“both the beneficiary and the victim”: Kirkland, “Soldiers and Marines at Chosin,” 266.
“About Faith, I have not placed”: Appleman to Hugh May, November 9, 1981, in Roy Appleman Collection, box 6, “Correspondence with Chosin Survivors,” USAMHI. Emphasis in original.
“Of the six generals initially assigned”: Kirkland, “Soldiers and Marines at Chosin,” 258.
“The communications breakdown”: Stanton, America’s Tenth Legion, 250.
This extended even to the chief of staff: Blair, Forgotten War, 289.
They produced a thick report: “Report of First OCAFF Observer Team to the Far East Command,” page 4 of main report, page 7 of appendix C-4, page 2 of first enclosure, August 16, 1950, included as enclosure, Gen. Mark Clark to Gen. J. Lawton Collins, August 28, 1950, file 350.07, Far East, box 128, Army Intelligence Project, decimal file 1949–50, record group 319, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD. See also William Donnelly, “Bilko’s Army: A Crisis in Command,” unpublished paper, U.S. Army Center of Military History, 7. A version of this paper subsequently was published as William M. Donnelly, “Bilko’s Army: A Crisis in Command?,” Journal of Military History, October 2011.
“officers considered by their seniors”: Donnelly, “Bilko’s Army,” 9.
If World War III came, the Army’s plan: David Fautua, “An Army for the ‘American Century’: The Origins of the Cold War U.S. Army, 1949–1959,” unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2006, 14.
“I gave him the 7th Regiment”: “Oral Reminiscences of General Oliver P. Smith,” 30.
Lt. Col. Raymond Murray: Ray Davis, The Story of Ray Davis: General of Marines (Research Triangle Publishing, 1995), 67.
“I spent many a moment standing atop”: Davis, “Oral History,” 122.
Davis led a battalion at Tarawa: Davis, The Story of Ray Davis, 66.
“perhaps the most famous Marine”: Berger et al., CSI Battlebook, 43.
As a battalion commander at Guadalcanal: Simmons, Frozen Chosin, 9, 12, 50.
But Kirkland said that the Army: Faris Kirkland, interview by author at time of his article’s publication in Armed Forces & Society.
“in an uncoordinated rush toward the border”: Roe, The Dragon Strikes, 411.
he told U.S. News & World Report: Blair, Forgotten War, 524.
“What good would that do?” . . . “both puzzled and amazed”: Ridgway, Korean War, 62.
“I regard General MacArthur’s insistence”: Ridgway to Appleman, March 6, 1978, Edward Almond Papers, “Military Correspondence, 1960–1977,” box 129, USAMHI, 1.
“could well choose this operation”: Ridgway, The Korean War, Issues and Policies, 331.
12. RIDGWAY TURNS THE WAR AROUND
“for days a whisper had run through”: Fehrenbach, This Kind of War, 364.
Ridgway was sipping a highball: Ridgway, Korean War, 79.
He had worked under MacArthur: Ridgway, notes in preparation for an interview about Marshall, March 20, 1989, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 43, USAMHI.
“There was hardly a tactical exercise”: General Matthew Ridgway, interview by Forrest Pogue, February 26, 1959, in Pogue Oral History Collection, Marshall Library, 2–4.
Marshall was staying at Maj. Ridgway’s house: Ridgway, interviews by John Blair, USAMHI, 40. Also see additional detail in Ridgway, “Reminiscences About George C. Marshall,” Marshall Library, 5.
He began the war as a colonel: Ridgway, “Reminiscences About George C. Marshall,” Marshall Library, 7.
From there he went on to be assistant commander: Harold R. Winton, Corps Commanders of the Bulge: Six American Generals and Victory in the Ardennes (University Press of Kansas, 2007), 41.
lost fourteen battalion commanders: Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 8.
“No one knew where anyone else was”: Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 24.
“the best of troops will fail”: Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 20.
“I always disliked standing above people”: Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 22–23.
He left Washington determined: Ridgway, interviews by John Blair, USAMHI, 73.
“Everybody in life has their fallibilities”: General Matthew B. Ridgway, interview by Harold Hitchens and Frederick Hetzel, March 5, 1982, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 88, USAMHI, 2, 4.
“beginning in 1950”: Ridgway, The Korean War, Issues and Policies, 211.
“I thought the president had made it”: General Matthew B. Ridgway, interview by Maurice Matloff, April 18, 1984, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 88, USAMHI, 14–15.
“You will have my utmost”: Ridgway, Korean War, 262.
“The granite peaks rose to six thousand feet”: Matthew Ridgway, Soldier: The Memoirs of Matthew B. Ridgway (Greenwood, 1974), 203–4.
visiting South Korean president Syngman Rhee: Matthew Ridgway Papers, log, series 3, Official Papers, Eighth U.S. Army Special Files, December 1950–April 1951, box 68, USAMHI.
“I intend to stay”: Ridgway, interview by Toland, 15.
“Is he confident, does he know”: Matthew Ridgway and Walter Winton Jr., “Troop Leadership at the Operational Level: The Eighth Army in Korea,” Military Review, April 1990, 59. This article is an edited transcript of a talk Ridgway and Winton gave to the School of Advanced Military Studies, at Fort Leavenworth, KS, on May 9, 1984.
“These division commanders did not know”: Ridgway and Winton, “Troop Leadership,” 60.
“roadbound” . . . “conducting operations here”: Ridgway and Winton, “Troop Leadership,” 62.
“The troops were confused”: Ridgway and Winton, “Troop Leadership,” 61.
“I could sense it”: Ridgway, Soldier, 205.
“The consensus from private to general”: Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 26.
“Weather terrible, Chinese ferocious”: Ridgway and Winton, “Troop Leadership,” 67.
Eighth Army’s staff “very mediocre”: Ridgway, interview by Toland, 10.
“I told him frankly that we had been put”: “Oral Reminiscences of General Oliver P. Smith,” 260.
He told them to begin patrolling: Ridgway, The Korean War, Issues and Policies, 380.
“Ridgway was such a breath of fresh air”: Blair, Forgotten War, 605.
“What was perfectly, clearly apparent”: Ridgway and Winton, “Troop Leadership,” 59.
“The leadership I found”: Ridgway, Korean War, 88.
“you can’t relieve them right way”: Ridgway, interview by Toland, 11.
“Everything is going fine”: Ridgway to Collins, January 3, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 9, USAMHI.
“be ruthless with our general officers”: Ridgway to Collins, January 8, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“young, vigorous, mentally flexible”: Ridgway to Collins, January 8, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 9, USAMHI.
that was item six on his agenda: Ridgway, notes for meeting with corps commanders, January 8, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“Can’t execute my future plans”: Ridgway, agenda for meeting with Hickey, January 11, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI; Ridgway, message to Collins, January 15, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“What are your attack plans?”: Blair, Forgotten War, 574.
the second snap relief of Jeter’s career: MacDonald, Siegfried Line Campaign, 446–47.
Over the following three months: Millett, The War for Korea, 392; Markel, “The Organization Man at War,” 168.
On January 14, Maj. Gen. Robert McClure was fired: Almond to Appleman, October 29, 1975, Edward Almond Papers, box 100, USAMHI. See also Almond to McClure, January 13, 1
951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“Press here has played up relief”: “Personal for Ridgway Secret,” January 16, 1951, “Matthew Ridgway Papers,” box 10, USAMHI.
“We are still very much concerned” . . . “unconvincing such an answer will be”: Haislip to Ridgway, February 14, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“Dear Ham,” Ridgway wrote back: Ridgway to Haislip, February 24, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
Of the ousted generals: “The New Command Team in Korea,” Time, March 5, 1951, 30.
“Try to find good men”: James Michener, “A Tough Man for a Tough Job,” Life, May 12, 1952, 111.
“Dear Matt,” Collins, the Army chief of staff, wrote: Collins to Ridgway, May 24, 1951, Matthew Ridgway Papers, USAMHI.
Ridgway also requested the removal: Thomas Thayer, War Without Fronts: The American Experience in Vietnam (Westview, 1985), 60. See also Ridgway, interview by Caulfield and Elton, 60.
“Almond was a very able officer” . . . “could be cutting and intolerant”: Ridgway, interviews by John Blair, USAMHI, 76.
“the most unpopular war in United States history”: Mark Clark, From the Danube to the Yalu (repr., Tab Books, 1988), 230.
“He [Ridgway] told me he had a hell of a time”: Roger Cirillo, e-mail message to author, September 8, 2010.
“he had increasing difficulty”: Dean Acheson, Sketches from Life of Men I Have Known (Harper, 1960), 165.
At the end of January 1951: Blair, Forgotten War, 668.
With the same number of troops: This thought is drawn from William Hopkins, a Marine veteran of Korea, in his One Bugle No Drums, 224.
“it was a disintegrating army”: “Oral History of Harold K. Johnson,” interview by Col. Richard Jensen and Lt. Col. Rupert Glover, Section II, February 7, 1972, Harold K. Johnson Papers, box 201, USAMHI, 33.
“as mean-spirited an American officer”: Allan Millett, “The Korean War: A 50-Year Critical Historiography,” Journal of Strategic Studies 24, no. 1 (March 2001), 215.
“had a short temper and made snap judgments”: Millett, The War for Korea, 372.
“He didn’t come to visit me”: Ridgway, interview by John Toland, USAMHI, 14.
“It appears from all estimates”: “Personal From: Joint Chiefs of Staff / Personal For: General MacArthur / JCS 99935,” December 29, 1950, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
“blockade the coast of China”: Douglas MacArthur, “Personal for JCS,” December 30, 1950, Matthew Ridgway Papers, box 68, USAMHI.
MacArthur’s cables were “pretty frantic”: Collins, interview by Sperow, USAMHI, vol. 2, 341.
“it can be accepted as basic fact”: Schnabel, The First Year, 338.
13. MACARTHUR’S LAST STAND
“incurably recalcitrant”: Acheson, Present at the Creation, 515.
“every means at his disposal”: Benjamin Persons, Relieved of Command (Sunflower University Press, 1997), x.
“wrote back a very insulting telegram”: Transcript of Tape 25, Omar N. Bradley, interviews by Forrest Pogue, May 27, 1957, and July 19, 1957, Pogue Oral History Collection, Marshall Library.
“The concept advanced”: Edward Imparato, ed., General MacArthur Speeches and Reports, 1908–1964 (Turner Publishing, 2000), 161.
“freedom of action”: Blair, Forgotten War, 737.
“Assuming no diminution” . . . “abnormal military inhibitions”: Robert Leckie, Conflict: The History of the Korean War, 1950–53 (G. P. Putnam’s, 1962), 265.
“We didn’t set out to conquer”: Leckie, Conflict, 266–67.
“The seizure of the land”: Ridgway, Soldier, 220.
“painfully aware”: “The Secretary of State to Certain Diplomatic Offices, Secret, Washington, March 23, 1951,” Foreign Relations of the United States, 1951, vol. 7, Korea and China (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1983), 266.
“I got the impression”: “Oral Reminiscences of General Oliver P. Smith,” 13.
“If we are not in Korea” . . . “There is no substitute for victory”: William Manchester, American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964 (Dell, 1978), 763.
“With deep regret I have concluded”: Blair, Forgotten War, 796.
“No office boy, no charwoman”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 395.
an “infamous purge”: Willoughby and Chamberlain, MacArthur 1941–1951, 472.
“mental illness”: Ridgway, interviews by John Blair, USAMHI, 81.
“out of his head”: Merle Miller, Plain Speaking: An Oral Biography of Harry S. Truman (Berkley, 1974), 291.
“defeatism”: Douglas MacArthur, address to Congress, April 19, 1951, Library of Congress, accessed online.
One afternoon in 1947: A. E. Schanze, This Was the Army, unpublished manuscript, “Col. A. E. Schanze Papers,” box 1, USAMHI, 55.
He retired: Shortal, Forged by Fire, 128.
“Frankly,” he stated: “Testimony of General of the Army Omar Bradley Before the Senate Committees on Armed Services and Foreign Relations, May 15, 1951, Military Situation in the Far East,” 82nd Congress, 1st session, part 2, 732.
“no more subordinate soldier”: James, Refighting the Last War, 212.
on the “direct order”: Interview with George Elsey, April 9, 1970, Harry S. Truman Library and Museum, 285.
At first, mail to the White House: James, Refighting the Last War, 214.
His travels were bankrolled: Information about MacArthur’s financial backing is from D. Clayton James, The Years of MacArthur, vol. 3, Triumph and Disaster, 1945–1964 (Houghton Mifflin, 1985), 642–43. See also Burrough, The Big Rich, 218.
“deputy commander-in-chief”: Willoughby and Chamberlain, MacArthur 1941–1951, 524.
“A tremendous demonstration” . . . “cooked his own goose”: C. L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles (Macmillan, 1969), 769.
By the time MacArthur finished: Walter Karp, “Truman vs. MacArthur,” American Heritage, April/May 1984, 769.
In his presidential memoirs: Dwight Eisenhower, Mandate for Change, 1953–1956 (Doubleday, 1963), 70.
“in many ways”: Ferrell, Eisenhower Diaries, “January 19, 1942,” 44.
“that traitor Eisenhower”: D’Este, Eisenhower, 295.
MacArthur, meeting with journalists: James, Years of MacArthur, vol. 2, 587.
“I’ll have to see”: Mark W. Clark, interview by John Luter, January 4, 1970, Eisenhower Administration Project, Columbia Center for Oral History, Columbia University, 15–16. Clark does not mention his own interest in high office, but according to Clark Lee, a war correspondent, it was said in Clark’s headquarters that “the youngish, tall, and handsome Clark had his heart set on becoming President of the United States, and these rumors were never denied by his highest officers.” Clark Lee, One Last Look Around (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1947), 281.
Ike was so persuasive: Harry C. Butcher to Robert D. Heinl, July 13, 1948, in “Reminiscences About George C. Marshall,” box 1, folder 17, Marshall Library, 2. President Truman, whose dislike of Eisenhower might have colored his memories, stated that Eisenhower “swore up and down to me he would never run for any political office.” Miller, Plain Speaking, 319. See also pages 338–39.
“Dear Pete,” he wrote: Dwight D. Eisenhower to Charles Corlett, December 22, 1949, in Corlett Papers, box 1, USAMHI. It is worth noting that the two men were sufficiently close that, three years later, Eisenhower, as the new president, took time to reach out to him, writing to Corlett, “I haven’t heard from you in a long time. . . . Please write to me when you have a chance and bring me up to date.” Eisenhower to Corlett, February 25, 1953, also in Corlett Papers, box 1, USAMHI.
“haunted Eisenhower”: Stoler, George C. Marshall, 192.
Ike would argue: Eisenhower, interview by Po
gue, June, 28, 1962, Pogue Oral History Collection, Marshall Library.
In January 1954, he boasted: “Texts of . . . Interview with MacArthur in 1954,” New York Times, April 9, 1964, 16.
“a shell of tarnished magnificence”: Larrabee, Commander in Chief, 336.
“MacArthur was guilty of contumacy”: Bruce Clarke oral history, Truman Library, 30.
“Didn’t MacArthur say the same”: Robert McNamara, In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam (Random House, 1995), 163.
“I have a lot riding on you”: William C. Westmoreland, A Soldier Reports (Doubleday, 1976), 193. For a slightly different account, see Douglas Kinnard, The War Managers: American Generals Reflect on Vietnam (Da Capo, 1991), 21.
14. THE ORGANIZATION MAN’S ARMY
As Whyte wrote: William Whyte, The Organization Man (Doubleday Anchor, 1957), 149–51.
“a rather automatic”: Whyte, Organization Man, 169.
“a personal identity”: William Henry, “Executive Personality,” in The Emergent American Society: Large-Scale Organizations (Yale University Press, 1967), 247.
“To his paratroopers”: Ernest Ferguson, Westmoreland: The Inevitable General (Little, Brown, 1968), 208.
“I remember”: Lewis Sorley, Westmoreland: The General Who Lost Vietnam (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2011), 36.
“There is more than a semantic”: Thomas Schelling, “Economic Reasoning and Military Science,” The American Economist, May 1960, 4.
“Today’s strategy” . . . “currently militarily capable”: Schelling, “Economic Reasoning and Military Science,” 7.
“would be precisely”: Robert Osgood, Limited War: The Challenge to American Strategy (University of Chicago Press, 1957), 271–72.
“If the early 1960s”: Robert Osgood, Limited War Revisited (Westview, 1979), 33.
“the Army was feeling sorry”: Henry Gole, “The Relevance of Gen. William E. DePuy,” Army Magazine, March 2008, 68.
“the decade of doctrinal chaos”: Robert Doughty, “The Evolution of US Army Tactical Doctrine, 1946–76,” Combat Studies Institute, Fort Leavenworth, KS, August 1979, 29.
The Air Force was rapidly expanding: Millett and Maslowski, For the Common Defense, 515–17.
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