Description:

Bradley Omar



Generals Omar Bradley, Leslie Groves & George Marshall Tied Together in a Nice Letter

 

Typed Letter Signed “Brad,” to Leslie R. Groves Jr., October 28, 1963, Lexington, VA. 1 p., 7.25" x 10.5".  On George C. Marshall Research Foundation letterhead. Very good.

 

Excerpts

“Thank you for your very fine letter and for the generous check which you enclosed to the George C. Marshall Research Foundation. No one knows better than yourself the vital importance of providing for future Americans a place of study of the life and character of General Marshall.”

 

“The response the Foundation has received from those who knew General Marshall personally and from foundations who realize the importance of preserving the Marshall papers is extremely encouraging to us.”

 

Historical Background

The George C. Marshall Research Foundation was established in 1953 as a non-profit corporation to collect papers and historical objects related to the activities of General Marshall as a soldier, as Secretary of State, and as Secretary of Defense. In December 1954, General Marshall agreed to turn over his personal papers to John C. Hagan, the first president of the Foundation. Plans quickly developed to build the George C. Marshall Research Library on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington. 

 

General Omar Bradley served as President of the George C. Marshall Foundation from 1959 to 1970. On May 23, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the Marshall Library. Former President Eisenhower, General Bradley, Secretary of State Dean Rusk and several other dignitaries attended the dedication ceremonies.

 

 

Omar N. Bradley (1893-1981) was born in Missouri and graduated in 1915 from the United States Military Academy, where he excelled as a baseball player. A fellow graduate that year was Dwight D. Eisenhower. During World War I, he guarded copper mines in Montana. From 1920 to 1924, he taught mathematics at West Point, before receiving further army training in Georgia and Kansas, then returning to teach at West Point in 1929. In 1936, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and served at the War Department in Washington, where he served under U.S. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall. During World War II, Bradley commanded the 28th Infantry Division but did not receive a front-line command until early 1943, when he became deputy to General George S. Patton in North Africa. He succeeded Patton in command of the II Corps and commanded it during the invasion of Sicily. He then transferred to London as commander of American ground forces preparing to invade France in 1944. He followed the invasion forces into France four days after D-Day and by August, he commanded a group of more than 900,000 men, the largest group of American soldiers ever to serve under a single field commander. After the war, President Harry S. Truman appointed Bradley to lead the Veterans Administration, a position he held from 1945 to 1947. He served as Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army from 1948 to 1949, then as the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1949 to 1953. In 1950, he was promoted to the rank of General of the Army, the last of five army generals promoted to the five-star rank for service in World War II. Bradley was instrumental in convincing Truman to dismiss General Douglas MacArthur during the Korean War. Bradley left active military service in 1953 but did not retire and remained on active duty by virtue of his rank. From 1958 to 1973, he was chairman of the board of Bulova Watch Company. Bradley also served as president of the George C. Marshall Research Foundation from 1959 to 1970.

 

Leslie R. Groves Jr. (1896-1970) was a United States Army General with the Corps of Engineers who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II. Born in New York to a Protestant pastor who became an army chaplain, Groves graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1918 in a course shortened because of World War I. He entered the Corps of Engineers and gained promotions to major by 1940. In 1941, he was charged with overseeing the construction of the Pentagon, the largest office building in the world, with more than five million square feet. Disappointed that he had not received a combat assignment, Groves instead took charge of the Manhattan Project, designed to develop an atomic bomb. He continued nominally to supervise the Pentagon project to avoid suspicion, gained promotion to brigadier general, and began his work in September 1942. The project headquarters was initially in the War Department building in Washington, but in August 1943, moved to Oak Ridge, Tennessee. He and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer selected the site in Los Alamos, New Mexico, for a laboratory, and Groves pushed successfully for Oppenheimer to be placed in charge. Groves was in charge of obtaining critical uranium ores internationally and collecting military intelligence on Axis atomic research. Promoted to major general in March 1944, Groves received the Distinguished Service Medal for his work on the Manhattan Project after the war. In 1947, Groves became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project. He received a promotion to lieutenant general in January 1948, just days before meeting with Army Chief of Staff Dwight D. Eisenhower, who reviewed a long list of complaints against Groves. Assured that he would not become Chief of Engineers, Groves retired in February 1948. From 1948 to 1961, he was a vice president of Sperry Rand, an equipment and electronics firm. After retirement, he served as president of the West Point alumni association and wrote a book on the Manhattan Project, published in 1962.

 

Ex. Leslie Groves Family, Christies Auction. 



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