#5-615
To Lieutenant General Alvan C. Gillem, Jr.
January 6, 1947 Radio No. GOLD 1912. [Nanking, China]
Secret, Eyes Only
Most secretly I am leaving for US Wednesday morning. This fact will
probably become known here Tuesday morning. Decisions regarding set-up out
here cannot be taken until I confer in Washington. I expect to recommend the
immediate demobilization of Executive Headquarters and relief of all Marines in
North China except those at Tsingtao.1 I will propose demobilization to proceed
as fast as transportation can be arranged. The recommendation of course will be
dependent on course of events out here next two weeks.
Upon arrival in Washington, I intend to cause an appropriate directive to
be sent back to China establishing my present office as an Executive Office
immediately under the Embassy. This directive also would charge the Embassy
with supervision of policy matters, political, economic, and military, for all US
activities in China. For your information, I am presently considering having
General Timberman head up the Executive Office to assist the Embassy in taking
care of the military aspects of the over all situation. Timberman would not come
to Nanking, however, until word was received from me or my representative in
Washington. When and if Timberman does come, he can move into my present
house with Mrs. Timberman.2
Document Copy Text Source: Records of the Department of State (RG 59), Lot Files, Marshall
Mission, Military Affairs, GOLD Messages, National Archives and Records Administration,
College Park, Maryland.
Document Format: Typed radio message.
1. Executive Headquarters was inactivated on February 6, 1947. After the September 1,
1947, evacuation of Tientsin, the only remaining U.S. Marine Corps duty station in
China was at Tsingtao, and that was evacuated in June 1948. (History of the Executive
Headquarters, p. 24; Shaw, United States Marines in North China, pp. 23, 25.)
2. After Marshall left China, his mission office became the Embassy Liaison Office. On
April 11 this office was replaced by the Embassy Executive Office, which included
army and navy sections, and Brigadier General Thomas S. Timberman became chief
of the Army Section. He remained in Nanking until mid-September 1947, when he was
assigned to the War Department General Staff. (Timberman to Office of the Chief of
Staff, Radio No. GOLD 2148, April 2, 1947, and Timberman to various headquarters,
Radio No. GOLD 2154, April 7, 1947, NA/RG 59 [Lot Files, Marshall Mission, Military
Affairs, GOLD Messages].)
Recommended Citation: The Papers 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.
770–771.