Re: Truman and the Marines

["Love Shack" <Home@DanSources.com>]

Ed..
Is there a well written book about this?
Can you repost Ben Franks comments?

Dan Fahey

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ed Evanhoe" <evanhoe1@korean-war.com>
To: <KOREAN-WAR-L@listproc.cc.ku.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2003 9:17 PM
Subject: Re: Truman and the Marines


> 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
>