I’m a big confused by the ‘Jeep’ image stamped onto the side of the crate. In 1951, Willys-Overland was downplaying the use of jeep as a brand. This photo looks to be more like a post 1953-Kaiser-purchase photo. I tried to find a 1951 time-frame photo of a boxed jeep, but couldn’t find any I could compare to this one. Any thoughts on this?
It’s possible, given the photo was published as part of a 1987 article, that someone just guessed on the time-frame of this photo. Also, the fact that Thailand remained active in South Korea until March of 1955 might also provide an explanation for why these boxed jeeps were heading to Thailand.
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The Marshall Plan was aimed at helping European countries after WW2. Why would that economic plan be mentioned on jeeps shipped to the Far East? The photo description must be incorrect.
Interesting how photos like this make you think – and research. Something I appreciate about this site. So I found another image of an uncrated Willys Jeep being loaded at Baltimore for SE Asia. Appeared to be a 3A.( and it believe that is what were in the crates). It was boomed in a loading net and that exact Federal Shield decal was plastered on the back of the Jeep itself. I found it on the Library of Congress site and the photo is dated 1951 according to the LOC site. http://www.loc.gov/item/97512799/ is how it came up. But interesting that I found this when I Googled the ship’s name.
Dave, one possible explanation to your question about the Jeep name being downplayed is that they didn’t downplay it for export vehicles, but in fact promoted it. Correct me, but I don’t think they were promoting their cars for export. And, yes, it connected it to the same Marshall program aforementioned. But a typical govt program could have began with limitations (ff Europe) and later expanded to SE Asia. No surprise there.
Barney,
I do enjoy the research part. That’s my favorite part of writing books, too.
I hadn’t thought about a push to expand the ‘JEEP’ name internationally. I’ll have to take a closer look at the 1950-51 JEEP font used on brochures and compare that with the JEEP used in the mid-1950s. That might help confirm your thesis. Thanks!
– Dave
Steve,
Thanks for the question, because I learned something new. I too thought the Marshall Plan was more focused on a couple post WWII years. In fact, it wasn’t passed until 1948 and wasn’t ended until 1952. Thus, the caption is actually consistent with the 1951 date, which adds confirmation that my theory is incorrect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan
– Dave