Re: Truman and the Marines

[Ed Evanhoe <evanhoe1@korean-war.com>]

Vincent,

>>At 08:44 PM 9/9/2003 -0400, you wrote:

> At least his inability to dismember the U.S. Marines shows we're not 
> fascist... Hitler even had old teachers done away with or something...  I 
> guess Saddam's fair-enough game, but I don't think so since he followed 
> the U.N. reasonably enough (with U.S. backing for the U.N. that is).  What 
> about managing the situation responsibly with Korea.  Anyway, I don't 
> think I should respond to any more missives till later for now...<<
I suggest you read the post by Ben Frank carefully.  He was chief historian 
for the Marine Corps until he retired three or four years ago.  IMO he 
knows more about the politics behind the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine 
fight in the 1940's than anyone else on this list.  And what he wrote about 
the infighting over funds goes along with everything I've developed over 
the years.

Along this line, from what I've read from various sources Truman developed 
a great distrust of regular army officers while serving as a  National 
Guard artillery battery commander in the trenches in World War 
I.  Apparently Truman believed the "regulars" considered the National 
Guardsmen and reservists as "unreliable" fighters, thus gave them the dirty 
jobs while saving their own men. (There is considerable historical data 
pointing in this direction.)  His distaste was compounded during WWII when 
he headed a Senate committee Investigation (IIRC in 1943) into the buying 
practices of the various services.  The investigation turned up numerous 
cases of kickbacks by companies to those doing the buying.  This went up 
into the general/admiral ranks and there apparently was an organized 
attempt by some in the military to sweep this under the table.  This 
attempt included giving false statements and fake documents to the Senate 
committee.  As a result only a few senior military officers ever earned 
Truman's trust.

Bottom line to this is there is always a lot more to any event/happening 
than was general public knowledge at that time it happened. Thus what 
little information there is available at the time often paints a different 
picture from what actually happened.

Ed