Re: Truman and the Marines

[Ben Frank <ben.frank@wap.org>]

To begin with, in times of peace, the services fight for more than 
their fair share of the defense budget; in times of war, they fight 
for a mission. So, in the post-WWII period, there was a great 
unification fight, in which all the services were involved. The Army 
was interested in having the Marine Corps reduced considerably, 
arguing that the latter's missions were redundant vis a vis the 
Army's. The embryonic Air Force-to be wanted naval aviation reduced 
considerably. The Navy wanted more carriers and was unaware or 
unbelieving of the threat to its aviation program. Truman's primary 
concern was reducing the defense budget, and also, as a WWI Army 
officer, he, like many of his contemporaries felt that the Marine 
Corps received more than its fair share of publicity concerning the 
fighting in France. This belief held over to WWII by many other Army 
officers, now very senior, and so, he was sick and tired of the 
constant lobbying for the Marine Corps by the Corps and its 
supporters in and out of Congress. And so when Congressman McDonough 
wrote the letter un support of the Corps, he received an answer about 
the Marine Corps propaganda machine. These events took place even as 
the 1st Provisional Marine Brigade was saving the Army's ass at 
Pusan, to be followed by the 1st Marine Division landing at Inchon. 
There was tremendous public outcry at Truman's really unthought-out 
letter. It so happened that the Marine Corps League was holding its 
annual meeting in Washington at this time, and Truman had the guts to 
appear before the Leaguers and public apologize for his untimely 
letter. This didn't mean that Truman wound up loving the Corps or 
even respecting it. But he couldn't do much else considering the 
success of the Marines in Korea. BMF

--
Benis M. Frank