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Eichelberger, RL - Diary, 1 Jan 45 - 23 Oct 45 ,SAng. - out45) 14 Jan 45: correspondents Frank Kluckhomm & Lindsay Parrott (NYT) and It. RC Lundgren, USN, and It E H Jenison attached 7th Fleet PRO, Chie f Naval Ops, at office (in morning) - rec'd word M-7 is on and M-3 off - had conf. w/ G-2 Jones at 2200 discussing G-2 situation (n.b. E. seems to have had good rels/ w/ press - spent fair amt of time w/ them) 3 Mar 45 - flew over Cavite, Manila, and Harbor - then N. to Clark Field - landed about 1000 - went w/ Byers, and Downer to Tarlac where saw MacA - lunched at sugar plantation halfway btwn Tarlac and Cabanatuan- spoke and lunched w/ BC (Big chey? ) - he expressed great satis. w/ my work #/ 11th AB and said he intentionally brought out good prop for 8th's releases - E/ intimated that "it gave a fine picture of his ability to manipulate two armies instead of one, pting out his ear early poverty in roops back in '42. " - PC said Kreuger had been "very slow and unaggressive but was improving. - Griswold had done better than he'd expected - 1st Cav. was his favorite - N"I asked him the answer to the $64.00 question and he said that GCM (Marshall) had promised to support him when he feft Leyte for command of all the army troops in the Pac but that more recently he had tried to put over supreme command for himself in the Pac w/ Nimitz, Arnold and MacA commding the three major services. BC said King opposed this and he had to drop it and that he now expects GCM to support him. He said that Prime Minister Curtin and Gen. Blamey had opposed Am command of Aussie troops in the south but he suspected he wld use some Am troops in the Capture of Batavia.' - his present plan to capture Balikpapan, Borneo, in May andBatavia in June, then wld turn over everything in Aust. terr. to Aussies and everthing in Dutch terr. to Neth., declare war in S Pac over, and turn over all tropps exc those needed in Bhils. - BS said had recently asked Marshall to give him quick decision about who wld common future operations in N so that plans cld be made - rec'd "a rather curt telegram" that this before JCS and wld be notified soon of decision - had talked w/ Adm Cook from ND and Cook had said, 'You know when we in the Navy are going to lose out on something we usually hold on until the end w/ the hope that we get out of it as much as we can.' - felt this ind. course, and thought Cook later regretted saying it- felt Cook knew BC wld win out - said had talked to Hurley, "honest" and Wedemeyer, "not brilliant but has courage. "- BC advised Wedemeyer to talk to Rich rather than Buck in Hawaii bec. Rich is friendly to Army while Buck and Harmon sold out to Navy - if he were given command, wld bust Buck -asked BC about promotion of Byers, Bowen Thayer - turned down until present ops completed - "I told him what a deep feeling I had about his control of army troops in future ops against J but by feelin was not selfish bec I felt anybody that took command wld use the Eighth A. He saidthat from now on Eighth A wld be treated on parity w/ Sixth or any other army." -BC felt Eisenhower's "curve" had gone down since last summer and not now considered great leader once was - also agreed w/ E. that Am. public wld not give Am army on Rhine credit for vic- tories but wld give it to pressure of Sov. troops from now on - public's great interest from now on wld also be in Japanese war