Douglas MacArthur

"What's the difference between Douglas MacArthur and God? God doesn't think he's Douglas MacArthur."

"Leahy had no part in the decision to relieve MacArthur, which came as a considerable shock to him, for he had known and liked the brilliant general for over fifty years, even though he had deplored his theatrical ways. He never questioned the president's authority and he felt he was not sufficiently informed to make a judgment on the question of MacArthur's relief. He wrote, somewhat mildly that the "detachment of MacArthur will stimulate aggressive political opposition by the Republican member of Congress.""

"The best and the worst things you hear about him are both true."

"On a raw November day in 1863, the Twenty-Fourth Wisconsin formed beneath Missionary Ridge outside Chattanooga, Tennessee. Union troops were trying to lift the siege of the town, but Confederate defenders were proving stubborn. Quite suddenly, without orders, Union regiments in the center of the line began to move up the ridge. When their wild advance was over, among the battle flags atop the crest was the standard of the Twenty-Fourth Wisconsin, carried there by its eighteen-year-old "boy colonel," Arthur MacArthur, whose son, Douglas, would spend most of his own military career trying to emulate his father's charge."

"Popular perception has long suggested that FDR favored the Navy over the Army, but when it came to budgets, deployments, and promotions, he was evenhanded as a commander in chief. On an emotional level, however, Roosevelt's combination inspection-fishing-vacation trips — such as he enjoyed aboard the cruiser Houston — were among his favorite occasions. And his long-standing relationships with the Navy's admirals, particularly the duty-minded Leahy, made him more comfortable having them around. This contrast is underscored by remembering that the Army Chief of Staff from 1930 to 1935 was Douglas MacArthur. The general was still trying to emulate his father's advance up to Missionary Ridge during the Civil War, and his visits to the White House often took on the aura of a state visit. FDR was not intimidated by MacArthur — or anyone else — but neither was he terribly comfortable with him. When MacArthur left Washington for the Philippines and Malin Craig, whom Roosevelt did not know well, became Army Chief of Staff, it was only natural that Roosevelt gravitated toward the loyal and understated Leahy as his chief military adviser."

"Nine hours later, after other Japanese air attacks against northern Luzon were reported, several hundred Mitsubishi bombers and Zero fighters roared over Clark Field outside Manila and destroyed the bulk of American airpower in the Philippines — MacArthur's air force — as it sat on the ground. Even after years of increasingly hostile Japanese intentions and fair evidence that something was building to a head in the Far East, some might be tempted to forgive MacArthur for being the victim of a surprise attack. But how could he still have his airplanes lined up wingtip to wingtip nine hours after being notified of the attack on Pearl Harbor? Two days later, with the Philippine skies largely void of defending planes, another Japanese air attack destroyed the American naval base at Cavite. MacArthur "might have made a better showing at the beaches and passes, and certainly he should have saved his planes on December 8," a newly appointed brigadier general who had long served as the general's aide confided to his diary. "But," wrote Dwight D. Eisenhower, "he's still the hero." The man was clearly fallible, but the legend was not. In the dark days of early 1942, when rallying cries and heroes were in short supply, the legend had to be preserved at all costs. FDR knew it. Leahy appears to have blindly affirmed it. King, Nimitz and Halsey would all come to grips with it in their own ways. But for now, America desperately needed a hero, and Douglas MacArthur was the man of the hour."

"Douglas MacArthur never acknowledged the basic tenet of American constitutional government: that the military is subordinate to civilian control. He moved quite easily between civil and military worlds because he saw himself at the apex of both. Indeed, Douglas MacArthur fought many military and political battles over the course of his career- winning some, losing others- but his greatest loss came in a campaign he waged his entire life: the one against himself. He was brilliant, charismatic, and decisive, but he was also manipulative, deceitful, and as egocentric as any military leader in American history- the "George trio" of George McClellan, George Armstrong Custer, and George S. Patton being his only close competition."

"Ironically, during four years of war, MacArthur may have owed the most to the very people he was certain were out to discredit and disparage him. While never among his fans, Franklin Roosevelt and George Marshall nonetheless consistently supported MacArthur within the framework of their global priorities, from the first efforts to resupply the Philippines to MacArthur's appointment as Allied supreme commander. Even then, where would MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area have been had not Ernie King urged the Joint Chiefs to pour resources into the Pacific and wage a two-front war?"

"On September 2, 1945, after four years of war, one thing was certain about Douglas MacArthur and his place in history. His rhetoric, however hyperbolic at times, and his characterization of events, however embellished his facts, had served to generate an enormous rallying cry for the American people in the dark days of 1942. Responsible though he was for much of the debacle in the Philippines, he had miraculously escaped on presidential orders, and the great majority in the Allied world was left with no doubt that he would return. He was their inspiration, their hope, and their synonym for victory over Japan. They saw only his stage-managed resolve, not the man behind the curtain."

"MacArthur carried with him an indomitable will to win. It was ingrained in his genes. It was his most laudable quality. There is, as he would say, no substitute for victory, a concept that was much clearer in World War II than it would become even five short years later in Korea. He fit the times perfectly. Douglas MacArthur's most important contribution to history was to be the hero who rallied America and its allies when they were at a low ebb and to become the symbol of determined resolve so desperately needed in the grim months of 1942. It was the role of a lifetime and, publicly, he played it brilliantly. That he came to believe more strongly through this experience in his perception of himself, and through this adulation judged it to be unequivocal, is to his discredit."

"George Marshall may well have sighed at the results of the March 1945 poll- not at his own place but at MacArthur's. Marshall, more than most, knew the whole story of MacArthur's war. It is a mark of Marshall's own greatness that he so deftly managed MacArthur's fiery comet and unselfishly used its brilliance to accomplish the objectives of a global war."

"Douglas MacArthur has been dead for over fifty years yet he remains one of the most controversial military figures of the twentieth century. His well-polished reputation was far from unanimously accepted among his contemporaries, and a half-century has done nothing to smooth the contradictions of his personality and his career. There remains no middle ground with Douglas MacArthur."

"Most importantly, in a fragile period of the American psyche when the general American public, still stunned by the shock of Pearl Harbor and uncertain what lay ahead in Europe, desperately needed a hero, they wholeheartedly embraced Douglas MacArthur—good press copy that he was. There simply were no other choices that came close to matching his mystique, not to mention his evocative lone-wolf stand—something that has always resonated with Americans."

"So Weinberger reported to MacArthur's headquarters in Brisbane, where he was a very junior officer on the staff of the legendary general. Nonetheless, he saw enough to have a full appreciation of MacArthur's brilliance. "I saw the plans for the invasion of Japan," Weinberger says. "The breadth and scope of MacArthur's brilliance. With very few troops, a couple of understrength divisions, and some Australian militia forces, he accomplished an enormous amount in the Pacific." The young intelligence officer also learned directly from MacArthur about judgment and decision making. Weinberger was on duty one night as American forces were moving on a small island, lightly occupied by the Japanese, to take it for a radio base. Suddenly, there were reports of a Japanese ship and Japanese aircraft in the vicinity. Weinberger thought he'd better take this information directly to MacArthur. "So I walked two blocks to his hotel," Weinberger remembers. "I got through the various security and gave him the message He came out in his bathrobe, looking just as erect and imposing as he did in full uniform, that magnificent posture, deep voice. He looked the message over carefully and said, 'Well, Lieutenant, what do you think?' I said, 'General, I think it's a coincidence that they're there. They don't seem to have hostile intent. I would go ahead with the landing.' General MacArthur said, 'That's what I think, too. Good night.'" Weinberger walked back through the night to his post "in fear and trembling — to see if I was wrong or not. Fortunately, it worked out.""

"By the time of the surrender of Corregidor on May 6, MacArthur and his family had escaped to Australia under direct orders from President Roosevelt. (They left Corregidor in the PT boat of Lieutenant John Bulkely, who received the Medal of Honor for his many daring missions in the Philippines in the months from December 8, 1941 to April 10, 1942.) In ordering MacArthur to leave his command, President Roosevelt and General George C. Marshall, his Army Chief of Staff, made a political calculation. They reasoned that an inspirational figure planning a return to his command from Australia was a much more potent force than a dead hero in the Philippines. In Australia General MacArthur was presented with the Medal of Honor. MacArthur had been personally courageous in the face of the bombing attacks on Corregidor, but he did not get the medal for any single specified act of bravery. His award is one of the few of the war that could be described as "symbolic," in large part because MacArthur's Philippine army was an inspiration to the American people during those dark days. MacArthur himself acknowledged this when he accepted the medal, saying that he felt it was "intended not so much for me personally as it is a recognition of the indomitable courage of the gallant army which it has been my honor to command." (MacArthur's medal came seventy-eight years after his father, Arthur, earned a Medal of Honor for rallying Northern troops on November 25, 1863, at Missionary Ridge, Tennessee, during the Civil War. Together the MacArthurs are the only father and son both to receive the Medal of Honor.)"

"Stepping off in Tokyo, I renewed an old acquaintance with General Douglas MacArthur, then Supreme Commander of the UN Forces. Ours really was an old acquaintanceship dating back to 1910, when my father, Charles C. Clark, then a major of infantry, was attending the Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. MacArthur, then a first lieutenant of engineers, used to visit our house regularly, but at the time of the meeting in Tokyo I hadn't seen him for forty years. As we shook hands, MacArthur asked, "How's your mother? Give her my love; I'm a great admirer of hers." I knew that the general's courtly inquiry would please my mother, who has had her husband or son in every big shoot from the Spanish-American War to Korea."

"MacArthur could not understand why we had permitted the enemy, the Chinese Communists, to have the advantage of a sanctuary as their base of supply and air operations. He expressed the strong conviction that had we carried the war to the Chinese with air attacks across the Yalu River, or even with the threat of such attacks, the war in Korea would have taken a course far more favorable to the United states and the United Nations. When the Chinese came into the war, masquerading their best armies as "volunteers," we should have hit them hard, MacArthur said. He said he couldn't conceive that our government would fail to retaliate when a nation came to war against us and crossed over the border into the country in which our troops were in battle. MacArthur was particularly bitter that his government had failed to do everything in its power to protect the American and Allied troops under his command when those men were menaced by the Chinese armies that were hurled into the Korean War. I fully agreed with MacArthur that we should not have allowed the enemy a sanctuary north of the Yalu. I have never changed my opinion."

"It was only two months later that President Truman relieved MacArthur of his command. I was at a camp in the Southern states on a field-training inspection tour at the time. Someone told me the news as I came out of my billet early in the morning. My first thought was, "I wonder if I'm going to get the job." The answer was yes — but not until about a year later. MacArthur's dismissal was not exactly unexpected in view of his feud with the Joint Chiefs of Staff. However, like most other officers in the Army, I was shocked at the abrupt termination of such a distinguished career."

"Arthur MacArthur's importance as a military leader grew as time went on. He became military governor of the Philippines in 1900. As a lieutenant general he served as Assistant Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army in 1906. He retired in 1909. His famous son, Douglas MacArthur, was also a Medal of Honor winner. He became the symbol of American determination to return to the Philippines after their seizure by Japanese forces in World War II. Thus, both father and son were famous generals, both served in the Philippines, and both were awarded the coveted Medal of Honor."

"Arthur MacArthur was the most flamboyantly egotistical man I had ever seen, until I met his son."

"During the war Westerners were told of the "child mind of the Jap conscript." After the war, the same newspapers and magazines spoke of "Seventy Million Problem Children"; and cartoonists had a field day depicting the Japanese as infants in the crib or, more often, children attending General MacArthur's School of Democracy. Such paternalism was unquestionably the essence of MacArthur's attitude toward the Japanese- and Oriental people in general. His guiding philosophy during the occupation, he stated widely in publicized Senate hearings in 1951, after President Truman had recalled him from Asia, had been to treat the Japanese as twelve-year-olds. This was not an incautious remark, for the former supreme commander went on to expound his position at some length, explaining in the process why he believed the Japanese might be more receptive to American-style democratic ideas than the "mature" Germans. "The German problem is a completely and entirely different one from the Japanese problem," MacArthur informed the senators. "The German people were a mature race. If the Anglo-Saxon was say 45 years of age in his development, in the sciences, the arts, divinity, culture, the Germans were quite as mature. The Japanese, however, in spite of their their antiquity measured by time, were in a very tuitionary condition. Measured by the standards of modern civization, they would be like a boy of 12 as compared with our development of 45 years. Like any tuitionary period, they were susceptible to following new models, new ideas. You can implant basic concepts there. They were still close enough to origin to be elastic and acceptable to new concepts...""

"In his distinctive way, MacArthur meant this as a compliment of sorts, in that he was attempting to convey why he believed democracy might take firmer root in postwar Japan than in Germany. The bluntness of the metaphor embarrassed the general's Japanese admirers, however, and- in one of history's smaller losses- prompted some of them to abandon plans for a Statue of Liberty-sized statue of the general in Tokyo Bay. The comment was not only a fair reflection of the supreme commander's outlook, however, but also helps illuminate the kind but frequently condescending premises of U.S. occupation policy in general. Such parent-child or teacher-student paternalism was reminiscent of Japan's own now discredited Co-Prosperity Sphere rhetoric, and had obvious roots in the Western colonial tradition exemplified by such phrases as "white man's burden" and "little brown brother". It was certainly not an attitude reserved for the Japanese alone, although MacArthur's imposing paternal presence made it especially conspicuous in the Japanese case."

"Another long message on "strategy" to MacArthur. He sent in one extolling the virtues of the flank offensive. Wonder what he thinks we've been studying for all these years. His lecture would be good for plebes."

"Spent the entire day preparing drafts of president's messages to MacArthur and Quezon. Long, difficult, and irritating. Both are babies."

"Message to MacArthur was approved by President and dispatched. I'm dubious about the thing. I cannot help believing that we are disturbed by editorials and reacting to "public opinion" rather than to military logic. "Pa" Watson is certain we must get MacArthur out, as being worth "five army corps." He is doing a good job where he is, but I'm doubtful that he'd do so well in more complicated situations. Bataan is made to order for him. It's in the public eye; it as made him a public hero; it has all the essentials of drama; and he is acknowledged king on the spot. If brought out, public opinion will force him into a position where his love of the limelight may ruin him."

"Corregidor surrendered last night. Poor Wainwright! He did the fighting... [MacArthur] got such glory as the public could find... MacArthur's tirades, to which TJ and I so often listened to in Manila, would now sound as silly to the public as they then did to us. But he's a hero! Yah."

"Another Decoration Day finds us still adding to the number of graves that will be decorated in future years. Men are stupid. MacArthur seems to have retired into the Waldorf Towers, from which stronghold he issues statements and occasionally emerges to see a baseball game. The first he does through Whitney — who, I think, is one of the Old Chief's mistakes. I cannot much blame MacA.— I get the impression that he is in a state of "watchful waiting." For what, I wouldn't know, but I do know that in his position I'd be after the bass of Wisconsin, the trout of Wyoming, or vacationing on the beach. Recently I wrote to him — had a nice reply. While I'm determined to stay aloof from all the current snarling and fighting in the United States, I'm most of all determined never to get into the "personality" kind of argument. In that respect the military men (especially including MacA.) have been exemplary."

"General Douglas MacArthur, a 1903 graduate of the Military Academy and former superintendent, was convinced that athletic programs were a key component in cadet development because commissioned officers must rely on teamwork and prompt decision-making on the battlefield. His famous quote, "Upon the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that, on other days, will bear the fruits of victory" was prominently displayed at the entrance to Arvin Gymnasium. As superintendent, he directed that all cadets participate in competitive athletics."

"While at the preparatory school for the Military Academy, I noticed a poster in the supply room that read "Stairway to the Stars." On the first riser was "West Point," on the next "Second Lieutenant," and so forth until, near the top, five stars blazed like a royal diadem. The year was 1953, and some wag had inked in "President" over the stars, obviously referring to Eisenhower. Not to be outdone, another wag added "God" above that, apparently referring to MacArthur. I still laugh at this because there is a grain of truth to most philosophical humor. MacArthur was not immortal, but he was one of those rare military figures that will be remembered and written about for millennia."

"The one who came closest to Admiral King in his basic view that the Japanese should be kept under constant pressure was not a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff but the Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, General MacArthur. Although his role was to recommend and then accept a decision from the JCS, and many of his views on strategy differed sharply from those endorsed by the JCS, his repeated efforts to get more support for his area of command and to push ahead as rapidly and with as much force as possible helped to insure that the war against Japan did not become a forgotten war and were largely responsible for the development of the advance on two axes."

"In this man is the uncompromising will to win, and the character and integrity to lead his country to victory on the battlefields of the world. The respect of the world is his. Men and nations know that when others may fail they can always turn to him for leadership and victory."

"During the Korean War, MacArthur was a law unto himself, in matters both big and small. He quarreled defiantly in public with President Truman, agitating for nuclear war. In their eventual confrontation on Wake Island, MacArthur went so far as to arrive first and then order the president's approaching plane into a holding pattern. MacArthur's commander in chief would thus arrive on the landing strip appearing to be MacArthur's supplicant. In explaining why he subsequently relieved MacArthur of his command, Truman said, "I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the president. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals." Truman was arguably pulling his punches. He could have easily called MacArthur an asshole."

"General, I have a lot riding on you. I hope you don't pull a MacArthur on me."

"MacArthur was a flamboyant character who made sure the people back home knew what he was doing to win the war. He was a great publicist but he made many enemies. Generals Marshall and Eisenhower disliked him and even President Roosevelt, resentful of his popularity, did not wish him to have the limelight. After the war he ruled Japan as an all-powerful potentate but he overstepped the mark in Korea which led to his downfall."

"The spectacle of the United States Army routing unarmed citizens with tanks and firebrands outraged many Americans. The Bonus Army episode came to symbolize Hoover's supposed insensitivity to the plight of the unemployed. In fact the worst violence, resulting in two deaths, had come at the hands of the district police, not the federal troops, and the blame for the torching of Anacostia Flats was MacArthur's, not Hoover's. But Hoover chose to ignore MacArthur's insubordination and assumed full responsibility for the army's actions."

"For a time they had worked closely and harmoniously together, and as a writer Eisenhower may even have been at least a co-inventor of the florid MacArthurian prose style. "You know that General MacArthur got quite a reputation as a silver-tongued speaker when he was in the Philippines," Eisenhower wrote to a friend. "Who do you think wrote his speeches? I did." MacArthur was Eisenhower's first exposure to a senior officer who chose not to draw a clear-cut distinction between the military and the political in Washington's commingling of the two, who had a wide acquaintance with people in every branch of government. "Working with him brought an additional dimension to my experience," said Eisenhower. MacArthur was aware that Eisenhower had been directing the War Department efforts to reinforce him but ignored this, and his reaction to Eisenhower's progress toward eminence in Europe was a mixture of envy and something close to paranoia. MacArthur told his British liaison officer, Gerald Wilkinson, that Eisenhower had not been "wholly loyal" and that for this reason MacArthur had not kept him on in the Philippines when his term was up. (Eisenhower says the opposite: that he requested to be let go and that MacArthur tried to persuade him to stay on; given the choice, belief inclines toward Eisenhower.) MacArthur told Wilkinson that he thought Eisenhower, "spotting White House jealousy of himself (MacA) has enhanced his own position by feeding the White House with anti-MacA data- a delusion on MacArthur's part, to say the least."

"MacArthur described Eisenhower to Wilkinson as "the ablest officer he has ever known at absorbing 30 minutes detailed description of an idea (or plan or strategic conception?) and getting the whole thing out on paper- orders, arrangements etc etc- in 10 minutes." According to Wilkinson's journal, MacArthur said that Eisenhower was "ambitious, clever, hard-working (an excellent bridge player)... a brilliant executive of someone else's thought but not- as far as MacA knows- in any way an original mind- and no fighting experience.... Eisenhower in turn had no illusions about MacArthur but acknowledged the power of the man's personality and his capacity for leadership. When Eisenhower took command in the European theater, an off-the-record dinner was arranged for him in London to meet a group of American correspondents, who quizzed him about MacArthur. Eisenhower described the now-familiar characteristics- the ego, the love of the limelight, the self-dramatization, the unstable temperament- and then added: "Yet, if that door opened at this moment, and General MacArthur was standing there, and he said 'Ike, follow me,' I'd get up and follow him." Of Eisenhower's respect for Marshall there can be no doubt; he told Beetle Smith that he wouldn't trade Marshall for fifty MacArthurs. ("My God," the thought came to him, "that would be a lousy deal. What would I do with fifty MacArthurs?")"

"It was disturbing to see that General Westmoreland kept asking for additional troops without any clear objective. During the Korean War, Douglas MacArthur requested permission to cross the Yalu River to invade Manchuria. He was fired. General Westmoreland kept asking for new troops and didn't know what to do with them. He was later promoted to Army Chief of Staff. This was the sign of the times. It was unfortunate that we did not have generals in Viet Nam of MacArthur's caliber who knew what the objectives were and how to achieve them."

"In the Pacific we gave our enemies a costly lesson in amphibious warfare, just as in Europe we, with our allies, demonstrated successful coalition warfare. The performance of all branches of the services in Europe under General Eisenhower, in the central and southern Pacific under Admiral Nimitz, and in the southwestern Pacific under General MacArthur brought glory to themselves and to their country."

"[MacArthur's "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech was of] such a superlative quality of excellence... that there is no other individual... capable of preparing and delivering a comparable address... The public enthusiasm for General MacArthur in San Francisco and in Washington was a triumph beyond anything that I have ever seen anywhere for anybody, which seems strange in view of his recent summary detachment by President Truman. If the general's popularity persists for a considerable time, it should actively effect a change in the country's domestic political policy, and it might have a radical effect on the complexion of domestic political development. From a purely military point of view it appears that General MacArthur's attitude will be fully accepted by all qualified military authorities."

"Korea was a sideshow for me. Truman and later Eisenhower both negotiated the peace treaty, which I thought was bullshit, because there was no way the North could sustain the pain and suffering that we could inflict from the air. I also doubted that the Russians would go into full war mode over North Korea, even if I vaporized China. Omar Bradley agreed with me, and he said that "Ike is a politician now, not a soldier." Just like my plan for the Soviet Union, I would have bombed their air bases, industrial sites, and military installations, and after the first few waves did not get the point across, a single tactical atomic drop would have definitely made the point. Sadly, [Major General] Orvil Anderson proposed the same method, and was fired for his objective yet, in my opinion, very astute opinion. But after the Chinese came into it, that was what really got MacArthur relieved of his command. He thought like me on that level: just destroy the fuckers and end this stupid shit. Truman was not of that mind-set, and neither was Ike. I think both feared that such a bold move would force the Russians into it. Stalin had just died, and there was a new Soviet leadership. We knew and understood how Stalin thought, but we did not have a lot of intel on the new head honcho, Nikita Krushchev. He would become a prick, too."

"MacArthur was imperialistic, almost self-godlike, and he always remained aloof from his soldiers. You were never going to see old Mac sitting in the damned mud, swatting flies and mosquitoes, eating rancid chow in a pouring tropical rain. Oh no. His ass was in a nice house or office with water buffalo steaks and red wine. I have to say that he was just about the only senior flag officer I can say that about, personal experience. All the others I have mentioned shared the misery, even Patton. He lived well per his rank, but he gave up his jeep to send wounded men back to an aid station in Sicily and walked on foot as the Germans shot at his men."

"In the early 1920s his chauffeur was driving him along the west bank of the Hudson when a man with a flashlight stepped into the road and waved them to a stop. Producing a pistol, he demanded the brigadier's wallet. "You don't get it as easy as that," MacArthur said. "I've got around forty dollars, but you'll have to whip me to get it. I'm coming out of this car, and I'll fight you for it." The thug threatened to kill him. MacArthur said, "Sure, you can shoot me, but if you do they'll run you down and fry you in the big house. Put down that gun, and I'll come out and fight you fair and square for my money. My name is MacArthur, and I live —" The man lowered his gun. He said, "My God, why didn't you tell me that in the first place? Why, I was in the Rainbow. I was a sergeant in Wild Bill Donovan's outfit. My God, General, I'm sorry. I apologize." MacArthur told his driver to proceed, and when he reached West Point he made no attempt to notify the police."

"Back and forth the fantastic tableaux would spin, past his cruel plebe hazing, the self-discovery at the West Texas Military Academy, the patriarchal Judge MacArthur, all beard and cigar smoke, presiding over dynastic feats at Washington's 1201 N Street; the chimes of the drawing-room clock there telling off the quarters; the ceremonial changing of the guard at Leavenworth; his father's tales of Sherman's dauntless Boys in Blue; his mother's imperious commands to fight and fight and never lower his blade short of victory; the clean crack of Krag rifles and the warm prickling of desert sand as he played with his brother outside the fort stockade; the rumbling of the sunset gun and Pinky's face tilting downward, her lambent smile gilding the child's upturned features while he clutched at her cascading skirts; the yellow notes of the bugles as he stirred in his cradle; the chant of sergeants hawking cadence on the parade ground outside; and, snapping proudly in the overarching sky above him, the flag, and the flag, and the flag."

"History gives us ample precedence for making decisions at the speed of relevance. In 1941, General Douglas MacArthur was planning a landing in the Southwest Pacific. He wrote to Admiral William Halsey, in charge of the South Pacific, asking for a naval campaign to divert the Japanese forces. Only two days later, Halsey wrote back, pledging his support. There was no need for extended exchanges between staffs. The shared objective was to shatter the Japanese forces. All else was secondary. Two strong-willed commanders collaborated to unleash hell upon the enemy."

"In 1931 a new chief of staff, the charismatic Douglas MacArthur, began to shift War Department priorities toward modernizing and training only the most active portions of the Army of the United States. A controversial officer noted for his imperious treatment of existing Army plans and values, MacArthur directed the General Staff to focus on specific war plans or "probable conflicts" and to increase the president's ability to order a partial mobilization on a discretionary basis, meaning free of congressional interference. By 1934 the General Staff had consolidated the paper army active and reserve into a twenty-two division force, organized into four field armies, of regulars and National Guardsmen. Instead of emphasizing the organization of a mass army to protect the United States from invasion, MacArthur wanted the War Department's funds to go to an "Initial Protective Force" of 400,000 soldiers that could respond to a real crisis, especially a war with Japan. Continued by his successor, Malin Craig, MacArthur's approach- the Protective Mobilization Plan- included a series of six-year programs designed to modernize the regular Army and Guard. The latter force made steady progress in the interwar period, for in 1924 the federal government began to pay the Guardsmen for weekly drills. In 1933 additional legislation ensured that mobilized Guard units would not be broken up and required that Guard officers hold federal reserve commissions and meet regular Army standards in order to draw drill pay."

"Bitterly disappointed by his defeat at the hands of the Chinese, MacArthur pressured the administration to accept his own war aims. Marshaling heroic rhetoric- "There is no substitute for victory"- the general conducted a political campaign to open Communist China to direct attack by his own forces and the Chinese Nationalists. He continued to hint darkly about the use of nuclear weapons, an option Truman never seriously considered. Incident mounted after incident: Indiscreet press conferences, unauthorized contacts with Chiang Kai-shek, inappropriate challenges to the Communists, provocative correspondence with veterans' groups and Republican congressional leaders, dark hints of treason by the UN allies, especially Britain. With the full approval of Acheson, the new Secretary of Defense George C. Marshall, and the JCS, Truman finally relieved MacArthur and ordered him home in April 1951. Buoyed by his enthusiastic public reception and bathed in martyrdom, MacArthur took his case to Congress."

"In a memorable public address to both houses, he accused the administration of appeasement and defeatism before promising to fade away like an old soldier in a barracks ballad. Like most MacArthur predictions, the promise to disappear proved flawed, since the Senate held hearings on the war and defense policy. MacArthur produced harsh words and limited enlightenment but could not reverse the administration's policy of limiting the war. As JCS Chairman General of the Army Omar Bradley stated, MacArthur's wider war was "the wrong war, war at the wrong place, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy." The concept that a theater commander could dictate global policy seemed to endanger the principle of civilian control as well as the professional stature of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Acutely aware that MacArthur's proposals endangered his rearmament program and the development of NATO, Truman summed up the issue: "General MacArthur was ready to risk general war. I was not." MacArthur faded away after a weak showing in the early presidential primaries of 1952. The war went on without him."

"Japan fared no better [than Germany]. The United States took over the country, installed a military dictatorship under General Douglas MacArthur, and ruled the country with an iron fist. It is no accident that William Manchester titled his biography of MacArthur American Caesar. That MacArthur ruled wisely is a testimony to his observance of American heritage and democratic principles but should not obscure the fact that his rule was total. MacArthur ruled like a neocolonial military dictator possessing complete executive and legislative authority. "I could by fiat issue directives," he informed the U.S. Senate, and he did."

"Many years before Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur, there was another prima donna general, the renowned John C. Frémont. For issuing orders authorizing the emancipation of slaves in Missouri without presidential permission, Lincoln fired him on the spot. As for MacArthur, he should have known better: the same thing had also happened to his own father. Back in the early 1900s, General Arthur MacArthur, military governor of the Philippines, made the stupid mistake of not recognizing the superior authority of the civilian governor, William Howard Taft, who later became president. Years later, when MacArthur's turn came to be promoted to Army Chief of Staff, Taft blackballed him."