America in WWII - (Page 4) A V-MAIL THE FIRST JOHN BASILONE PARADE I CONGRATULATE America in WWII for its choice of August 2007 cover, John Basilone. I remember, as a proud American boy of Italian ancestry, cheering in nearby Raritan, New Jersey, as he waved to us in the first John Basilone Parade in the 1940s, just prior to his volunteering to return to his fellow marines and battle. He was, of course, killed on the sands of Iwo Jima in 1944. DANIEL W. FRASCELLA, PH.D. Lebanon, New Jersey point in the war America could afford the loss of the latter but not of the former. ALLAN AMES Hawley, Pennsylvania COURTESY OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM Editor’s Note: This year’s John Basilone Parade starts at 1 P.M. on September 23. See www.basiloneparade.com. YES, BLAME MacARTHUR R. JAMISON TEETOR III’S letter “Don’t Blame MacArthur” in your August 2007 issue essentially blames the fall of the Philippines in 1942 on President Franklin Roosevelt while absolving General Douglas MacArthur of most of the responsibility…. The policy that led to the US failure to defend the Philippines did not start with Roosevelt. It originated with the Washington Naval Conference of 1922, where the United States pledged it would not fortify or develop further any bases in the Pacific west of the International Date Line. This, in effect, doomed the Philippines. The bases in and around Manila Bay were too small to handle the US Pacific Fleet, and they could not be improved without violating the treaty. In the 1930s, as war loomed and the treaty was ignored, the United States did not have the resources to build up a strong defense against Japan and Germany simultaneously. The buildup therefore focused on Germany, the more dangerous enemy, as incorporated in War Plan Orange, a plan which MacArthur signed off on. Despite this, based largely on MacArthur’s insistence that he could defend the Philippines, the War Department sent reinforcements to the Philippines in summer– 4 AMERICA IN WWII OCTOBER 2007 WWII pigeons did amazing things—but in World War I, this bird took aerial spy photos! fall 1941. In other words, it was MacArthur’s extravagant boasts of his ability to defend the Philippines that led to a reversal of War Plan Orange and the sending of troops to the islands, not some perverse plan of Roosevelt to send 22,500 American soldiers to their doom…. CLAYBOURNE C. SNEAD Arlington, Virginia UNFAIR TO THE NAVY YOUR ARTICLE ON Guadalcanal (“Trapped on Guadalcanal,” by Eric Ethier, August 2007) was more than disappointing; it was a slander on the US Navy. The fleet suffered more fatalities there than the marines and contributed as much or more to the success of the campaign. The main failures at the start were Savo Island and the lack of effort to make the airfield operational. Rear Admiral Richmond Turner and Major General Alexander Vandegrift share responsibility for these failures. To suggest the fleet “abandoned” the marines is a lie. It was agreed beforehand that the carriers would draw off to general support range on D+2 [two days after the amphibious landing] and this was done for good reason. Frankly stated, Vice Admiral Frank Fletcher’s carriers were more important than the 1st Marine Division. At that Eric Ethier replies: I’m sorry if Mr. Ames feels I slighted the US Navy, whose losses in the Guadalcanal campaign amounted to 24 ships and more than 5,000 young men—men no less important than the green 1st Division marines (or, later, the soldiers) who fought and bled on the island. But I would suggest that Vandegrift agreed only with great reluctance to an early withdrawal by Fletcher—and certainly not to one as soon as the evening of August 8. Nor can one seriously argue that Fletcher’s carriers—no matter how precious—were “more important than the 1st Marine Division at that point in the war.” In any event, the object of my article was to bring to life the experiences of Vandegrift’s marines during the weeks they lived and fought—virtually alone—in the island’s jungle. And there is no doubt that those men at least felt abandoned, not only by Fletcher, but by Turner, Vice Admiral Robert Ghormley, and even America itself. WHO KNEW THE BIRDS DID ALL THAT? AMERICA IN WWII is the one magazine I read from cover to cover. In every issue I discover a new facet of World War II that I did not know about. In the August 2007 issue, your article, “Pigeons of War,” by Joe Razes, was one of the most interesting articles I have read. We all know carrier pigeons were used during the war, but I would never have guessed to that extent. EILEEN M. OWSIANY Catawissa, Pennsylvania Send us your comments and reactions— especially the favorable ones! Mail them to V-mail, America in WWII, PO Box 4175, Harrisburg, PA 17111-0175, or e-mail them to editor@americainwwii.com.
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