Truman

July 19 message to Congress: PP, HST, July 19, 1950, 527–37.

  press conference: Ibid., July 27, 1950, 560–64.

  “He would have saved himself”: Bradley and Blair, A General’s Life, 542.

  “an inordinate egotistical desire”: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 192.

  a “pathological condition”: Bradley and Blair, 542.

  HST confiding Harriman’s story: Ayers Diary, July 3, 1950, HSTL.

  “A most interesting morning”: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, Off the Record, 192.

  “Mr. Prima Donna”: HST Diary, June 17, 1945, ibid., 47.

  “little regard or respect”: Ayers Diary, July 1, 1950, HSTL.

  Dulles advised HST: Ibid.

  HST’s little regard for generals: HST memorandum, April 24, 1954, Off the Record, 303.

  “likes horses with blinders on”: Miller, Plain Speaking, 220.

  “fluid but improving”: Ayers Diary, August 12, 1950, HSTL.

  HST’s uppermost concern: Memoirs, Vol. II, 351.

  “catch him alone”: Quoted in Heller, 14.

  MacArthur assured HST: Memoirs, Vol. II, 351.

  “with all his dramatic eloquence”: Bradley and Blair, 546.

  the riskiest military proposal: Ibid., 544.

  “I made it clear to the President”: Quoted in Heller, 14.

  “as fast as you can”: Bradley and Blair, 546.

  “This means not the usual”: Osborne, Life and Time, August 21, 1950.

  “the wildest kind”: Bradley and Blair, 556.

  “the gravest misgivings”: Ibid., 547.

  “Nothing could be more fallacious”: Manchester, American Caesar, 568.

  “his lips white”: Bradley and Blair, 551.

  rank insubordination: Ibid.

  “the height of arrogance”: Ibid.

  HST rejects idea of relieving MacArthur: Memoirs, Vol. II, 355–56.

  HST asks Johnson to have MacArthur’s statement withdrawn: Bradley and Blair, 551.

  “The JCS inclined toward postponing”: Ibid., 547.

  “a failure could be a national”: Ibid., 545.

  “It was a daring strategic conception”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 358.

  “Hell and high water”: HST to EWT, September 7, 1950, Off the Record, 189.

  “I’ll do it”: Ibid.

  “Can you think of anyone?”: Ibid.

  Johnson told he must quit: HST Diary, September 14, 1950, ibid., 193.

  a “military miracle”: Ridgway, 44.

  “I salute you all”: Quoted in Phillips, 313.

  “Troops could not be expected”: Acheson, 445.

  to “feel unhampered”: Ridgway, 45.

  “an almost superstitious awe”: Ibid., 61.

  warnings a bluff: Spanier, The Truman-MacArthur Controversy and the Korean War, 87.

  “and I did not feel”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 368.

  “the perfect answer”: Wiltz, “Truman and MacArthur: The Wake Island Meeting,” Military Affairs, December 1978.

  “good election year stuff”: Donovan, Tumultuous Years,284.

  “While General MacArthur”: Acheson, 456.

  “I’ve a whale of a job”: HST to Nellie Noland, October 13, 1950, Off the Record, 196.

  “Two men can sometimes learn”: Time, October 23, 1950.

  “I don’t care what they say”: Ibid.

  MacArthur had arrived the night before: Ibid.

  Harriman exchange with MacArthur: Bradley and Blair, 573.

  “grave responsibility”: Ibid.

  MacArthur greeting: New York Herald-Tribune, October 15, 1950.

  “I have been worried”: Quoted in Donovan, 285.

  MacArthur assured him victory was won: Memoirs, Vol. II, 365.

  “seemed genuinely pleased”: Ibid.

  “I had been warned”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 361.

  Vernice Anderson incident: Jessup, “Research Note/The Record of Wake Island—A Correction,” The Journal of American History, March 1981.

  when MacArthur received transcript: Bradley and Blair, 575.

  “He was the most persuasive fellow”: Quoted in Manchester, 592.

  “the formal resistance”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference on October 15, 1950, compiled by General Omar Bradley, declassified, 1, HSTL.

  By January: Ibid.

  Dean Rusk concerned: Rusk, As I Saw It, 169.

  “Hell no!”: Ibid.

  “They are the happiest”: Foreign Relations of the United States, 1950. Vol. VII: Korea, 953

  the French couldn’t “clean it up”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference, 17.

  MacArthur declined lunch: Ibid.

  “Whether intended or not”: Bradley and Blair, 576.

  “The communiqué should be submitted”: Substance of Statements Made at Wake Island Conference, 23.

  MacArthur asked the President: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 362.

  “Eisenhower doesn’t know the first thing”: Ibid., 363.

  “the very complete unanimity of view”: PP, HST, October 15, 1950, 672.

  “his vision, his judgment”: Donovan, 288.

  a “glorious new page”: PP, HST, October 17, 1950, 674.

  “On this one”: Rusk, 169.

  “Come up to Pyongyang”: Newsweek, October 23, 1950.

  “Goodbye, sir”: Time, October 23, 1950.

  “I like them more”: Truman, Letters from Father, 97.

  “He would treat us”: Rex Scouten, author’s interview.

  Floyd Boring’s wife: Floyd Boring, author’s interview.

  “The house was so quiet”: West, with Kotz, Upstairs at the White House, 116.

  “I’d come out more or less”: Boring, author’s interview.

  mistaken for divinity students: Life: November 13, 1950.

  assassination attempt: Boring, author’s interview; Scouten, author’s interview; Life, November 13, 1950; The New York Times, November 2, 1950; Time, November 12, 1950; Whistle Stop, Fall 1979.

  “Why, of course”: Time, November 12, 1950.

  “It is important”: PP, HST, November 1, 1950, 693.

  “But Truman was…just a symbol”: Kansas City Times, September 11, 1979.

  “A President has to expect”: The New York Times, November 2, 1950.

  HST insisted he was in no danger: PP, HST, November 2, 1950, 696.

  so “unnecessary”: HST to Dean Acheson, November 2, 1950, HSTL.

  “[Leaving the airport)”: HST Diary, November 5, 1950, Off the Record, 198.

  “really a prisoner now”: HST to EN, November 17, 1950, ibid.

  “The Korean death trap”: Donovan, 295.

  “All the piety”: Ibid., 297.

  Bess had seldom seen HST so downhearted: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 363–64.

  “Some Republicans interpret”: PP, HST, November 16, 1950, 714.

  “Then there were those”: Ridgway, 61.

  “If this operation is successful”: Manchester, 606.

  “a terrible message”: Ibid., 608.

  “We’ve got a terrific”: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 27.

  “The Chinese have come in”: Ibid.

  “alone and inescapably”: Ibid., 28.

  seven thousand letters: Heller, 47.

  “We can blame the liars”: Ibid., 30.

  “His mouth drew tight”: Ibid., 28.

  “We have got to meet this thing”: Ibid., 30;

  “We face an entirely new war”: Quoted in Acheson, 469.

  November 28, 1950, meeting: Ibid., 469, 471.

  “There was no doubt”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 378.

  “We can’t defeat the Chinese”: Acheson, 471.

  the “imperative step”: Ibid.

  “The threat of a larger war”: Bradley and Blair, 599.

  “hordes of Chinese Reds”: Washington Star, November 28, 1950.

  “A lot of hard work”: Memoirs Vol. II, 388.

  “Remember,
photographers are”: Truman, Letters from Father, 99.

  “He ‘used’ the press”: Phillips, The New York Times, December 31, 1972.

  “a fat no good can of lard”: HST to MJT, July 25, 1947, Off the Record, 115.

  “the Sop Sisters”: HST to EWT, June 11, 1950, Ibid., 179 and 41, note.

  “The prostitutes of the mind”: Poen, Strictly Personal and Confidential, 24.

  “You might tell the gentleman”: HST to Joseph J. McGee, November 22, 1950, Off the Record, 199.

  November 30, 1950, press conference: PP, HST, 724–728.

  “No, it doesn’t mean”: Ibid., 727.

  the “wildest days” ever: Ayers Diary, November 30, 1950, HSTL.

  “the use of any weapon”: PP, HST, November 30, 1950, 727.

  HST ill-advised: Bradley and Blair, 604.

  in a crucial few days: Acheson, 466.

  “I have the unhappy conviction”: Ibid.

  “well remember”: Ridgway, 61.

  “someone expressed what everyone”: Acheson, 475.

  “You can relieve any commander”: Ridgway, 62.

  Rusk proposes relieving MacArthur: Acheson, 476.

  “I should have relieved”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 384.

  “We must get him out”: HST Diary, December 2, 1950, Off the Record, 202.

  “It looks very bad”: Ibid.

  “Mr. President, the Chinese”: Rusk, 170.

  “I’ve had conference after conference”: HST Diary, December 9, 1950, Off the Record, 204.

  “[The President] thought that if”: Quoted in Donovan, 317.

  He would not use the bomb: Ibid., 318.

  “Charlie seemed in good form”: Ayers Diary, December 5, 1950, HSTL.

  Death of Charlie Ross: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.

  “The friend of my youth”: PP, HST, December 5, 1950, 737.

  “Ah, hell”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 545–46.

  previous Ross heart attacks: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.

  HST keeps Ross death from Margaret: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 546.

  “Afterward, Dad was effusive”: Truman, Bess W. Truman, 366.

  “really pretty bad that night”: John Hersey, author’s interview.

  Hume review: Washington Post, December 6, 1950.

  “That’s exactly what I want”: Traubel, St. Louis Woman, 211.

  “longhand spasm”: HST to Dean Acheson, April 8, 1957, HSTL.

  “Charlie Ross would never have”: Elsey, author’s interview.

  “Mr. Hume: I’ve just read”: HST to Paul Hume, December 7, 1950.

  “In the first place”: Time, December 18, 1950.

  To Margaret he said: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 547.

  “When he would write”: Elsey, Oral History, HSTL.

  “a propaganda machine”: Time, September 18, 1950.

  “I can only say”: Time, December 18, 1950.

  letters and telegrams to White House: General Correspondence File, HSTL.

  letter from the Bannings: HSTL.

  “The Eighth Army is yours”: Ridgway, 83.

  “never uttered wiser words”: Acheson, 512.

  “brilliant, driving”: Bradley and Blair, 608.

  “The troops are tired”: Ibid., 619.

  “Under the extraordinary”: Quoted in Donovan, 346.

  to recognize the “state of war”: Manchester, The Glory and the Dream, 550.

  atomic bombs: Schaller, Douglas MacArthur, 225.

  “go down that trail”: Rusk, 170.

  “infinite patience”: Acheson, 515.

  “steps which might in themselves”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 438, 436.

  “We were at our lowest”: Bradley and Blair, 620.

  “Eighth Army in good shape”: Ibid., 623.

  “rolling forward”: Ridgway, The Korean War, 106.

  to look “beyond MacArthur”: Bradley and Blair, 623.

  Ridgway thought HST a great and courageous man: Ridgway, author’s interview.

  “mainly a prima donna”: Bradley and Blair, 623.

  “While General MacArthur was fighting”: Acheson, 517.

  “the really terrifying strength”: Ridgway, 111.

  “tired and depressed: Goulden, Korea, 453.

  “just ordered a resumption”: Ridgway, 109.

  “not only his nerves”: MacArthur, Reminiscences, 393.

  “snapped his brilliant”: Bradley and Blair, 626.

  “The enemy, therefore”: MacArthur, 388.

  his “pronunciamento”: Acheson, The Korean War, 101.

  “unforgiveable and irretrievable act”: Bradley and Blair, 627.

  “Whom the gods would destroy”: Acheson, Korean War, 100.

  “I couldn’t send a message”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 559.

  “This was a most extraordinary”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 441–42.

  “disbelief with controlled fury”: Acheson, Korean War, 102.

  “Gallup Poll: The Gallup Poll: Public Opinion 1935–1971, 970.

  “If you are going to get on”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 443–45.

  “What are we in Korea for”: Martin, My First Fifty Years in Politics, 203.

  “Mr. President, this man is not”: Roger Tubby Diary, April 5, 1951.

  “I did not know”: Bradley and Blair, 629.

  “The situation could be resolved”: Acheson, Korean War, 104.

  “If you relieve MacArthur”: Memoirs, Vol. II, 447.

  “I don’t express any opinion”: HST Diary, April 5, 1951, Off the Record, 211.

  “at the apex of a situation”: MacArthur, 394.

  “The wind died down”: Martin, 207.

  because they knew the kind of abuse: Bradley and Blair, 633.

  MacArthur firing would provoke: Ibid.

  “There was no question”: Phillips, 346–47.

  He told Bradley to prepare: Memoirs, Vol. II, 448.

  Speculation about MacArthur: Washington Post, April 10, 1951.

  “So you won’t have to read about it”: Tubby Diary, April 12, 1951.

  a supposed “major resignation”: Bradley and Blair, 636.

  “There was a degree of panic”: Elsey, author’s interview.

  “He’s not going to be allowed”: Phillips, 343.

  “Discussed the situation”: HST Diary, April, 9, 1951, Off the Record, 211.

  “Well, the little man”: Rusk, 172.

  would have retired “without difficulty”: Schaller, 239.

  HST’s “mental instability”: Donovan, 360; Goulden, 495.

  “Our only choice”: Washington Post, April 12, 1951.

  Tom Connally reminded: Ibid.

  Chicago Tribune editorial: April 12, 1951.

  “This is the biggest windfall”: Washington Post, April 18 1951.

  “In the days ahead”: Letter from W. O. Douglas to HST, April 11, 1951, HSTL.

  “It makes not the slightest”: The President vs. the General,” Sermon by Dr. Duncan E. Littlefield, April 15, 1951, Fountain Street Baptist Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, HSTL.

  “The most obvious fact”: New York Herald-Tribune, April 13, 1951.

  “bourbon and Benedictine”: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 14, 1951.

  Gallup Poll: Goldman, The Crucial Decade, 203.

  HST booed at Griffith Stadium: Washington Post, April 21, 1951.

  April 11, 1951, broadcast: PP, HST, April 11, 1951, 223–27.

  “The only politics I have”: Time, April 30, 1951.

  “I was sorry to have to reach”: HST to Eisenhower, April 13, 1951, HSTL.

  mock “Schedule for Welcoming…”: HSTL.

  “I address you”: New York Herald-Tribune, April 20, 1951.

  “When I joined the Army”: MacArthur, 405.

  “The hopes and dreams”: Quoted in Manchester, 661.

  “We heard God speak”: Ibid.

  “I honestly felt that if the speech”: Truman, Harry S. Truman, 563.

  “a bunch of damn bullshit”: Quoted in Miller, Pla
in Speaking, 337.

  “After I looked at that wreckage”: Time, May 14, 1951.

  “a very distressing necessity”: Ibid.

  “Having made this courageous decision”: Bradley and Blair, 637.

  “Courage didn’t have anything”: Quoted in Phillips, 350.

  “Truman’s conflict with MacArthur”: Rusk, 172.

  MacArthur to Samuel Eliot Morison: Morison, The Oxford History of the American People, 1072.

  May 18 dinner: PP, HST, May 18, 1951, 292–93.

  Tullahoma, Tennessee, speech: Ibid., June 25, 1951, 357–63.

  17. Final Days

  “I have tried to give it”: PP, HST, January 15, 1953, 1202.

  “I walk two miles”: HST Diary, January 3, 1952, in Ferrell, ed., Off the Record, 226.

  “Mr. President, this is my first”: PP, HST, July 12, 1951, 387.

  HST served bowl of milk toast: Tubby Diary, May 21, 1951.

  “You constantly tell me to relax”: Ibid., April 13, 1952.

  a framed verse: Hersey, Aspects of the Presidency, 108.

  it was all worth the effort: Tubby Diary, October 15, 1951.

  “I know what a soldier goes through”: PP, HST, January 15, 1953, 1200.

  Sergeant John Rice: The New York Times, August 29, 1951.

  “mysterious, powerful” conspiracy: Reeves, The Life and Times of Joe McCarthy, 372.

  a “pithy and bitter” summary: Hersey, 137–38.

  “Three pungent comments”: Ibid.

  HST announces Marshall stepping down: PP, HST, September 12, 1951, 516.

  Hassett would bring him funny items: Tubby Diary, June 24, 1951.

  Hassett an alcoholic: Ibid., September 18, 1951.

  the “chiselers” within: Ibid., early June, 1951.

  “He tended to live”: George Elsey, author’s interview.

  “an overeducated S.O.B.”: Douglas, In the Fullness of Time, 222.

  he had “gone too far”: Ibid., 223.

  “real crooks and influence peddlers”: Ibid.

  “You have been loyal to friends”: Ibid., 224.

  “You bastards”: Quoted in Goldman, The Crucial Decade—and After, 196.

  “With staggering impact”: Ibid., 198–99.

  HST and Army football scandal: Tubby Diary, August 3 and 8, 1951.

  “I did nothing improper”: Douglas, 224.

  He liked people: Tubby Diary, August 3, 1951.

  “He was dressed in flashy”: Ibid., September 13, 1951.

  “Ah, me. I wonder”: Ibid., early June, 1951,

  like Warren G. Harding: Ibid., September 13, 1951.

  “Poker, poker”: Ibid., April 2, 1951.

  “Truman has to take strong action”: Ibid., early June, 1951.