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1952 to Death

In the 1952 Republican presidential nomination contest, MacArthur was not a candidate and instead endorsed Senator Robert Taft of Ohio; rumors were rife Taft offered the vice presidential nomination to MacArthur. Taft did persuade MacArthur to be the keynote speaker at the 1952 Republican National Convention. The speech was not well received. Taft lost the nomination to Eisenhower; MacArthur was silent during the campaign, which Eisenhower won by a landslide. Once elected, Eisenhower consulted with MacArthur and adopted his suggestion of threatening the use of nuclear weapons to end the war.

In 1956, Congressman Joseph William Martin, Jr. introduced a proposal to elevate MacArthur to six star rank. This caused problems for President Eisenhower, and the issue died in the Senate. MacArthur became head of Remington Rand Corporation and spent the remainder of his life in New York.

MacArthur and his second wife, Jean Marie Faircloth MacArthur, spent the last years of their life together in the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers (a part of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel), a gift from Conrad Hilton, the owner of the hotel.

The Waldorf became the setting for an annual birthday party on January 26, thrown by the general's former deputy chief engineer, Major General Leif J. Sverdrup. At the 1960 celebration for MacArthur's 80th, many of his friends were startled by the general's obviously deteriorating health; the next day he collapsed and was rushed into surgery at St. Luke's Hospital to control a severely swollen prostate.

After his recovery, MacArthur methodically began to carry out the closing act of his life. He visited the White House for a final reunion with Eisenhower. In 1961, he made a "sentimental journey" to the Philippines, where he was decorated by President Carlos P. Garcia with the Philippine Legion of Honor, rank of Chief Commander. MacArthur also accepted a $900,000 advance from Henry Luce for the rights to his memoirs, and began writing the volume that would eventually be published as Reminiscences.

President John F. Kennedy solicited MacArthur's counsel in 1961. The first of two meetings was shortly after the Bay of Pigs Invasion. MacArthur was extremely critical of the Pentagon and its military advice to Kennedy. MacArthur also cautioned the young President to avoid a U.S. military build-up in Vietnam, pointing out domestic problems should be given a much greater priority. Shortly prior to his death he gave similar advice to the new President, Lyndon Johnson.

In 1962, West Point honored the increasingly frail MacArthur with the Sylvanus Thayer Award, an award for outstanding service to the nation; the year before, the award had gone to Eisenhower. MacArthur's speech to the cadets in accepting the award had as its theme Duty, Honor, Country:

The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps. I bid you farewell."

MacArthur spent the last years of his life finishing his memoirs; he died on April 5, 1964, of biliary cirrhosis, before their publication in book form - they had begun to appear in serialized form in Life Magazine in the months just prior to his death. After he died, his wife Jean continued to live in the Waldorf Towers penthouse until her own death. The couple are entombed together in downtown Norfolk, Virginia; their burial site is in the rotunda of a museum (formerly the Norfolk City Hall) dedicated to his memory, and there is a shopping mall (MacArthur Center) named for him across the street from the memorial. General MacArthur chose to be buried in Norfolk because of his mother's ancestral ties to the city.

MacArthur wanted his family to remember him for more than being a soldier. He said, "By profession I am a soldier and take pride in that fact. But I am prouder—infinitely prouder—to be a father. A soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, 'Our Father who art in heaven."MacArthur's nephew, Douglas MacArthur II (a son of his brother Arthur) served as a diplomat for several years, including the post of Ambassador to Japan and several other countries.

Return to America

MacArthur returned to Washington, D.C. (his first time in the continental U.S. in 11 years), where he made his last public appearance in a farewell address to the U.S. Congress, interrupted by thirty ovations. In his closing speech, he recalled: "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away... And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away — an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-bye."

In 1945, MacArthur gave his Gold Castles engineers' insignia to his chief engineer, Jack Sverdrup. This insignia continues to be worn by the Army's Chief of Engineers as a tradition.

On his return from Korea, after his relief by Truman, MacArthur encountered massive public adulation, which aroused expectations that he would run for the presidency as a Republican in the 1952 election. However, a U.S. Senate Committee investigation of his removal (which largely vindicated the actions taken by President Truman), chaired by Democrat Richard Russell, contributed to a marked cooling of the public mood, and hopes for a MacArthur presidential run died away. MacArthur, in Reminiscences, repeatedly stated he had no political aspirations.

The UN Divisions

MacArthur divided the UN forces under his command into two groups. One group included the Eighth Army under the command of Lt. Gen. Walton H, Walker and X Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Edward M. Almond. They were directed to head north toward the Chinese border. The first prize of the campaign was Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. A race developed between the American and South Korean units for the honor of capturing the city. When the South Koreans reached Pyongyang on October 20, however, the event in the Soviet embassy had already fled the rubble-strewn city. One soldier reported that the "single prize was a waterhouse chock-full of canned food and whiskey, which the hungry GIs greedily devoured." MacArthur was delighted with the success of his forces and urged them to move at full speed toward the Yalu River, the dividing line between North Korea and the Chinese province of Machurian. In defiance of specific instructions to the contrary, MacArthur ordered both American and ROK forces to move toward the Chinese border. The Eighth Army under General Walker proceeded up the west coast of the Korean peninsula. X Corps,

largely marines and some ROK divisions, under General Almond headed north along the narrow, steep, mountainous trails on the east side of the peninsula. These troops were to arrive at the border from two directions. By proceeding in this manner, General MacArthur violated some of the most basic rules of military science. He divided his small force and sent them against the potential might of the Chinese troops, who were close to their own base of supplies. Moreover, the Eighth Army and X Corps could not communicate by phone because of the height of the hills separating them. They could not assist one another in case of attack because they were separated by a twenty-to-thirty-mile gap. MacArthur began to receive reports from his field commanders that they had seen Chinese soldiers among the North Korean troops. But MacArthur urged the UN forces on until one American unit from the Eighth Army acually reached the Yalu River late in Octover 1950. On returning from the Yalu, that unit was surrouned by Chinese forces and largely destroyed in a savage attack. The Chinese then engaged other units in an action that lasted four days. Then, in one of the strangest events of military history, the victorious Chinese communist forces left the field of battle on November 6. French troops reported seeing them withdraw into the hills. They had disappeared. Acheson told President Truman in Washington that "they seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth." From Tokyo, MacArthur took this deprture to mean that only a few Chinese soldiers stood between the UN forces and the Yalu River and complete victory. He did not see it as a warning of the potential strength of the enemy. Nor did he remember his instructions to withdraw rather than engage Chinese troops. Boldly, MacArthur announced the beginning of what he and most people believed would be the final campaign of the Korean War. On November 24, MacArthur launched his "home by Christmas" campaign.

MacArthur's Limitations

With the sanction of the United Nations, the American Joint Cheifs of Staff directed General MacArthur to proceed north across the 38th parallel. THe general was not given a completely free hand, however. There was some fear that either China or the Soviet Union might enter the conflict, an event that all concerned wished to avoid. THerefore, MacArthur's instructions contained limitations. He could move north of the 38th parallel and try to destroy the North Korean army with the objective of unifying Korea. But these instructions should not be followed if MacArthur's forces encountered Soviet of Chinese troops. MacArthur was told not to cross the Manchurian border that separated North from communist China. He was denied permission to use Chang Kai-shek's Chinese troops on Formosa because this act would anger the Chinese communists. He was to use only South Korean troops, not American soldiers or marines, near the Manchurian border in order to avoid Chinese freas of an American invasion of China. President Truman felt uneasy about MacArthur's willingness to ovserve these limitations. He feared that MacArthur might ignore his instructions and press on even if he did encounter Chinese troops. This fear was prompted by the fact that MacArthur had publicly announced that he did not agree with the UN objectives. So on October 15, 1950, Truman flew to Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean to meet with MacArthur. Neither man looked forward to the encounter. On the way to the Wake Island meeting, the president wrote to a family member that he was off to "talk to God's right hand man." Before leaving Tokyo, the general made reference to "the damned State Department, Truman and Communists." MacArthur would remain on guard against the evil, people in control. At Wake Island, Truman emphasized that the United Nations had only limited objectives, namely, the liberation of Korea and, If possible, the establishmet of a democratic government under Syngman Rhee. MacArthur assured the president that he inteded to carefully follow these instructions. The general told the president he did not expect the Chinese to intervene. MacArthur told Truman that at most, the Chinese could put sixty thousand troops into the field and that the UN forces could destroy such a force as soon as it crossed the Yalu River and entered Korea. General MacArthur also told Truman that he anticipated his operation would be completed by Thanksgiving and that American troops would leave Korea soon after. Truman accepted MacArthur's assessment. He wanted MacArthur to be right because he hoped to gain political support as a result of a successful conclusion to the Korean conflict. Besides, MacArthur's opinions on the Chinese situation were shared by some of Truman's own advisers. As recently as September 13, 1950, Dean Acheson had expressed similar views on the subjectof communist China: I should think it would be sheer madness on the part of the Chinese Communists to [Interfere]. Now, I give the people in Beijing credit for being intelligent enough to see what is happening to them. Why they would want to further their own dismemberment and destruction by getting at cross purposes with all the free nations of the world who are inherently their friends and have always been the friends of the Chinese against this imperialism coming down from the Soviet Union I cannot see.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff seemed to be in agreement. Indeed, Gen. Omar Bradley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told the president that "no unilateral move by Red China" could be expected because the country "lacked the military power." Clearly, Bradley discounted the possibility of a Chinese attack. So UN troops, under the overall direction of MacArthur in Tokyo, prepared to march north. MacArthur flew to Korea to see the campaign get started. He gathered together his corps commanders for an encouraging send-off. "Gentlemen," MacArthur told his officers,

The war is over. The Chinese are not coming into this war.- In less than two weeks the Eighth army will close on the Yalu across the entire front. The 3rd Division will be back at Fort Benning for Christmas dinner.

UN Goals Change

Now, however, the objective of the war changed. In June 1950, the independence of South Korea had been at stake. But back in 1948, the United Nations had wanted to oversee elections to unite the country. In September 1950, the UN desire to unify Korea reemerged.
The goal was strongly supported by the United States as well. Through their friends in the United Nations, the Chinese communists
issued a public warning to the United States against an American advance north of the 38th parallel. The UN secretary general. Trygve Lie, however, believed that the United States had no choice but to act on behalf of the United Nations' intention to unify Korea. Lie therefore declared that the United Nations had "no alternative to an advance north of the 38th parallel." On October 7, the United Nations General Assembly adopted an American- sponsored resolution stating that it wished to see "a unified, independent, democratic Korea be established."

The Benefits of Inchoen

The Inchoen landing was an enormous gamble and an enormous success for MacArthur. Not only was Seoul regained but, more important, MacArthur established the UN force in a powerful strategic position. It was far to the north of the majority of the 100,000 North Koreans who were now cut off from satety. All MacArthur had to do was capture that army and the war would be over.
The Inchoen landing was the high point of MacArthur's career. The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington were astounded by his uncanny insight and understanding of the enemy, who had continued to be drawn toward Pusan in the south for the final kill. The American people love a successful general, and MacArthur became one of their favorites. MacArthur's success at Inchoen made it difficult for the Joint Chiefs to challenge his decisions in the future. Unfortunately, after September 15, 1950, MacArthur made a series of extraordinarily unwise decisions. One of these unfortunate decisions came immediately after the Inchoen landing. MacArthur wanted to destroy the North Korean army still in the south. North Korean generals withheld news of the Inchoen landing because they wanted the NKPA to keep up the attack against Pusan. But when the news could be concealed no longer , the army desperately tried to escape north. All MacArthur had to do to prevent the escape was to send UN troops east across the Korean peninsula and cut off all escape
routes. Instead, the general decided to put American troops at Inchoen on ships, transport them by sea around the southern coast of Korea, and land them at the east coast port of Wonsan. But the port of Wonsan was heavily mined, and the UN forces were not able to stop many of the veteran North Korean soldiers from escaping. Perhaps as many as thirty thousand North Korean soldiers managed to escape through the mountain passes. Despite this setback, the United Nations had achieved its initial goal. By the end of September 1950, UN forces had reached the 38th parallel and had reestablished South Korean Independence.

An Insane Plan

MacArthur's most difficult task was to convince the navy and marines that his plan would work. THe chiefs of the navy and marines balked at the thought of landing men in possible thirty-five-foot tides. They had to develop special equipment for defusing mines that they believed were in the harbor. They would also need special scaling ladders to climb the high walls protecting the harbor. Elaborate equipment was required for the advance parties of marines who would have to be landed first and would hold the sea approaches until the actual fighting troops arrived. Miraculously, all went as scheduled. The guns guarding the harbor were destroyed , and the first assault forces landed with few casualties. They captured the high ground overlooking the city and also the railroad line and main highway between Seoul and Inchoen. Once these were captured, enemy troops were prevented from entering or leaving Inchoen. When the main attack began, the sky over Inchoen was literally darkened by the huge number of aircraft that protected the assaulting forces and stopped possible enemy troops from interfering with the invasion from the land side of the harbor. One juournalist observing the landing wrote, "It possessed the drama and excitement of great assemblages of men and means brought together to carry out huge common purpose." Only sixteen hundred North Koreans were stationed in Inchoen to oppose the UN force of more than seventy thousand. Clearly, such a small force could do little to prevent the UN forces from taking Inchoen. With Inchoen secured, U.S. Marines raced for the Kimpo airport, which was also lightly guarded. It fell quickly to the UN troops.
September 15, 1950, turned out to be a spectacularly succeessful day for the UN forces. By day's end, the well-equipped and well-trained assault forces had overcome all obstacles in the harbor and had completed one of the most successful amphibious, or combined land and sea, operation in history. With the port and the airport secured, UN troops continued on to Seoul. They wanted to regain the city before the NKPA could send massive reinforcements. The attack on Seoul began on September 22, 1950. At first, the UN forces attacked on a narrow front that permitted the NKPA to concentrate machine guns and artilleryon the attackers. There were gruesome exchanges among the NKPA, UN forces, and American Corsair airplanes helping to destroy the enemy. UN forces then proceeded to approach the city from many fronts, which prevented the small North Korean force of eight thousand from concentrating its artillery in any one place. By September 26, the city was sealed off, and the fight for Seoul was fought from street to street with high casualties on both sides. Seoul fell to the UN troops on September 27. On September 29, General MacArthur led President Syngman Rhee back into the capital city.

"I Can Handle Them"

Douglas MacArthur, directing the UN forces, was determined not to let South Korea fall to North Korea. Supremely, confident of his own abilities, he announced, "If Washington will not hobble me, I can handle them [the North Koreans] with one hand tied behind my back." MacArthur, like many ohter Americans in Southeast Asia, was a victim of the "gook syndrome," which led him to believe that in all things, Americans were superior to Asians. The general
set out to prove the truth of his boast. He conceived a brilliiant but farfetched plan to prevent the destruction of South Korea. He decided to land a UN army far to the north, behind the North Korean army concentrated around Pusan. If successful, MacArthur would take the pressure off the desperate ROK and American forces trapped at Pusan. His army could then cut off the retreat of the North Korean armies in the south and destroy them before they could escape
back across the 38th parallel. MacArthur's plan was given the secret code name Operation Chromite. The area in the north where the UN troops were to land
was the port of Inchoen. Inchoen is on the west coast of Korea, just a few miles west of Soeul and about one hundred miles north of where nearly 100,000
North Korean forces were located. All indications were that such a mission would be a failure. The approaches to Inchoen Harbor are treacherous. There are huge tidal changes, underwater islands in the approach channels, and enormous mud flats that can strand boats and men. In addition, the North Koreans
had heavy guns placed on Wolmi-do Island in the mouth of the harbor. These, in turn, defended the high walls that guarded Inchoen Harbor itself. According
to Gen. Matthew B. Ridgway, Operation Chromite was a "fice thousnadto one gamble," and military leaders in Washington only reluctantly gave their consent
to the plan. Operation Chromite would be a truly international undertaking. Troops form Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the Netherlands joined the Americans and South Koreans, The Inchoen landing was massive. It required great attention to detail in its planning stages. More than two hundred ships
and countless planes were to take part in the daring operation.

Gook Syndrome

The American people were very satisfied with themselves when the Korean War began. Many believed that Americans produced the best of everything and
because of their victory in World War II had earned the right to dominate less industrially developed nations. Unfortunately, many Americans had no appreciation of the differences among cultures and had no understanding of people who were not American. These views were especially strong among
the American soldiers who fought in the Korean War. Many of these soldiers had not been able to fit into traditional American society and so had joined
the army. Now, they found themselves in an Asian country that they did not understand. Many of these young men exhibited what the military establishment
called the ''gook syndrome." These soldiers considered the Koreans and Chinese to be inferior people and believed they could be pushed aside and discounted. The soldiers called the Asians "gooks," a derogatory name. The United States also considered the Korean military to be inferior to the American
army. The American soldiers discounted the fighting ability of the North Koreans and the Chinese, which led to carelessness and almost disaster.
American armies were overrun and almost destroyed on several occasions by Norht Korean and Chinese forces which were less well-armed, less well-fed,
and less well-clothed. This "gook syndrome" was shared by soldiers and officers alike. Indeed, the soldiers may have picked up many of their prejudices
from the officers who led them. Gen. George Barth, for example, could not hide his contempt for the Asian enemy. He arrived with the first troops from Japan,
the Twenty-fourth Division. On July 5, 1950, Barth told a news reporter, "The Commie bastards will turn and run when they're up against our boys. We'll be
back in Seoul again by the weekend." H concluded his remarks by adding that he and his troops were "going to kick some gooks and get out."

Korean War

In 1945, as part of the surrender of Japan, the United States agreed with the Soviet Union to divide the Korean peninsula into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel north. This resulted in the creation of two states: the western-aligned Republic of Korea (ROK) (usually referred to as South Korea), and the Soviet-aligned and Communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) (usually referred to as North Korea). After the surprise attack by the DPRK on June 25, 1950 started the Korean War, the United Nations Security Council authorized a United Nations (UN) force to help South Korea. MacArthur, as US theater commander, became commander of the UN forces. In September, despite lingering concerns from superiors, MacArthur's army and marine troops made a daring and successful combined amphibious landing at Incheon, deep behind North Korean lines. Launched with naval and close air support, the daring landing outflanked the North Koreans, forcing them to retreat northward in disarray. UN forces pursued the DPRK forces, eventually approaching the Yalu River border with China. MacArthur boasted: "The war is over. The Chinese are not coming... The Third Division will be back in Fort Benning for Christmas dinner."
With the DPRK forces largely destroyed, troops of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) quietly crossed the Yalu River. Chinese foreign minister Zhou Enlai issued warnings via India's foreign minister, Krishna Menon, that an advance to the Yalu would force China into the war. When questioned about this threat by President Truman and Secretary of State Dean Acheson, MacArthur dismissed it completely. MacArthur's staff ignored battlefield evidence that PLA troops had entered North Korea in strength. The Chinese moved through the snowy hills, struck hard, and routed the UN forces, forcing them on a long retreat. Calling the Chinese attack the beginning of "an entirely new war," MacArthur repeatedly requested authorization to strike Chinese bases in Manchuria, inside China. Truman was concerned that such actions would draw the Soviet Union into the conflict and risk nuclear war.

Chief of Staff

MacArthur finished his tour as Chief of Staff in October 1935. MacArthur's main programs included the development of new mobilization plans, the activation of a centralized air command (the General Headquarters Air Force), and a four-army reorganization which improved administrative efficiency. He supported the New Deal by enthusiastically operating the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). He brought along many talented mid-career officers, including George C. Marshall, and Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, MacArthur's support for a strong military and his public criticism of pacifism and isolationism made him unpopular with the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Following his retirement in December 1937, he reverted to his permanent grade of major general, and accepted an offer in the Philippines.

Who is MacArthur?

Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, GCB (January 26, 1880 – April 5, 1964) was an American general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and later played a prominent role in the Pacific theater of World War II, one of the war's most decorated soldiers, receiving the Medal of Honor for his early service in the Philippines and on the Bataan Peninsula. He was designated to command the proposed invasion of Japan in November 1945. When that was no longer necessary, he officially accepted the nation's surrender on September 2, 1945.

MacArthur oversaw the Occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. Although criticized for protecting Emperor Hirohito and the imperial family from prosecution for war crimes, MacArthur is credited with implementing far-reaching democratic reforms in that country. He led the United Nations Command forces defending South Korea against the North Korean invasion from 1950 to 1951. On April 11, 1951 MacArthur was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman for publicly disagreeing with Truman's Korean War Policy.

MacArthur is credited with the military dictum, "In war, there is no substitute for victory," but he also warned, "The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war." He fought in three major wars (World War I, World War II, Korean War) and was one of only five men ever to rise to the rank of General of the Army.