Mark W . Clark Mark Wayne Clark ( May 1 , 1896 – April 17 , 1984 ) was an American general during World War II and the Korean War and was the youngest lieutenant general ( three - star general ) in the U . S . Army . During World War I , he commanded a company of soldiers in 1917 and was seriously wounded by shrapnel . After the war , Clark ’ s abilities were noticed by General George Marshall . During World War II , he was the USA´s Commander in Italy . He is known for his triumphal entry into Rome in 1944 , the first major Axis city to fall . Clark has been heavily criticised for ignoring the orders of his superior officer , General Alexander , and is to blame for the escape of the German 10th Army which he let slip away in his pursuit of being the first to enter Rome - a strategically unimportant city . The German 10th Army joined with their countrymen at the Trasimene Line . In 1945 Clark became the youngest American to be promoted to general . General Dwight D . Eisenhower considered him a brilliant staff officer and trainer . Clark won many awards , including the Distinguished Service Cross for extreme bravery in war , subordinate only to the Medal of Honor . Early life and career . Clark was born in Madison Barracks , Sackets Harbor , New York , but spent much of his youth in Highland Park , Illinois , while his father , a career Infantry officer , was stationed at Fort Sheridan . His mother was the daughter of Romanian Jews but Clark was baptized Episcopalian while a cadet at West Point . Clark gained an early appointment to the military academy at age 17 , but lost time from frequent illnesses . Known as " Contraband " by his classmates because of his ability to smuggle sweets into the barracks , Clark graduated from West Point in April 1917 , with a class ranking of 110th in a class of 139 , and was commissioned a 2nd lieutenant of Infantry . In the rapid expansion of the United States Army during World War I he rose rapidly in rank , promoted to 1st lieutenant on May 15 and captain on August 5 , 1917 . He served in France during World War I in the U . S . 11th Infantry , part of the 5th Infantry Division , and was wounded in action in the Vosges Mountains . As a result of his convalescence , Captain Clark was transferred to the General Staff Headquarters of the First United States Army until the end of hostilities , then served with the Third Army in its occupation duties in Germany . Between the wars , Clark served in a variety of staff and training roles . From 1921 to 1924 he served as an aide in the office of the Assistant Secretary of War . In 1925 he completed the professional officer ' s course at the Infantry School , then served as a staff officer with the 30th Infantry at The Presidio in San Francisco , California . His next assignment was as a training instructor to the Indiana National Guard , in which he was promoted to major on January 14 , 1933 , more than 15 years after his promotion to captain . Major Clark served as a deputy commander of the Civilian Conservation Corps district in Omaha , Nebraska , in 1935 - 36 , between tours at the Command and General Staff School in 1935 and the Army War College in 1937 . Assigned to Fort Lewis , Washington , Clark was selected to instruct at the Army War College in March 1940 , where he received a promotion to lieutenant colonel on July 1 . Clark and General Leslie McNair selected the thousands of acres of unused land in Louisiana for military maneuvers at Louisiana Maneuvers . On August 4 , 1941 , Clark was promoted two grades to brigadier general as the United States Army geared up for entry in World War II , and made Assistant Chief of Staff ( G - 3 ) at General Headquarters , United States Army , in Washington , D . C . World War II . In January 1942 , a month after the American entry into the war , General Clark was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff Army Ground Forces , and in May 1942 , became its chief of staff as staff officers were rapidly moved to newly created commands by General Gage Michael Miller . In June 1942 , he went to England as commanding general of II Corps , and the next month moved up to Commanding General , Army Forces European Theater of Operations , promoted to major general on August 17 , 1942 . In October 1942 , Clark became deputy commander in chief of the Allied Forces in the North African Theater . Clark ' s duties in this succession of assignments was to plan and direct the training of units for the invasion of North Africa known as Operation Torch . Part of the preparation for the invasion involved spiriting him into North Africa by the British submarine " Seraph " weeks before the invasion ( Operation Flagpole ) to negotiate the surrender or cooperation of the Vichy French at Cherchell on October 21 – 22 , 1942 . After the negotiations , Clark was promoted to lieutenant general on November 11 , 1942 . When the United States created its first field army overseas , the U . S . Fifth Army , Clark was made its commanding general and given the task of training units for the invasion of Italy ( Operation Avalanche ) in September 1943 . According to Montgomery , Clark was subsequently criticized by British historians and critics , for the near - failure of the landings at Salerno , as a result of perceived poor planning . Clark gave orders for the bombing destruction of the Abbey of Monte Cassino based on direct orders from his superior during the Battle of Monte Cassino , February 15 , 1944 . Clark and his chief of staff Major General Alfred Gruenther remained unconvinced of the “ military necessity ” of that bombing . When handing over the U . S . II Corps position to the New Zealand Corps , Brigadier - General Frederic Butler , deputy commander of U . S . 34th Division , had said " I don ' t know , but I don ' t believe the enemy is in the convent . All the fire has been from the slopes of the hill below the wall " . The commander of the 4th Indian division urged the bombing of the entire massif with the heaviest bombs available . Clark pinned down the Commander - in - Chief Allied Armies in Italy , General Sir Harold Alexander : “ I said , ' You give me a direct order and we ’ ll do it , ' and he did . " Clark ' s conduct of operations in Italy is controversial , particularly his actions during the Battle of the Winter Line . Pope Pius XII thanked Clark for liberating Rome . The American military historian Carlo D ' Este called Clark ' s decision to take Rome " as militarily stupid as it was insubordinate " . Although Clark described a " race to Rome " and released an edited version of his diary for the official historians , his complete papers became available after his death . Flying over Civitavecchia on June 10 , 1944 , Clark ' s pilot failed to see the cable of a barrage balloon . The cable entwined the wing , forcing the Piper Cub into a rapid downward spiral . The plane broke free of the cable after the third time around , leaving a large section of the wing behind . The fuel tank ruptured , spraying the fuselage with the flammable liquid . Miraculously , the pilot managed to land safely in a cornfield . " I never had a worse experience , " wrote Clark to his wife . In December 1944 Clark took Alexander ' s position as overall command of Allied ground troops in Italy , renamed as 15th Army Group - Alexander , now a Field Marshal , had become Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces Headquarters in the Mediterranean - by that time an international coalition of numerous diverse cultures with often conflicting interests . Clark was promoted to general on March 10 , 1945 . After accepting the German surrender in Italy in May , he became Commander of Allied Forces in Italy as the war in Europe ended . Between World War II and the Korean War . Later in 1945 , as Commander in Chief of US Forces of Occupation in Austria , Clark gained experience negotiating with Communists , which he would put to good use a few years later . Clark served as deputy to the U . S . Secretary of State in 1947 , and attended the negotiations for an Austrian treaty with the Council of Foreign Ministers in London and Moscow . In June 1947 , Clark returned home and assumed command of the Sixth Army , headquartered at the Presidio in San Francisco , and two years later was named chief of Army Field Forces . On October 20 , 1951 , he was nominated by President Harry Truman to be the United States emissary to the Holy See . Clark later withdrew his nomination on January 13 , 1952 , following protests from Texas Senator Tom Connally and Protestant groups . Congressional Inquiry . It was announced on 20 January 1946 , that the US 36th Division Veteran ' s Association had unanimously called for a Congressional Inquiry into Clark ' s actions during the Division ' s disastrous crossing of the Rapido River on the night of January 20 , 1944 . The petition read : " Be it resolved , that the men of the 36th Division Association petition the Congress of the United States to investigate the river Rapido fiasco and take the necessary steps to correct a military system that will permit an inefficient and inexperienced officer , such a General Mark W . Clark , in a high command to destroy the young manhood of this country and to prevent future soldiers being sacrificed wastefully and uselessly . " 2 Resolutions were heard in the House of Representatives , one of which claimed : " One of the most colossal blunders of the Second World War . . . a " murderous blunder that every man connected with this undertaking knew . . . was doomed to failure . " Clark was absolved of blame by the House of Representatives but never made comment on the River Rapido episode following WWII . During and after the Korean War . During the Korean War , he took over as commander of the United Nations Command on May 12 , 1952 , succeeding General Matthew Ridgway . From 1954 until 1965 , after retiring from the Army , General Clark served as president of The Citadel , the military college located in Charleston , South Carolina . From 1954 to 1955 Clark was head of the so - called " Clark Task Force " to study and make recommendations on all intelligence activities of the Federal government . The task force had been created 1953 by the second Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government , a . k . a . the Hoover Commission because it was chaired by Herbert Hoover . Members of the Clark Task Force were Adm . Richard L . Conolly , USN ( Ret ) , a former Deputy Chief of Naval Operations ; Ernest F . Hollings , the speaker pro tempore of South Carolina ’ s House of Representatives ; California businessman Henry Kearns ; Edward V . Rickenbacker , World War I flying ace and president of Eastern Air Lines ; and Donald S . Russell , a former Assistant Secretary of State . The staff director was Maj . Gen . James G . Christiansen , USA ( Ret ) . The task force first met early November 1954 and in May 1955 submitted one Top Secret report for the President , and another unclassified for the Hoover Commission and Congress . The Clark task force coined the term Intelligence Community to describe “ . . . the machinery for accomplishing our intelligence objectives . ” Clark wrote two memoirs : " Calculated Risk " ( 1950 ) and " From the Danube to the Yalu " ( 1954 ) . In 1962 Clark was elected an honorary member of the South Carolina Society of the Cincinnati in recognition of his outstanding service to his country . Personal life . Clark married Maurine Doran , daughter of Mr . and Mrs . M . A . Doran of Muncie , Ind . , May 17 , 1924 . Mrs . Clark died October 5 , 1966 . Their son is Maj . William Doran Clark , U . S . A . ( Ret . ) , and their daughter Patricia Ann ( Mrs . Gordon H . Costing ) Legacy . An interstate spur ( I - 526 ) in the suburbs of Charleston , South Carolina , was named I - 526 in his honor . < br > Prior to August 17 , 2010 , the Mark Clark Bridge in Washington State , connected Camano Island with the mainland . It was then superseded by the Camano Gateway Bridge , the Mark Clark Bridge being demolished the following month . In film . Clark was portrayed by Michael Rennie in the film " The Devil ' s Brigade " .