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Memorandum for General Surles

May 8, 1943 [Washington, D.C.]

Take the last sentence of today’s editorial in The “Washington Post” as your text.¹ See if you can’t do something with the news writers and the broadcasters to register an appreciation of the magnificent job Eisenhower has done and the great contribution he has made to the Allied cause in demonstrating, under the most conceivably complicated circumstances, a successful unity of command.

You can tell some of these newsmen from me that I think it is a damned outrage that because he is self-effacing and not self-advertising that they ignore him completely when, as a matter of fact, he is responsible for the coordination of forces and events which brought about the successful assaults of yesterday.

Document Copy Text Source: George C. Marshall Papers, Pentagon Office Collection, Selected Materials, George C. Marshall Research Library, Lexington, Virginia.

Document Format: Typed memorandum.

1. The editorial praised the Allied victory in Tunisia as a “truly Allied triumph. Americans, British and French, Greeks and New Zealanders and Palestinians—all have contributed to an effort that has proved to be as stirring as it was beautifully coordinated.” The last sentence stated: “If the Allies can fight and work together as they have fought together in the Tunisian campaign, there will be no reason to despair of the future.” (Washington Post, May 8, 1943, p. 10.)

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. 3, “The Right Man for the Job,” December 7, 1941-May 31, 1943 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), p. 686.