By July 1951 support in the United States was waning for the now one-year-old “police action,” which virtually everyone recognized was a full-scale war. When the hostilities began, telegrams and letters poured into the White House lauding the decision to send troops to Korea by an overwhelming margin. But after tens of thousands of American casualties, UN forces had failed to defeat the Communists, and Truman’s popularity, which had always been tenuous, began to plummet. When a music critic named Paul Hume panned a performance by the president’s daughter, Margaret, Truman shot off a venomous letter, warning that if they ever met, Hume would need “a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below.” Americans were not only shocked by the president’s outburst, they questioned his priorities. A couple whose son was killed in Korea mailed Truman the following letter, accompanied by the Purple Heart medal their son had been awarded posthumously:
Mr. Truman:
As you have been directly responsible for the loss of our son’s life in Korea, you might just as well keep this emblem on display in your trophy room, as a memory of one of your historic deeds.
Our major regret at this time is that your daughter was not there to receive the same treatment as our son received in Korea.
In April 1951 Truman’s dismissal of General MacArthur ignited another firestorm of protest, and the collapse of the July 1951 peace talks prompted fears that American soldiers would be mired in Korea indefinitely. (His public approval at its nadir, Truman would ultimately decide not to run for reelection in 1952. Dwight D. Eisenhower became the Republican nominee and pledged he would personally go to Korea to see firsthand how peace could be achieved. Eisenhower would win by a landslide—and, after the election, would fulfill his promise and travel to Korea.) Desertion rates, although still low, were rising in 1951, and even servicemen in the States were becoming increasingly cynical about the unfolding debacle overseas. In a letter to his girlfriend, who was living in Detroit, Michigan, twenty-one-year-old Sgt. Don Gore articulated the growing disillusionment of many young American men. (J.D., mentioned in the letter, was a childhood friend who had been serving with Gore at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.)
Dear—,
Thought I would answer your letter dated September 25, 1951. Enclosed is a copy of it in case you forgot what you asked. I sure enjoyed spending time with you, too. And it wasn’t because of your pin curlers that I didn’t wake you up to say goodbye. You looked so peaceful and happy laying there sleeping so I just kissed you on the forehead and left because I had to get back to Ft. Bragg and help J.D. pack up his personal belongings and put his guitar in the trunk of my car and take it to his mother’s house. J.D. has to leave for Korea this week, but I ain’t about to go.
General McCarthur told them that this Korean war was a stupid war and unconstitutional because they wouldn’t let us win the war and wouldn’t let us lose it. All they want to do is to send us over there with gigantic war machines and grind up barefooted peasants and let the American soldiers get captured by the enemy and live the rest of their lives in a communist slave labor camp. General McCarthur told them that this is a bunch of BS and they fired him for insubordination.
I am with General McCarthur. We need leaders who will lead us not stick us and bleed us, and since General McCarthur got fired I’ve become one dysfunctional Sergeant. And they have left me full of rage and contempt for everybody in Washington, and without General McCarthur to lead us I ain’t going.
I had my cousin write a letter to my Company Commander telling him that she was only 17 years old and that I got her in trouble and that she wanted me to come home and help support her and the baby. It didn’t work, but they did bring me up on moral charges, which let me accomplish my mission. If I can postpone my hearing and manipulate the court for three months then I won’t be eligible to go to Korea. If my plan falls through you may have to write my Parole Officer and tell him that I am a high moral man and this whole thing is a big mistake.
If J.D. and I get out of the Army with a sound mind and all of our body parts in good shape we are going to California and start a Hillbilly band, so if you don’t hear from me too often don’t get worried and think that I don’t love you no more because I do. I am standing on a bridge that just won’t burn. When I get enough money to buy a new car and a house I’ll come back and we’ll get married. You wouldn’t like California though because they have cockroaches out here bigger than my car. We’ll move to Florida, there we can teach our kids how to water ski and fish and boat ride and after we get settled we can talk your mom and dad to move close by so that the kids will have their Grandpa and Grandma and we’ll have a babysitter.
Love,
Don
Although Sergeant Gore remained in the military, he was not sent to Korea.