United States Marine Corps A decade later, in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848), the Marines made their famed assault on Chapultepec Palace in Mexico City, which would be later celebrated as the "Halls of Montezuma" in the Marines' hymn. In the 1850s, the Marines would see further service in Panama and Asia, attached to Matthew Perry's East India Squadron on its historic trip to the Far East. The Marine Corps played a small role in the Civil War (1861–1865); their most prominent task was blockade duty. As more and more states seceded from the Union, about a third of the Corps' officers left the United
History of the United States Marine Corps gave women permanent status in the Regular and Reserve forces of the Marines. President Harry S. Truman had a well-known dislike of the Marines dating back to his service in World War I, and would say in anger in August 1950, "The Marine Corps is the Navy's police force and as long as I am President, that is what it will remain. They have a propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's." Johnson exploited this to reduce or eliminate many Marine Corps' budget requests. Johnson attempted to eliminate Marine Corps aviation entirely by transferring its air assets to the