THE PRESIDENCY: When I Make a Mistake

One morning at the end of last month, Harry Truman sat down and tackled the accumulation of personal mail that he always handles himself. No advisers were with him. The only other person in his office was his quiet and devoted personal secretary, Miss Rose Conway. The presidential voice droned through the dictation, the Conway pencil traced its neat shorthand—until Mr. Truman's eyes fell on a letter from California's Republican Congressman Gordon L. McDonough.

Congressman McDonough respectfully suggested that the Marines, like the Army, Navy and Air Force, ought to have their own general on the Joint Chiefs of Staff....

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