew we desired to be the hosts, which he did.1
With reference to your other note of May tenth regarding your embarrassment because of the proposal to urge your advancement to the grade of Lieutenant General. Nothing of the sort has come to me and if it had I should have felt that you had no part in it. So do not concern yourself over my possible misunderstanding of your attitude.2
Frankly, and confidentially, the situation is this: we have now due the return of a large number of officers of high rank who have performed brilliantly in the fighting in France. Very few of these will get to the Pacific. Positions in reasonable keeping with the records of the individuals will have to be found in this country. While there will be a gradual demobilization, or rather grade by grade reduction in high rank, it should not begin with the outstanding leaders. Therefore, during the coming months places will have to be found for these officers, notably Army and Corps commanders, of whom there are a great many that will not be required for the occupation period in Germany and, as I have commented above, probably will not be employed in the Pacific.
Walker, whose Army Corps under Patton, has played a leading part in the movement across France through Germany into contact with the Russians in southern Czechoslovakia, will return shortly to take over a Corps Area, or rather an Army Service Command, that of the Eighth in Texas.3 There will be similar changes and while there are no plans at all at the present time for alterations in the Eastern and Western Defense Commands it is possible that something of this sort may have to take place in the future.
Faithfully yours,
Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.
Document Format: Typed letter.
1. Major General H. Conger Pratt, who served as commander of the Western Defense Command in San Francisco, had accompanied Lord and Lady Halifax on a trip (which General Marshall had instigated) through the Redwood groves in California. (Pratt to Marshall, May 7, 1945, and Halifax to Marshall, May 7, 1945, GCMRL/G. C. Marshall Papers [Pentagon Office, Selected].)
2. Pratt had written that two individuals, not in the army, had informed him that they proposed to “take action in an endeavor to secure a third star for me.” He had urged them not to pursue the matter because it would be most embarrassing for him and the War Department. “I hope I have quashed the thing. . . . I have had nothing to do in any way, either directly or by implication, with the origination or the prosecution of this move,” insisted Pratt. “I have never in my Army career sought political or outside influence and I do not propose to do so now.” (Pratt to Marshall, May 10, 1945, ibid.)
3. Lieutenant General Walton H. Walker, commander of the Twentieth Corps, assumed command of the Eighth Army Service Command in Dallas, Texas, in June.
Recommended Citation: ThePapers of George Catlett Marshall, ed.Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945–January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 187–188.