Someone in a long thread asked an interesting question-- How many times has the Corps almost been shut down?

These are the three I read about over the years--

In the late 1800s, until the Corps became reinvented and established as colonial police.

After WWI, when the Corps functioned as just another army unit, until the Corps perfected the advanced base force concept, and much improved landing operations.

After WWII there was a real, serious, effort to get rid of the Corps, and use the savings for more carriers and more AF bombers. Made worse because Truman was a big arty fan and hated the Marines from his WWI service, and his defense secretary Johnson took it to asinine degrees, trying to eliminate both the Corps and much of the Navy because he believed that an all bomber military force would not only win all wars, but would also be a huge savings for the nation.

The Corps was able to fight back enough to slow the process, and so when Korea kicked off and it turned out bombers were next to worthless-- there was still the core of a division (and division equipment sets) in the Corps and there were enough reserve fleet ships to reactivate.