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During LtGen Cushman?s tenure, he saw the last of the Marines leave Vietnam and the peacetime strength fall to 194,000 while still maintaining readiness to act in such emergencies as the Mayaguez rescue and the evacuations of Phnom Penh and Saigon.
Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps Commanding Officer, 2d Battalion, 9th Marines, 3d Marine Division Date of Action: July 21 - August 20, 1944
Citation:
The Navy Cross is presented to Robert E. Cushman, Jr., Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism as Commanding Officer of the Second Battalion, Ninth Marines, Third Marine Division, in action against enemy Japanese forces on Guam, Marianas Islands, from 21 July to 20 August 1944. When his Battalion was ordered to seize and hold a strongly organized and defended enemy strong point which had been holding up the advance for some days on 25 July, Lieutenant Colonel Cushman directed the attacks of his Battalion and the repulse of numerous Japanese counterattacks, fearlessly exposing himself to heavy hostile rifle, machine-gun and mortar fire in order to remain in the front lines and obtain first-hand knowledge of the enemy situation. Following three days of bitter fighting culminating in a heavy Japanese counterattack which pushed back the flank of his Battalion on 28 July, he personally led a platoon into the gap and, placing it for defense, repelled the hostile force. By his inspiring leadership, courage and devotion to duty, he contributed materially to the success of the mission with the annihilation of one enemy Battalion and the rout of another, thereby upholding the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
As early as April 1959, Richard Nixon sent a memorandum to President Eisenhower saying: ?Castro is a communist and the revolutionary government has to be overthrown.?
In 1964, Nixon said: ?I have been the strongest and most persistent advocate for setting up and supporting the CIA program of covert action against Cuba. Phil Bonsal called Richard Nixon the father of the operation. Brigadier General Robert Cushman, Nixon?s military aide and later deputy director of the CIA, described Nixon in 1960, as ?the Bay of Pigs project?s action officer of the White House.? As H.R. Haldeman, who was Nixon?s top aide when Nixon became president, wrote, ?Nixon knew more about the genesis of the Bay of Pigs than almost anyone.?
The 5th Marine Division was a United States Marine Corps infantry division which was activated on 11 November 1943 (officially activated on 21 January 1944) at Camp Pendleton, California during World War II. The 5th Division saw its first combat action during the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945 where it sustained the highest number of casualties of the three Marine divisions of the V Amphibious Corps (invasion force). The 5th Division was to be part of the planned invasion of the Japan homeland before Japan surrendered. Assault troops of the 5th Division were included in the Presidential Unit Citation awarded to the V Amphibious Corps for extraordinary heroism on Iwo Jima from 19 to 28 February 1945. The 5th Division was deactivated on 5 February 1946.
The 5th Division was ordered to be reactivated on 1 March 1966 at Camp Pendleton, California, during the Vietnam War. The division, beginning with the reactivation of Regimental Landing Team 26 (RLT 26), was expected to be fully manned within one year; the 5th Division was never in command of the 26th Marine Regiment (26th Marines) in the war. In December, all three infantry battalions of the 26th Marines were fighting in Vietnam attached to the 3rd Marine Division. By June 1967, the 5th Division was ready to deploy anywhere. It was never intended that the 5th Division would go overseas. It was a force in readiness. But in February 1968, General William C. Westmoreland, U.S. Army, commander of U.S. forces in South Vietnam, asked for help because of the all-out Communist Tet Offensive. The 27th Marine Regiment (27th Marines), 5th Marine Division, was airlifted out on 48 hours notice, with 3,700 Marines. In September, it became the first major combat unit to come home from the Vietnam War. The 5th Marine Division formally deactivated on 26 November 1969.
