ABSTRACT
Despite possessing diametrically opposed personalities, Roosevelt and Marshall made a formidable combination. Their relationship was not built upon any fondness one had for the other, but upon unstinting respect for the capabilities of the other. But neither Marshall nor Roosevelt was ready to join hands at the start. Roosevelt was often angered that Marshall could not comprehend the politics of war, while Marshall was just as upset by the political constraints imposed upon him. As Marshall said after the war, he wished someone had told him early on the presidents have to be seen by the American people as doing something major every year. It was only after Marshall came to this realization that he was able to establish military goals that kept the waging of the war in harmony with FDR's politics of the war. When they came to a mutual understanding of the entwined elements of strategy, they went on to win the greatest war in history.
