Face to Face

Even more than the hit-&-run disaster at Pearl Harbor, even more than the defeat in the Philippines, the prolonged Battle of the Solomons had brought the U.S. people face to face with a great and bitter truth of war. To most nations in all wars have come days filled with a succession of campaigns that were costly and not going well. Now, more than at any time since 1863, America knew such days.

The news pictures brought a quick and intimate sense of struggle: the grim face of Vice Admiral William F. Halsey, the new commander, surrounded by his staff (see cut); the fuzzy young faces and grizzled old faces of marines in foxholes; the bodies of Japs, looking menacing even in death, on the river banks. Though Guadalcanal was 6,000 miles away, it now seemed as close as the next block.

Yet there were great gaps in the nation's picture of the Solomons--some due to the very uncertainty of pitched battle, some to necessary censorship, some to brass-hat fumbling (see p. 61). In their concern, the people hoped for the best, prepared for the worst, gloomed at the sinkings and took courage from their heroes.

Stirrings Below. Into the gaps rushed a confusion of statement and opinion that puzzled and worried the nation.

Said Indiana's Senator Raymond E. Willis, at a Republican rally: "Our Navy is almost out of commission in the Pacific.*... All the disasters of the Pacific have not yet been admitted."

Said Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox: "In view of the complexities and the enormity of the task, on the record to date this has been America's best-run war."

Said Dr. Walter H. Judd, eight years a medical missionary in China: "American fighting men are caught like rats in a trap in the Solomons because of stupidity on the part of our high command."

Said OWI Director Elmer Davis: "[The] willingness to accept wildly exaggerated rumor in place of fact is doubtless due to honest bewilderment. I can assure you that up to noon today [Oct. 28], when I last talked to Navy representatives, all sinkings of major United States vessels have been reported."

Said a Navy communique: another carrier had been sunk Oct. 26. (The Navy Department had either not known or had not told Elmer Davis.)

The statements of the leaders reflected the hopes and fears of the people. Men looked with suspicion now at the planning that had gone into the Solomons campaign, they looked closely at their military high command, they doubted Army-Navy cooperation. Above all, they had lost for the time being their once unqualified faith in the news that the high command gave them of the battle.

Stirrings Above. Elmer Davis said: "Whatever may be the shortcomings of the men at the head of our Navy with regard to keeping the public informed, their primary job is to fight and win the war. . . It would be most unfortunate if resentment of any failings [in disclosure of news] should undermine public confidence in their capacity for their primary business." But the high command sensed that the two types of confidence were closely intertwined.

The week saw a great show of unity. Said Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson: "Decision to launch the Solomon Islands operation was made by the Joint Chiefs of Staff in accordance with an agreed-upon plan and was not purely a Naval decision." Said Frank Knox: "[The Army] is cooperating in every possible way."

Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall said that Army men were "deeply grateful for the skillful seamanship that has escorted 800,000 of them safely across the submarine-infested waters of the Atlantic and Pacific." Admiral Ernest J. King, COMINCH, said that General Marshall's letter gave "evidence enough, if evidence is needed, to assure our fellow citizens that all the armed forces of the United States are united in singleness of purpose."

Out of Washington came new pictures of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Admiral William D. Leahy, Chief of Staff to the Commander in Chief; Admiral King; General Marshall; Lieut. General Henry H. Arnold, the Army Air Chief) meeting at lunch, meeting with British military chiefs. The bitter truth of war which stirred the people had also brought their leaders nearer to that close understanding which the people feared was lacking.

*For the facts, see p. 28.

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