Re: Truman and the Marines

[Love Shack <Home@DanSources.com>]

Thanks Ben:
Wow.. this has a lot of content.
 Dan

Ben Frank wrote:

> 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