In May, 1941, President
Roosevelt suddenly ended our honeymoon, sending all of the Army wives
back to the States.
It was two very unhappy people standing on Pier Seven in Manila,
wondering if they would ever see each other again, if the U.S.A.T.
Washington could outmaneuver the subs in the Pacific, and if our U.S.
Army could survive a frontal attack by the Japanese.
Roosevelt must have known the war was coming. In 1937 he branded the
Japanese as "aggressors" in their undeclared war in China and called
for quarantine against her. The Japanese answered him by sinking the
U.S.S. Panay and machine-gunning her crew.
In the late '30s, with the world situation becoming increasingly
dangerous, Germany and Italy both arming in Europe, and Japan
increasing its manpower, Roosevelt wanted to cut the Regular Army by
51 %, the National Guard by 35% and the Reserves by 33% in order to
balance his budget. It seems he was rather naive, 'or possibly just
the politician worrying about reelection.
Gen. MacArthur, who was Chief of Staff of the Army at the time, told
Roosevelt, "Mr. President, when the next war is lost, it will be
Roosevelt's War, not MacArthur's.
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