General of the Armies Congress authorized the appointment of three-star lieutenant generals and four-star generals to be granted temporarily for service in the National Army. Tasker H. Bliss and John J. Pershing were promoted to general in October 1917, and Peyton C. March was promoted to that rank in May 1918. Hunter Liggett and Robert Lee Bullard were both promoted to lieutenant general on October 16, 1918. In 1919, by Congressional directive, the rank of General of the Armies was formally established and John J. Pershing became the first person to hold the rank. After the close of the First World War, the highest
General of the Armies was to make the General of the Armies senior in grade to the General of the Army. I have advised Congress that the War Department concurs in such proposed action. Stimson's answer was very carefully worded and nowhere did he ever actually state that Pershing held six-star rank. The situation with Pershing was seemingly solved, but the matter of a six-star general in the United States military would reappear in only a few months during the summer of 1945 at which time Douglas MacArthur was proposed for promotion to General of the Armies. Efforts to promote MacArthur, although never successful,