Andrew J. Goodpaster Papers - The George C. Marshall Foundation

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
General Andrew J. Goodpaster was born on February 12, 1915,
in Granite City, Illinois. He was a student at McKendree College
starting in 1931, before accepting a commission to the United States
Military Academy in 1935. He graduated from West Point, second in
his class, in 1939, and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the
Corps of Engineers. His first assignment was with the 11th Combat
Engineer Regiment in Panama, 1939-1942.
He commanded the 48th Engineer Combat Battalion in North
Africa and Italy during World War 11. From 1944 to 1947, he sewed
in the War Department and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Between1947
and 1950, he attended Princeton University, receiving a Master of
Science degree in engineering and an MA and Ph.D. in International
Relations. For the last six months of 1950, he was a member of the
Joint Advanced Study Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Starting in 1951, General Goodpaster resumed his military ser-
vice. He was: Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff, Supreme Head-
quarters Allied Powers Europe; Defense Liaison Oficer and Staff
Secretary to President Dwight D. Eisenhower; Assistant Commander
of the 3rd Infantry Division and Commander of the 8th Infantry
Division; Assistant to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff; Director,
Joint Staff, Organization of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Commandant of
the National War College; Deputy Commander of U.S. Forces in
Vietnam; and finally, from 1969 to 1974, Commander-in-Chief,
United States European Command and Supreme Allied Commander,
Europe.
He retired in 1974 and became a senior Fellow at the Woodrow
Wilson International Center for Scholars. In 1976, he was selected as
the first incumbent of the John C. West Chair of Government and
International Studies at The Citadel.
In 1977, General Goodpaster was recalled to active duty as the
51st Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, serving
until 1981. Since his second retirement from active duty, General
Goodpaster has been affiliated with numerous organizations, includ-
ing serving as Chairman of the Eisenhower World Affairs Institute,
Institute for Defense Analyses, The Atlantic Council of the United
States, and the George C. Marshall Foundation.