Re: Truman and the Marines

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

Dan,

>>At 09:44 AM 9/10/2003 -0400, you wrote:
> Ed..
> Is there a well written book about this?<<
Can't think of any titles right off the bat but there are several.  :Maybe 
someone else on the list can think of some.

> >>Can you repost Ben Franks comments?<<
Benis Frank's comments:


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


Ed