President Truman's relief of General Douglas MacArthur purposes is [just temporarily] allied with Soviet Russia." If MacArthur's thesis was accepted, then it followed that expanding the war with China would not provoke a conflict with the Soviet Union. The Joint Chiefs emphatically disagreed, although this contradicted their position that it was Europe and not Asia that was the prime concern of the Soviet Union. Even among Republicans, there was little support for MacArthur's position. On 5 April, Martin read the text of a letter he had received from MacArthur, dated 20 March, criticizing the Truman administration's priorities on the floor of the House. In it, MacArthur had
SS President Hoover Shipbuilding and Drydock Company of Newport News, Virginia, USA built the two ships, completing "President Hoover" in 1930 and "President Coolidge" in 1931. They were the largest merchant ships built in the USA up to that time. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover launched and christened "President Hoover" on December 9, 1930. Each ship had turbo-electric transmission, with a pair of steam turbo generators generating current that powered propulsion motors on the twin propeller shafts. Westinghouse built the turbo generators and propulsion motors for "President Coolidge" but General Electric built the turbo generators and propulsion motors for "President Hoover". 12 oil-fired