Notes: USMC History, Politics, Inter-Service Relations. etc.
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By R.W. "Dick" Gaines Gny Sgt USMC (Ret.) 1952- (Plt # 437) -1972 ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED!
SOME 'Gunny G' NOTES ON MARINE CORPS HISTORY, POLITICS, INTER-SERVICE
RELATIONS,
ETC.
"For
your information the
Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President
that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is
almost equal to Stalin's." -President
Harry S. Truman, 1950 Ref
http://www.trumanlibrary.org/trumanpapers/pppus/1950/235.htm
How
many times have we
heard and read references and allusions made as to the insatiable
desire of the Marines for publicity. Marines usually
just shrug this off, deny or ignore it, or sometimes attempt to
explain away this accusation. Too
often we just look upon things of this nature assuming it to be just a
case of professional jealousy, etc. But many of us may be unaware of
certain facts relating to
this particular controversy. Can this be something more than just
simple inter-service rivalry? When did it begin? Under what
circumstances? Is there any basis to this accusation?
The origin of this
squabble dates back to the days of the World War. Fortunately, the
history
of the Marine Corps in WW I is well documented, and the answers
to the above questions are available to us. To begin with, General
Pershing, and generally the rest of the U.S. Army, did not want the
Marines involved in the AEF in Europe at all. The Major General
Commandant, George Barnett, however, was determined that a Marine
expeditionary force would become part of the AEF.
Marines had long
been the chosen instrument of the U.S. State Department for use in
trouble spots around the globe, serving both Corps and country well. As
a result of their performance, Marines had gained the attention,
interest, and respect of the American public. The often used headline
of the media, "The Marines have landed and the situation is well in
hand," had long since become a familiar term and well-known to all.
The Commandant, it seems, was well-connected politically, and he was
able to convince those at the highest levels of government of the
need for Marines in the coming war. War against Germany
was declared on 6 April, 1917. On 29 May, President Wilson approved the
sending of a Marine regiment equipped as infantry. Later, another
Marine regiment and other units, was authorized. The
Marines' slogan, "First To Fight," was to be upheld.
General Pershing,
learning of this was much chagrined, "speechless" as one writer puts
it. Pershing then attempted to reverse the situation but he was
unsuccessful. When it was suggested that Pershing could not provide
transportation to Europe for the Marines, they arranged for their own
transportation; when the supply system could not provide for the
replacement of
Marine uniforms and equipment, the Marines agreed to wear Army
uniforms. Although the Marine Corps already had regiments prior to the
World War, their composition in both organization and number was
different from the Army's, therefore numerous changes were quickly
needed, and this accomplished. Whatever argument the Army managed to
come up with, it was swiftly countered and overcome by the Marines.
The following
information in "quotes" are by the authors as indicated. While not all
of this information is directly related to the question at hand as to
the main cause of the relations between the Army and Marines, and its
far-reaching effects, however, it assists in better understanding of
the
general situation as it existed at that time, and it is interesting as
well.
WORLD
WAR ONE MARINES "Pershing was
mercilessly thinning the ranks of senior officers he considered too old
or infirm for field command. Brigadier General Doyen was one of the
casualties. He was invalided home and replaced by a Pershing favorite,
Army Brig. Gen. James Harbord. Harbord had been Pershing's chief of
staff and he had gone from major to brigadier general in a year. Col.
Buck
Neville, now the commander of the 5th Marines and far senior to Harbord
at the war's beginning, had every reason to think that he should have
been given command of the brigade. On Harbord's arrival, when Neville
handed him a pair of Marine Corps emblems, it was half a greeting,
half a challenge. Harbord promptly put them on his collar....On
Bastille
day, 14 July, Harbord, a jaunty hybrid in his poilu's helmet and
Marine emblems, moved up to command of the 2d Division. Buck Neville
took over the Marine brigade and would soon be promoted to brigadier
general."
-Simmons
"...A French major,
attempting to acquaint the Americans with the realities of the
situation and not trusting his spoken English, scribbled out a note to
Capt. Lloyd Williams, Commanding the 51st Company, 2d Battalion, 5th
Marines. It read: 'Retreat, the Germans are coming.' Willaims, one of
the 'old-timers,' looked at the Frenchman coldly and said,
'Retreat hell. We just got here.' A half-dozen others,
Marine and Army, subsequently claimed the 'Retreat hell' quotation, but
best evidence is that it was said by Captain Williams...."
-Simmons
"The Germans made
their own sober assessment and begrudgingly allowed that the marines,
with more experience, might be considered to be of storm-trooper
quality. The marines earnestly told each other that the Heinies were
calling them 'Teufelhunden,' or 'Devildogs,' but there is no evidence
of this in German records."
-Simmons
"At dawn on 2 June,
the German 28th
Division...attacked along the axis of the road, destination
Paris, and hit the Marine center. The German veterans got
a lesson in rifle fire that began to kill at 800 yards. A French
aviator thought he saw the American lines falling back and so
reported to his Corps commander...an inquiry came down through
channels....in turn asked Maj. Thomas Holcomb, commander of the
2d Battalion, 6th Marines. 'When I do my running,' said Holcomb flatly,
'It will be in the opposite dirction.'"
-Simmons "...Brigadier
General Lejeune had arrived in France with Barnett's offer of another
Marine brigade
for the American Expeditionary Forces and the personal expectation of
becoming the Marine division commander. Pershing tartly reported to the
secretery of War that 'While Marines are splendid troops, their use as
a separate division is inadvisable.' He was, however, willing to take
another Marine infantry brigade." -Simmons
"Brig. Gen, Eli
Cole brought over the5th Marine Brigade in September...command was
passed from Cole to Smedley Butler, a brigadier general at
thirty-seven, youngest in Corps history. To 'Old Gimlet Eye' Butler's
intense disgust," because of Pershing's unwillingness to combine it
with the 4th Brigade into a Marine division, the brigade was assigned
to guard duty with the Service of Supply with headquarters at Brest."
-Simmons
"On 29 July,
Harbord was detached...and Lejeune, in an Army concession to Marine
sensibilities, moved up to command of the 2d Division..."
-Simmons
"The Marines got
what the Army considered to be an inordinate amount of publicity for
Belleau Wood. On 6 June, Floyd Gibbons had filed a story that began, 'I
am up
front and entering Belleau Wood with the U.S. Marines.' He was
then badly wounded, including the loss of his left eye. Under the
heavy-handed press censorship the names of of units and their locations
were not ordinarily allowed in press dispatches. However, the censors,
thinking that Gibbons was dying and had filed his last dispatch,
allowed his story to go through uncensored. An American public, hungry
for
war news, seized upon the story that the Marines had saved Paris.
This did not go down well with the Army, which chafed at the lack of
mention of what the Army components of the 3d Division had done, to
say nothing of the considerable contributions of the 3d Division at
Chateau-Thierry. Worse, some newspapers gave the Marines credit for
Chateau-Thierry itself. It was something that rankled the Army for many
years to come."
-Simmons
In addition to the
above account regarding Floyd Gibbons' dispatch and the resulting
effect on the homefront public, and on the Army, there is this account
from still another former Marine and author. "Almost all of
those Americans were doughboys, and they fought with the ferocity of
soldiers robbed of their glory. Because of a slip in Pershing's iron
censorship, the Marine brigade had been identified. It was the only
unit so identified throughout the war, and as it happens when the press
knows no other name, too often the glories of the doughboys were pinned
on the breasts of the Marines. The Marines did not seek this
distinction, although it helped to make the reputation of the Corps,
but the doughboys
thought that they did.Thus, the 2nd's infuriated soldiers took it
out on the Germans dug in at Vaux on the right flank of Belleau Wood.
They drove them out, and the first messenger of victory was a
gigantic doughboy captain carried into a forward hospital with his
legs in bloody splints. Sitting erect on his stretcher, groggy with
ether, he cried out exhultantly: 'Oh, the goddam sonsabitches! The
headline-hunting bastards! We showed the sonsabitches how to do it!' The captain was not
referring to the defeated German enemy."
-Leckie
And, in George B.
Clark's book, "Devil
Dogs-Fighting Marines of World War I,"--clearly the most detailed and factual
account, of Marines In WW I to be found anywhere--the author states, in
part, regarding the dispatch of
6 June, 1918, "...Gibbons, a war correspondent, ...was to have a
greater impact on the Marine Corps, the AEF, and the folks at home
than any other for sometime to come. He had taken the trouble to send
a story to the censors in Paris, before the assault even took place,
clearly intending to fill in a few colorful words after the fight was
over. His being wounded the same afternoon was duly reported widely and
reached the censor who had the story in Paris. Since Gibbons hadn't
showed
up at any aid station, the reaction was that he must have been killed.
Therefore, the censor, a longtime former newsman and friend, allowed
the story to go through uncut. That wouldn't have made much difference
in most cases, but in this one its impact clouded relations between
Marines
and the U.S. Army for the next half century."
-Clark
Because Gibbons
had, against AEF regulations, stated the unit he was with, the U.S,
Marines, "...his bloodcurdling embellishment made it seem as though the
Marines were the only American troops fighting in France...when Gibbons
'information' became known in the United States, along with the news of
the desperate fighting...the public easily put two and two together and
got
the U.S. Marines for an answer...It would be the Marines that were
fighting the Germans...as far as the American newspaper-reading
public was concerned, and the army howled. The use of the word
Chateau-Thierry, the name of a sector as well as a town, would
infuriate
the 3d Infantry Division...The 3d Brigade was equally in an uproar.
'Those publicity hungry gyrenes...etc.' The Marines were entirely
blameless for the blunder, but soldiers of all ranks never
accepted their excuses or forgave them."
-Clark
AND
IN LATER YEARS... As noted above, the
injustice suffered by the Army was indeed apparently never
forgotten or forgiven, as evidenced by Note #75, also in George
Clark's book....
"75 In 1942,
Douglas MacArthur, after he was urged to recommend units in the
Phillipines for a Presidential Unit Citation, was questioned by
President Roosevelt as to why he hadn't included the 4th Marines in his
listing. He responded, 'The Marines received enough credit during the
last war.'"
-Clark
It had been
President Roosevelt, years before, by the way, who as a young assistant
secretary of the Navy... "...on a tour of
the Western Front, inspected the Marine Brigade on 5 August. Roosevelt
had just visited Belleau Wood. On the spot he authorized the enlisted
marines to wear Marine Corps emblems on the collars of their army issue
uniforms (until then an officer's privilige) 'in recognition of the
splendid work of the Marine Brigade.'"
-Simmons
MacArthur was also
mentioned again.... "...the hatred of
the Navy and the Marines was guaranteed when, two days before leaving
for Australia," MacArthur recommended all units on Bataan and
Corregidor for unit citations with the exception of Marine and Navy
units...General Wainwright later corrected this deliberate slight, but
he could never efface the memory of General Sutherland's pointed remark
that the marines had gotten enough glory in the last war and would get
no more in this one. If Christian theology states that one of the three
sins that
cry out to heaven for vengeance is to deprive the working man of his
wages, what is to be said of robbing a soldier of his glory?"
-Leckie
On Saipan on 24
June, 1944, LtGen Holland M.
Smith USMC (V Amphibious Corps) relieved MajGen Ralph Smith USA
(27th Infantry Division) of his command.
"A furor arose, with bitter interservice recriminations,
and the flames were fanned by lurid press reports. Holland Smith
summarized his feelings three days after the relief. According to a
unit history, THE 27TH INFANTRY DIVISION IN WORLD WAR II, he stated,
"The 27th Division won't fight, and
Ralph Smith will not make them fight." Army generals were furious,
and in Hawaii, Lieutenant General Robert Richardson, commander of the
U.S. Army in the Pacific (USARPAC) convened an Army board of inquiry
over the matter. The issue reached to the highest military levels in
Washington." Needless to say, the
above incident did little to alleviate the already long inflamed state
of relations between the Army and Marines. -Chapin Ref
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/usmchist/saipan.txt
http://www.dtic.mil/doctrine/jel/jfq_pubs/jfq1907.pdf AND
STILL LATER... The Marine Corps has
always had its problems keeping its head above water in regard to its
mission, strength, and
also getting absorbed into the Army or Navy, and sometimes even
the threat of going out of existence. The Navy and Marines in fact
did cease to exist from 1783 until 1798. But the big threat came
in the closing days of WW II, when the Marine Corps was nearly
legislated
out of existence.
"In the period between
1943 and 1947 the United
States Marine Corps was involved in a struggle for its institutional
life. For almost 150 years the question of armed forces unification was
mute. As the United States emerged as a world power, increased calls
for reorganization of the armed forces began to be heard...Sides began
to form on the unification question even before the successful
completion of the war. Each service had strong allied and distinct
positions to defend. After several abortive attempts a unification bill
was finally
passed by the Senate in 1947. The bill did not provide statutory
safeguards
for Marine Corps missions. If passed by the House of Representatives
the bill would spell the deathblow for the Marine Corps as a viable
combat military organization. In the debate between the Army and the
Navy,
the Marine Corps had become an incidental pawn. In the face of almost
overwhelming obstacles, a group of some twelve Marine officers
maneuvered to preserve the Marine Corps. These officers, collectively
known as the Chowder Society, helped defeat the proposed legislation.
Some of these officers helped draft the National Security Act of 1947,
the legislation that spells out Marine Corps roles and missions even
today....all Marines should be inspired by the personal courage of the
men who made up the Chowder Society. Reading the accounts of these men
I could see the deep animosities and petty jealousy they endured from
their own brother in the Corps. Some Marine officers declined
participation in the unification struggle because they felt the duty
beneath them. They didn't want to
get dirty or risk their careers. The sheer drive of men like Twinning
and Thomas and the tenacity of men like Krulak and Hittle should
inspire us all to a deeper love of our Corps. As long as one Marine
breathes life in this Republic, the names of these brave men should
never be forgotten. -O'Donnell Ref http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1985/OJP.htm
Between 1946 and 1950
the Corps was faced with what amounted to a direct attempt to legislate
it out of existence.
In March, 1948 President Truman appointed his old political crony
as Secretary of Defense. Truman had been an Army officer during
WW I, and had no love for either the Navy or Marine Corps. Johnson
effected a major budget reduction for the Corps and reduced the number
of Marines to 70,000. This caused the Marine Corps to disband service
troops to keep its two-division peacetime strength. Johnson then
ordered the Corps to disband specific units retaining only ten
under-strength battalions. He then refused to recognize the
two-division structure and publicly announced further reductions for
the Corps, with no unit above battalion-size.
He further publicly
discussed merging the Marine Corps with the Army, a project which both
interested and delighted the Army. He then forbade official observance
of the November 10 Marine birthday; confiscated Gen Cates' official
car; and reduced the ceremonial honors to which the CMC was entitled.
Although congressional leaders forced him to retract his public
statements, and restore the car, birthday and honors, Johnson
would not be slowed down. He announced in June 1950 a further Marine
reduction to only six battalions. On 25 June North Korea invaded
South Korea, America was again at war and needed her Marines. By
November Johnson was gone and the Marine Corps was expanding.
-Russell/Carroll
THROUGH THE YEARS... "Beginning with the
presidency of Andrew Jackson, the Marines had
survived eleven serious proposals to disband the Corps or merge
it with the Army.5"
"...Secretary of the
Navy James Forrestal, who was inspecting Green Beach on Iwo Jima that
morning in 1945, saw the Stars and Stripes go up atop Mount Suribachi
and heard the beleaguered troops below come alive
with whistles and cheers and shouts of joy. He turned to Marine General
Holland M. Smith and said, 'The raising of that flag on Suribachi means
a Marine Corps for the next five hundred years!'1"
Forrestal had been
speaking of the first flag
raising on Suribachi at about
1020 on the morning of 23 February 1945, not the raising of the second,
or 'replacement' flag made famous by the Rosenthal photograph. "In 1948 Secretary
Forrestal--the same Forrestal who had predicted a
long future for the Marines on the beachhead below Suribachi--warned
the
Corps not to begin thinking of itself as a second Army.14" -Marling/Wetenhall
From the information
above, it can be clearly seen that, aside from the question of the
continued existence of the Corps, it was the Floyd Gibbons incident
during WW I that was the basis for the now age old friction between the
Army and Marines, though other subsequent happenings have continued to
make matters even worse in that regard.
But the constant threat
to the Marine Corps as to its existence had already been present from
the start of its history. As the Corps grew and became a potential
rival to the Army, so too, I think, the Army also came to think of the
Corps as a threat to its own sole
existence as the land army, or
"standing army" of the U.S. Certainly, this was becoming clear when the
Corps became of age as a full-fledged regimental and brigade-sized
organization during WW I, and most cerainly, by WW II, and since.
I have heard it voiced
many times, and read this too, that much of the support for retaining
the Marine Corps in existence came from the fact
that there were numerous influential members of congress who had served
in the Corps themselves. Of course, this was likely more accurate in
the years immediately following WW II, than it is now. But, could it be
that the American people--now more than ever in this information
age--would not stand for the absence of our Marine Corps? I would like
to think so!
With all of these things
in mind, I think, personally, that the ultimate decision as to
retaining the Marine Corps in future years will arise from our
country's need for it rather than the personal feelings, opinions,
influence, and power of individuals and groups at any level, and in
spite of history, politics, inter-service relations or whatever. One more note regarding
something the Marine's Marine, "Chesty" Puller
once said. It happened on the occasion of Puller's testimomy at the
S/Sgt McKeon Trial at Parris Island in 1956. "Puller went into the
noncom's club that night with Berman, two Marine generals and other
officers; the big crowd stood, shouting until he spoke:
'I've talked enough for today. This will be my last request. Do your
duty and the Marine Corps will be as great as it has always been for
another thousand years.'
The applause was deafening." Ref
The book, Marine, by Burke Davis, 1962, Bantam
