This item is part of A Gentleman's Collection; A Comprehensive Selection of 20th Century American Gallantry & Casualty Awards. Click Here to view all items in this collection.
In bronze gilt with navy blue enamels, number impressed "10162" on the edge, engraved "ANDREW J. McFARLAND" on the reverse, measuring 37.7 mm in diameter, original ribbon with brooch pinback, intact enamels, extremely fine. Accompanied by its 36.5 mm (w) x 9.7 mm (h) ribbon bar and its 17 mm (w) x 3.5 mm enameled ribbon bar, in its hardshelled case of issue, marked "DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL" on the lid, light wear on the bottom, lightly soiled medal bed, case better than very fine.
Footnote: Brigadier General Andrew J. McFarland (ASN: 0-5086), United States Army, was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal "for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War II." by General Orders No. 98 (1945) of the War Department. He was an American representative at the Potsdam Conference, as Secretary, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and United States Secretary, Combined Chiefs of Staff. The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, in occupied Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945 (in some older documents it is also referred to as the Berlin Conference of the Three Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and UK). The participants were the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States, represented by Communist Party General Secretary Joseph Stalin, Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and, later, Clement Attlee, and President Harry S. Truman. Stalin, Churchill, and Truman, as well as Attlee, who participated alongside Churchill while awaiting the outcome of the 1945 general election, and then replaced Churchill as Prime Minister after the Labour Party's defeat of the Conservatives, gathered to decide how to administer the defeated Nazi Germany, which had agreed to unconditional surrender nine weeks earlier, on May 8th (V-E Day). The goals of the conference also included the establishment of postwar order, peace treaty issues, and countering the effects of the war. At the Yalta Conference France had been granted an occupation zone within Germany, France had been a participant in the Berlin Declaration, and France was to be an equal member of the Allied Control Council. Nevertheless, at the insistence of the Americans, General de Gaulle was not invited to Potsdam; a diplomatic slight which was a cause of deep and lasting resentment. Reasons for the omission included the longstanding personal mutual antagonism between Roosevelt and De Gaulle, ongoing disputes over the French and American occupation zones and anticipated conflicts of interest over French Indochina. It also reflected the judgment of both the British and Americans, that French aims in respect of many items on the Conference agenda were likely to be at variance with Anglo-American agreed objectives.