Truman (185 page)

Secret Service Report: March 31, 1949, HSTL.

“out of his mind”: Lilienthal,
Journals,
Vol. II, 506.

Bess was “terribly shaken”: Truman,
Bess W. Truman,
346.

25,000 Pentagon employees:
Time
, June 6, 1949.

“Unwittingly”: Bradley and Blair, A
General’s Life,
503.

“in high good humor”:
Time,
April 25, 1949.

Cardinal Spellman: Goldman,
The Crucial Decade—and After
, 130–31.

“Hysteria finally died down”: PP, HST, June 16, 1949, 294.

“The military situation”: Acheson,
Present at the Creation,
305.

morning press conference: PP, HST, August 4, 1949, 408.

“The unfortunate but inescapable”: Acheson, 303.

“his general’s stars”:
Time,
August 22, 1949.

“I do these people a courtesy”: Dunar,
The Truman Scandals and the Politics of Morality,
70.

“an expression of friendship”:
Time,
September 12, 1949.

Was it true, asked McCarthy: Ibid.

“Ross and I”: Ayers Diary, August 12, 1949, HSTL.

“After all I am”: Abel,
The Truman Scandals,
42–43.

“I think that Mr. Truman”: Barkley,
That Reminds Me,
212.

When Vaughan offered to resign: Dunar, 64.

“a whole box of trouble”: Lilienthal,
Journals,
Vol. II, 569.

“as if I frequently found him”: Ibid.

“The President was reading a copy”: Ibid., 570–71.

“I believe the American people”: PP, HST, September 23, 1949, 485.

“We keep saying”: Lilienthal,
Journals,
Vol. II, 577.

“this grim thing”: Ibid., 584.

“We can never tell”: HST to EWT, June 29, 1949, in Ferrell, ed.,
Off the Record,
158.

“Never in my wildest dreams”: HST to EN, September 8, 1949, ibid., 163–64.

rats in the White House: Floyd Boring and Rex Scouten, author’s interviews.

“Very discreet”: West, with Kotz,
Upstairs at the White House,
111.

“Had dinner by myself”: HST Diary, November 1, 1949,
Off the Record,
168–69.

“a fine man”: HST to Jonathan Daniels, February 26, 1950, unsent, ibid., 174.

“It was a great thing”: Dean Acheson, Oral History, HSTL.

Acheson descriptions:
Time,
February 28, 1949;
The New Yorker,
November 12 and 19, 1949;
The New York Times,
October 13, 1971; Clark Clifford and George Elsey, author’s interviews.

“You owe it to Truman”: Isaacson and Thomas,
The Wise Men,
547.

“a peculiar organization”: HST to David H. Morgan, January 28, 1952,
Off the Record,
235.

“At lunch at the Capitol”: Acheson, 107.

“You know all of us”: HST to EN, September 24, 1950,
Off the Record,
194.

“deeply loving and tender nature”: Sevareid,
Conversations with Eric Sevareid
, 73.

“Well, this is the kind of person”: Ibid.

“It was good of you to see us off”: HST to Dean Acheson, November 28, 1949, HSTL.

“And then he was so fair”: Sevareid, 74.

“He was not afraid of the competition”: Acheson, 732–33.

“not pretending to be better”: McLellan,
Dean Acheson
, 19.

“Today you hear much talk”: Ibid., 173–74.

“Acheson is a gentleman”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 565.

“I told Kennan”: McLellan, 176.

“How can you persuade”: Isaacson and Thomas, 487.

“The day will come”:
Time
, January 23, 1950.

“Today, by the grace of God”: PP, HST, January 4, 1950, 3.

“I should like to make it clear”: Acheson, 360.

“I think anyone who has known”: Ibid.

“This newspaper has felt”: New York
Herald-Tribune
, January 27, 1950.

“wonderful about it”: Acheson, 360.

“I look at that fellow”: Quoted in Goldman, 125.

“blow them off the face of the earth”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 585.

“Like a patient”:
Time
, January 30, 1950.

an “atmosphere of excitement”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 628–29.

“eloquently and forcefully”: Acheson, 349.

“We must protect the President”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 630.

he felt he must express: Ibid., 632.

“Can the Russians?”: Quoted in Donovan,
Tumultuous Years
, 156.

“It is part of my responsibility”: PP, HST, January 31, 1950, 138.

“I hope I was wrong”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 633–34.

“General annihiliation beckons”: Quoted in Goldman, 137.

“How much are we going”: Weinstein,
Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case
, 507.

“The air was so charged”: Block,
The Herblock Book
, 144.

205 “known communists”: Reeves,
Life and Times of Joe McCarthy
, 224, 237.

“When this pompous diplomat”: Bernstein and Matusow, eds.,
The Truman Administration,
407.

“I will not turn my back”: Washington
Post
, June 25, 1950.

“keep talking and if one case”: Reeves, 263.

“top Russian espionage agent”:
Time
, April 3, 1950.

“In an age of atomic energy”: Krock,
In the Nation
: 1932–1966, 145–46.

“One of the happiest sessions”: Lilienthal,
Journals
, Vol. II, 635.

“You see everybody”: Truman,
Bess W. Truman
, 351.

“What has made me so jittery”: Ibid.

“a ballyhoo artist”: Donovan, 166.

plunged to 37 percent:
Time
, April 24, 1950.

Little White House press conference: PP, HST, March 30, 1950, 232–38.

Federal Bar Association speech: Ibid, April 24, 1950, 269.

“I think our friend”: Quoted in Donovan, 170.

Maragaret Chase Smith: Acheson, 365.

the “lure in power”: HST Diary, April 16, 1950,
Off the Record
, 177.

“I am not a candidate”: Ibid.

NSC-68: Acheson, 374.

“bludgeon the mass mind”: Ibid.

“with us for a long, long time”: PP, HST, May 9, 1950, 335.

“a grand visit”: HST to Stanley Woodward, June 24, 1950,
Off the Record
, 184.

“We would not build”: PP, HST, June 24, 1950.

nation’s worst air disaster:
The New York Times
, June 25, 1950.

“There are lots of places”: St. Louis
Post-Dispatch
, June 25, 1950.

Dean Acheson call:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 332.

“My first reaction”: Ibid.

“It would appear”:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 334.

“Dad took it”: Truman,
Souvenir
, 275.

departure so swift:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 332.

Bess looking as she had the night FDR died:
The New York Times
, June 26, 1950.

“By God, I am going to”: Quoted in Donovan, 197.

“I remembered how”:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 332–33

Rusk had seen no likelihood of war: Rusk,
As I Saw It
, 161.

Blair House meeting:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 333.

dinner meeting: Smith, “Why We Went to War in Korea,”
Saturday Evening Post,
November 11, 1950.

a “darkening report”: Acheson, 406.

“a dagger pointed at the heart”: Rusk, 162.

“We must draw the line”: Bradley and Blair, 534–35.

“Underlying these discussions”: Ibid., 535.

“He pulled all the conferees together”:
The New York Times
, June 28, 1950.

“I thought we were still holding”:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 335.

“the complete, almost unspoken”: Ibid., 334.

“so as not to give him too much”: Bradley and Blair, 536.

“It was our idea”: Donovan, 199.

“as Hermann Goering”: Jenkins,
Truman
, 164.

“Our estimate is that a complete collapse”:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 337.

adding “not yet”: Department of State Memorandum for the Secretary, June 30, 1950, HSTL.

“We had no war plan”: Bradley and Blair, 539.

“Everything I have done”: Phillips,
The Truman Presidency
, 289.

“Too little, too late”: Washington
Post
, June 27, 1950.

“The attack upon Korea”: PP, HST, June 27, 1950, 492.

“Although the President”: Alsop, “Why Has Washington Gone Crazy?”,
Saturday Evening Post
, July 29, 1950.

“These are days”: Washington
Post
, June 28, 1950.

“We’ll have a dozen Koreas”:
Eisenhower Diaries
, 175.

“You may be a whiskey guzzling poker playing”: Harry Abel to HST, June 27, 1950, HSTL.

“I have lived and worked”:
Time
, July 10, 1950.

“We are not at war”: PP, HST, June 29, 1950, 504.

“The only assurance for holding”: MacArthur,
Reminiscences
, 334.

“Must be careful not to cause”: HST Diary, June 30, 1950,
Off the Record
, 185.

“Now, your job as President”: Sevareid, 74.

“Memo to Dean Acheson”: Acheson, 415.

16. Commander in Chief

“There was
nothing
passive”: Elsey, “Memoir: Some White House Recollections, 1942–1953,”
Diplomatic History
, Summer 1988.

“This is the Greece”: Quoted in Phillips,
The Truman Presidency
, 297.

“walk with the weary man’s”:
Time
, July 10, 1950.

Bradley meeting with HST:
Time
, August 21, 1950.

“The size of the attack”: PP, HST, July 19, 1950, 538.

as if a few troops of Boy Scouts: Ridgway,
The Korean War
, 17.

“Guys, sweat soaked”: Knox,
The Korean War, Pusan to Chosin
, 71.

“What a place to die”: New York
Herald-Tribune
, July 6, 1950.

Acheson, however, disagreed: Acheson,
Present at the Creation
, 414.

“Later when Robert Taft”: Heller,
The Truman White House
, 13.

HST said he would “back out”:
Memoirs
, Vol. II, 340.

her father’s anguish: Truman,
Bess W. Truman
, 357.

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

“The influence of Louis Johnson”: Joseph Alsop, author’s interview.

July 14 meeting: Acheson, 421.

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.