Lieutenant General James Guthrie Harbord (March 21, 1866 – August 20, 1947) was a senior officer of the United States Army and president and chairman of the board of RCA.

In the former role he was, in the words of former soldier-turned historian David T. Zabecki, The U.S. Army's first modern operational-level chief of staff in a combat theater, and he would be the model for all others who followed.

[8][7] In 1901, he was promoted to captain and transferred from Cuba, where he has served initially as quartermaster and commissary for the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and later as aide-de-camp and adjutant-general of the department of Santiago and Puerto Principe.

[12] He was selected by Pershing, now a major general appointed to command the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), to be his chief of staff.

[15][16][17] Over the next few months Harbord worked closely with Pershing to organize the AEF's buildup on France's Western Front, including the shipping schedules of American forces being sent to Europe, and he was promoted to temporary brigadier general in August 1917.

[14][18] Following a great German offensive against the Western Front on March 21, 1918, the British and French armies were in retreat, and the need for American troops was urgent.

In secret conversations, General Pershing even said he was willing to risk the fall of France, because the United States would still carry on the war against the Kaiser; if his forces were stripped away from him and the Allies lost, then Germany would win complete victory.

[24] During a Supreme War Council meeting in Versailles on March 28, President Wilson shifted his position on American ground forces by allowing the temporary duty of AEF combat units in the British and French ranks (Joint Note #18).

In early May 1918, Harbord, anxious to command men in battle, was succeeded as the AEF's chief of staff by Brigadier General James W.

[36] It was not long before Harbord was to see action with his brigade, commanding the marines at the famous battles of Château-Thierry and, in particular, at Belleau Wood where, on June 6, they suffered almost 1,100 casualties on just that day alone.

Harbord's 2nd Division, by now serving in XX Corps of Charles Mangin's French 10th Army, launched an assault in the direction of Soissons, one of the enemy's key communications centers.

[38] Despite this, the 2nd Division still managed to reach its initial objective, the Soissons-Château-Thierry Highway, and had driven ahead nearly 7 miles, more than any other Allied units and formations involved.

[38] After Major General Richard M. Blatchford, commanding the AEF's Services of Supply (SOS), and his replacement, Major General Francis J. Kernan, had failed to organize an adequate delivery of supplies to the American forces in France, Pershing asked Harbord in late July 1918 to take the job.

After the war Harbord admitted that if the Armistice had not come when it did on 11 November 1918, the AEF would have had to stop fighting because its logistics system would have totally collapsed.

[51][52][53] In August 1919 President Wilson sent a fact-finding mission headed by Harbord to the Middle East to report on Ottoman–Armenian relations in the wake of the Armenian genocide.

Harbord's report stated that "the temptation to reprisals for past wrongs" would make it extremely difficult to maintain peace in the region.

At the time it was only a major general's appointment, equivalent to the modern day position of Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army.

While he was serving in this position Harbord "was instrumental in making the AEF's wartime G-staff system the standard model throughout the Army.

[60] In 1942, the U.S. Congress passed legislation allowing retired army generals to be advanced one rank on the retired list or posthumously if they had been recommended in writing during World War I for a promotion which they did not receive, and if they had received the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross or the Army Distinguished Service Medal.

[61] Under these criteria, Harbord and William M. Wright were eligible for promotion to lieutenant general, and they were both advanced on the retired list effective July 9, 1942.