Truman and the Marines

["M. Katz" <mmkatz@aya.yale.edu>]

In a private letter distributed publicly by the recipient, a congressman,
Truman accused the Marines of running a "propaganda machine almost as good
as Stalin's," a remark for which he had to publicly grovel in apology.  And
there were suggestions at the time, an era of drastic military cost-cutting,
that the Marines were redundant and should be cut.
    But what are the "hateful" remarks you are referring to?
--Mandy Katz

Love Shack wrote:

There is more to more to Trumans distaste of the Marine then is being told.

When financial resources were low for military budgets there was a lot of harsh

words going on.  Especially the arbitrage and asset stripping that was going on with

the large companies. It ws brutal and political. Very few survived today intact.

Such as GM, Hughes, Ford, Boeing, IBM...and a few others.

 

During his tenure the DoD, CIA and USAF were established.

All were new Government Departments. 

(BTW are there any others I missed that were started).

 

I am interested in the intent of Truman ire toward the Marines.

Hate is not a reason. Something drove the decision

as there were many who were trying to disolve the Marines.

 

Not to mention the ire of those who tried to prevent the USAF from forming.

 

Dan Fahey

 

 

 

----- Original Message -----

From: robert guertin

To: KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu

Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 2:34 PM

Subject: Re: Kunsan and Inchon landings, Sept 12 & 15, 1950

Don;
I remember those remarks.....Truman always denigrated the Corps, and hated Army West Pointers almost as much, since he had failed to get into the Point. As a Marine in the First Battalion, we sent a letter requesting Police Badges and whistles since Truman insisted on calling Korea a Police Action.
Thank you for your service.

DGill11331@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 9/8/2003 10:32:53 PM Eastern Daylight Time, wanaki@infionline.net writes:
 

The Inchon Landing secured the future of the Marine Corps, which had been
considered no longer viable and facing disbanding and integration into the
other branches. As a consequence of the landing and the battle at Chosin
Reservoir, a public law was passed by both houses, declaring that this Nation
would always maintain a Marine Corps of three divisions and attached Air Wings.

Ed Evanhoe wrote:

>We're coming up on the 53rd anniversary of landing at Kunsan and the Inchon
>landing.  Anyone have any thoughts of these events?
>
>Ed
 

Korea had two forgotten wars. The main one was the war itself the second was a war that Truman leveled against the Marine Corps in the early part of the war. Many people forget or just don' t know that the 5th Marine Brigade was already engaged at the Pusan Perimeter, the 1st Marine Regiment was in the middle of the Pacific Ocean on its way to the Inchon Landing and the 7th Marine Regiment was on it way from Europe and other places to join the 5th and 1st Marines in Korea when President Truman unleashed a brutal verbal assault against the integrity of the Marine Corps.
       My company was part of the 1st Marine Regiment on a ship (US Noble APA-218) on the high seas on the way to Inchon when Truman made his nasty verbal assault against the Marine Corps. I heard Truman's remarks first hand because the ship piped all the news from the States over its PA system. To the Marines who heard Truman's remarks -- his words had more of a detrimental effect on their moral than almost anything we faced in Korea. Once a Truman fan after hearing his remarks I never was a fan of his again.
Don Gill