George Marshall in the context of Combined Chiefs of Staff

Omar Nelson Bradley (12 February 1893 – 8 April 1981) was a senior officer of the United States Army during and after World War II, rising to the rank of General of the Army. He was the first chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and oversaw the U.S. military's policy-making in the Korean War.

Born in Randolph County, Missouri, he worked as a boilermaker before entering the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated from the academy in 1915 alongside Dwight D. Eisenhower as part of "the class the stars fell on." During World War I, he guarded copper mines in Montana. After the war, he taught at West Point and served in other roles before taking a position at the War Department under General George Marshall. In 1941, he became commander of the United States Army Infantry School.

The Policy Planning Staff (sometimes referred to as the Policy Planning Council, as the Office of Policy Planning, or by its in-house initialism S/P) is the principal strategic arm of the United States Department of State. It was created in 1947 by Foreign Service Officer George F. Kennan at the request of Secretary of State George Marshall to serve "as a source of independent policy analysis and advice for the secretary of state." Its first assignment was to design the Marshall Plan.

Early directors include George F. Kennan and Paul Nitze. More recently came Anne-Marie Slaughter, Jake Sullivan, Dennis Ross, Gregory B. Craig, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Haass. Past members include Zbigniew Brzezinski, Sandy Berger, Kori Schake, Michael Armacost, and Peter Berkowitz. At least fourteen past members of the Policy Planning Staff have served as ambassadors.

The House Select Committee on Foreign Aid, or Herter Committee, was established to study the proposal that had been launched by General George Marshall in his speech at Harvard on June 5, 1947, for a Marshall Plan, in part as Cold War anticommunism, which led future US President Richard Nixon to focus on foreign policy throughout his public career. In 1947, it identified a "prevailing theme throughout–that democratic leadership was close to non-existent and Communist leadership at the forefront of political shaping."