General Macarthur Quotes

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Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -- kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervor -- with the cry of grave national emergency... Always there has been some terrible evil to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it by furnishing the exorbitant sums demanded. Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.
Douglas MacArthur
There is no substitute for victory.” – Douglas MacArthur
Charles River Editors (American Legends: The Life of General Douglas MacArthur)
There never was a champion who, to himself, was a good loser. There is a vast difference between a good sport and a good loser.” In Blaik’s opinion the “purpose of the game is to win. To dilute the will to win is to destroy the purpose of the game.” In this, as in most matters, he was influenced by General MacArthur. He never forgot MacArthur’s words: “There is no substitute for victory.
David Maraniss (When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardi)
General Macarthur said sharply: 'Of course it won´t come. We´re counting on the motor-boat to take us off the island. That´s the meaning of the whole business. We´re not going to leave the island...None of us will ever leave...It´s the end, you see-the end of everything...
Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
The clear suggestion is that there ought not to be civilian control of the military. What have callow noncombatants giving brisk orders to grizzled soldiers? How could Lincoln have fired the slavery-loving Gen. George B. McClellan, or Truman dismissed the glorious Douglas MacArthur?
Christopher Hitchens
On Thursday, March 26, as the assault continued and as his troops wasted away, General MacArthur, safely in Australia, received the Congressional Medal of Honor from the U.S. minister there. General Wainwright, learning of the news, radioed his congratulations from Corregidor, even as the bombs were falling on top of him. He also reported on the desperate state of his supplies.
Elizabeth M. Norman (We Band of Angels: The Untold Story of American Nurses Trapped on Bataan by the Japanese)
After months of rumors, inference, and horrible miscalculations, the impossible had happened. The U.S. Pacific fleet lay twisted anad burning at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean in Honolulu. Had he been wrong about Japan not taking an offensive right now? God, he had thousands of men and women to think of, and he feared in his heart that it might not turn out the way he had seen it. He felt doomed, almost paralyzed by his gross miscalculation. He determined, however, that he would not let the word out about Pearl Harbor until he could meet with his American strategists and Philippine President Manuel Quezon.
Joyce Shaughnessy (Blessed Are the Merciful)
Americans have seen fit to elect twelve generals to the U.S. presidency, but even before there was a United States of America generals ruled the earth. Take
Winston Groom (The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II)
General Douglas MacArthur was the most brilliant, most important, and most valuable military leader in American history—at least that’s what Douglas MacArthur thought. When
Walter R. Borneman (The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea)
The reason is that the people know that the Democratic Party is the people’s party, and the Republican Party is the party of special interest, and it always has been and always will be.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
The trouble has generally been . . . that people have emphasized either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other. . . . This is something that has been happening in the church from almost the very beginning. . . . When the whole emphasis is placed upon one or the other, you either have a tendency to fanaticism and excess or a tendency toward a barren intellectualism and a mechanical and a dead kind of orthodoxy.
Michael L. Brown (Authentic Fire: A Response to John MacArthur's Strange Fire)
Blaine!" Roland called. "YES." "Can you leave the room? We need to confer." You nuts if you think he's gonna do that, Susannah thought, but Blaine's reply was quick and eager. "YES, GUNSLINGER. I WILL TURN OFF ALL MY SENSORS IN THE BARONY COACH. WHEN YOUR CONFERENCE IS DONE AND YOU ARE READY TO BEGIN THE RIDDLING, I WILL RETURN." "Yeah, you and General MacArthur," Eddie muttered. "WHAT DID YOU SAY, EDDIE OF NEW YORK?" "Nothing. Talking to myself, that's all.
Stephen King (Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4))
As we will see in the following pages, peacetime is not always kind to generals and they do not necessarily do well outside their task of generaling. Perhaps that is because during war they become as close to gods on earth as we are ever likely to see. Patton
Winston Groom (The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II)
It is from these cold, hard facts that Truman’s advisers estimated that between 250,000 and 1 million American lives would be lost in an invasion of Japan.59 General Douglas MacArthur estimated that there could be a 22:1 ratio of Japanese to American deaths, which translates to a minimum death toll of 5.5 million Japanese.60 By comparison (cold though it may sound), the body count from both atomic bombs—about 200,000 to 300,000 total (Hiroshima: 90,000 to 166,000 deaths, Nagasaki: 60,000 to 80,000 deaths61)—was a bargain.
Michael Shermer (The Moral Arc: How Science Makes Us Better People)
set up to study the tactics and equipment required to defeat Japan, even recommended the use of mustard and phosgene gas against underground enemy positions, and was supported in this by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall and Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur, but it was vetoed by President Roosevelt.
Andrew Roberts (The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War)
In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber. So long as it receives a message of beauty, hope, cheer, and courage — so long are you young. When the wires are all down and your heart is covered with the snow of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old. — GENERAL DOUGLAS MACARTHUR
Michael J. Gelb (Brain Power: Improve Your Mind as You Age)
¿Sabes Hoshino? Dios solo existe en la mente de los hombres. Y especialmente en Japón, para bien o para mal, en lo que respecta a Dios somos muy flexibles. Una prueba de ello es que el Emperador, que era Dios antes de la guerra, al recibir al comandante del ejército de ocupación, el general MacArthur, la orden: <<¡Deja ya de ser un Dios!>>, le contestó <<¡Vale! Ya soy una persona normal>>,y, desde 1946, dejó de ser Dios. El Dios de Japón era así de fácil de ajustar. Viene un militar norteamericano con gafas de sol y una pipa barata entre los dientes, le da una simple orden y Él cambia de naturaleza. Eso es el no va más de la posmodernidad. Si crees que existe, existe. Si crees que no existe, no existe. Yo jamás me he preocupado por esos detalles
Haruki Murakami (Kafka on the Shore)
¿Sabes, Hoshino? Dios sólo existe en la mente de los hombres. Y especialmente en Japón, para bien o para mal, en lo que respecta a Dios somos muy flexibles. Una prueba de ello es que el emperador, que era Dios antes de la guerra, al recibir del comandante del ejército de ocupación, el general MacArthur, la orden: «¡Deja ya de ser Dios!», le contestó: «¡Vale! Ya sólo soy una persona normal», y, desde 1946, dejó de ser Dios. El Dios de Japón era así de fácil de ajustar. Viene un militar norteamericano con gafas de sol y una pipa barata entre los dientes, le da una simple orden y Él cambia de naturaleza. Eso es el no va más de la posmodernidad. Si crees que existe, existe. Si crees que no existe, no existe. Yo jamás me he preocupado por esos detalles.
Haruki Murakami (Kafka en la orilla)
I have lived 19 years but … amount to very little more than when I was a baby,” he told his father as Thanksgiving approached. “I am fare in every thing but good in nothing. It seems to be that for a person to amount to some thing they should be good in at least one thing. I some times fear that I am one of these darned dreamers … who is always going to succeed but never does,” adding that if that were the case “it would have been far more merciful if I had died ten years ago than to be forced to live—a failure.”27 At
Winston Groom (The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II)
So as through a glass and darkly The age long strife I see Where I fought in many guises Many names—but always me. And I see not in my blindness What the objects were I wrought But as God rules o’er our bickerings It was through his will I fought. So forever in the future, Shall I battle as of yore Dying to be born a fighter, But to die again once more.5 It was but one of a number of experiences such as this that caused Patton to maintain a continuing belief that in some earlier incarnation he had been a part of powerful, ancient armies, even though he was not a mystic but a practicing Episcopalian.6
Winston Groom (The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the Winning of World War II)
Carey recalled Tillman turning to him and tapping him on the shoulder. "Look who's coming up the road!" he said incredulously. In a scene straight from a movie, General Douglas MacArthur confidently walked straight up the center of the road, "bullets flying around him." Carey was dumbfounded. As MacArthur walked up to his position, Carey pulled him behind the building. "The general fell over" and stared at the lieutenant, quickly snapping, "What the hell do you think you're doing, Lieutenant?" "I'm just trying to keep you from getting killed," Carey snapped back. MacArthur glared at Carey with icy presence and said, "There isn't a bullet made that can kill me.
Patrick O'Donnell (Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story-- The Epic Stand of the Marines of George Company)
Until the last day of the war, MacArthur and his staff continued to plan for Olympic [the invasion of the Japanese home islands]. Yet nobody, with the possible exception of the general, wanted to launch the operation. A British infantryman, gazing at bloated corpses on a Burman battlefield, vented the anger and frustration common to almost every Allied soldier in those days, about the enemy's rejection of reason: "Ye stupid sods! Ye stupid Japanni sods! Look at the fookin' state of ye! Ye wadn't listen--and yer all fookin' dead! Tojo's way! Ye dumb bastards! Ye coulda bin suppin' chah an' screwin' geeshas in yer fookin' lal paper 'ooses--an' look at ye! Ah doan't knaw!
Max Hastings
General Douglas MacArthur said, “In war there is no substitute for victory.
Warren W. Wiersbe (Be Strong (Joshua): Putting God's Power to Work in Your Life (The BE Series Commentary))
Major General Charles Summerall, spotted a gateway to glory. Rather than merely “assisting,” he would take advantage of the flexibility Pershing’s order provided and violate a commandment of battlefield tactics. He intended to send elements of his 1st Division, under the equally fiery Brigadier General Frank Parker, through ground currently held by the 42nd and 77th Divisions in order to beat these rivals to Sedan. The chaos that ensued was illustrated when General MacArthur was temporarily arrested by men of Parker’s division as a suspected German spy.
Joseph E. Persico (Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918)
The soldier above all others prays for peace, for it is the soldier who must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war.” – Douglas MacArthur
Charles River Editors (American Legends: The Life of General Douglas MacArthur)
Y no nos metas en tentación, mas líbranos del mal. MATEO 6.13 Cuando Dios permite que seamos probados, Él siempre ofrece una salida. Siempre hay un camino a la victoria. Siempre hay una puerta de escape. Ekbasis es la palabra griega para «escapar» en 1 Corintios 10.13. Literalmente significa «una salida». He aquí una verdad que nunca habrá visto en este versículo: Pablo nos dice exactamente lo que la vía de escape es: Dios «dará también juntamente con la tentación la salida, para que podáis soportar». El camino de salida es a través de. La manera de salir de la tentación es soportarla como una prueba y nunca dejar que se convierta en una búsqueda del mal. Le han hecho daño. Usted ha sido falsamente acusado. Le han criticado, tratado cruel o injustamente. ¿Y qué? Acéptelo. Soporte con alegría (Santiago 1.2); esa es la vía de escape. Por lo general, se busca una vía de escape rápida y fácil. El plan de Dios para nosotros es distinto. Él quiere que nosotros la tengamos por sumo gozo y «tenga la paciencia su obra completa, para que seáis perfectos y cabales, sin que os falte cosa alguna» (v. 4). Dios está usando nuestras pruebas para llevarnos a la madurez. ¿Cómo podemos soportar? Hay varias respuestas prácticas. Voy a mencionar solo algunas. En primer lugar, medite en la Palabra: «En mi corazón he guardado tus dichos, para no pecar contra ti» (Salmos 119.11). En segundo lugar, ore: «No nos metas en tentación, mas líbranos del mal» (Mateo 6.13). En tercer lugar, resista a Satanás y ríndase a Dios: «Someteos, pues, a Dios; resistid al diablo, y huirá de vosotros» (Santiago 4.7).
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Las lecturas diarias de MacArthur: Desatando la verdad de Dios un día a la vez (Spanish Edition))
Dios sólo existe en la mente de los hombres. Y especialmente en Japón, para bien o para mal, en lo que respecta a Dios somos muy flexibles. Una prueba de ello es que el emperador, que era Dios antes de la guerra, al recibir del comandante del ejército de ocupación, el general MacArthur, la orden: «¡Deja ya de ser Dios!», le contestó: «¡Vale! Ya sólo soy una persona normal», y, desde 1946, dejó de ser Dios. El Dios de Japón era así de fácil de ajustar. Viene un militar norteamericano con gafas de sol y una pipa barata entre los dientes, le da una simple orden y Él cambia de naturaleza. Eso es el no va más de la posmodernidad. Si crees que existe, existe. Si crees que no existe, no existe. Yo jamás me he preocupado por esos detalles.
Anonymous
The true, exclusive, narrow gospel is hard enough to believe as it is. But to make things worse, from the start those promoting it were rejected people who had no standing or respect in society, like Paul, who preached this foolish message faithfully. The people proclaiming the most important and hard-to-believe truth are generally the ones the world despises, belittles, and ignores. In A.D. 178, Celsus wrote that Christians were the most vulgar and uneducated people around. No wonder. In 1 Corinthians 1:26—29, Paul told us that was by divine design. God has purposely chosen the foolish, the nonintellectuals to shame the wise: For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus)
Los hombres y mujeres que carecen de una perspectiva bíblica tienden a pensar de la religión como la expresión más noble del carácter humano. La opinión popular en el mundo en general ha considerado generalmente la religión como algo inherentemente admirable, honorable y beneficioso. En realidad, ningún otro campo de las humanidades: filosofía, literatura, las artes, o cualquier otro, tiene tanta potencialidad para causar daño como la religión. Nada es más completamente malvado que la falsa religión, y cuanto más tratan los falsos maestros de vestirse de ropas de verdad bíblica, más verdaderamente satánicos son. No obstante, los emisarios de Satanás de aspecto benigno y hábilmente religiosos son ordinarios, no extraordinarios. La historia de la redención está llena de ellos, y la Biblia continuamente nos advierte contra tales falsos maestros: lobos salvajes con pieles de ovejas, «falsos apóstoles, obreros fraudulentos, que se disfrazan como apóstoles de Cristo. Y no es maravilla, porque el mismo Satanás se disfraza como ángel de luz. Así que, no es extraño si también sus ministros se disfrazan como ministros de justicia» (2 Corintios 11.13–15). Al dar su discurso de despedida en Éfeso, el apóstol Pablo les dijo a los ancianos de esa joven pero ya acosada iglesia que se levantarían falsos maestros no solo desde dentro de la iglesia, sino también que entrarían pasando desapercibidos en el liderazgo de la iglesia (vea Hechos 20.29–30; cp. Judas v. 4). Esto ha vuelto a suceder una y otra vez en cada fase de la historia de la iglesia. Los falsos maestros se visten con las ropas de Dios; quieren que las personas crean que ellos representan a Dios, y que conocen a Dios, y que tienen una perspectiva especial de la verdad y la sabiduría divinas, aunque son emisarios del mismo infierno.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Las lecturas diarias de MacArthur: Desatando la verdad de Dios un día a la vez (Spanish Edition))
Perhaps the most shocking element in the whole story of Unit 731 was MacArthur’s agreement, after the Japanese surrender, to provide immunity from prosecution to all involved, including General Ishii. This deal allowed the Americans to obtain all the data they had accumulated from their experiments. Even after MacArthur had learned that Allied prisoners of war had also been killed in the tests, he ordered that all criminal investigations should cease. Soviet requests to prosecute Ishii and his staff at the Tokyo War Crimes tribunal were firmly rejected.
Antony Beevor (The Second World War)
General Douglas MacArthur’s Farewell Speech May 12, 1962 If you have made it this far, I leave you with MacArthur’s speech upon receiving the Sylvanus Thayer Award. Most consider this his farewell speech to his years of military service.
Roger Mannon (Secret Warriors Psychic Spies: Redux)
They were the stumbling blocks, not MacArthur.
George C. Kenney (Air War in the Pacific: The Journal of General George Kenney, Commander of the Fifth U.S. Air Force)
A totalitarian state is no different whether you call it Nazi, Fascist, Communist or Franco’s Spain.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
La solución moderna, aun entre evangélicos, ha sido suponer que alguna forma de dependencia literaria existe entre los Evangelios sinópticos. La teoría más comúnmente aceptada para explicar tal supuesta dependencia literaria es conocida como la teoría de las «Dos fuentes». De acuerdo a esa hipótesis, Marcos fue el primer Evangelio escrito, y Mateo y Lucas entonces usaron a Marcos como una fuente al escribir sus Evangelios. Los que proponen esta posición imaginan una fuente no existente, una segunda fuente, denominada Q (de la palabra alemana Quelle, «fuente»), y defienden que supuestamente esta es la fuente del material en Mateo y Lucas que no aparece en Marcos. Ellos proponen varias líneas de evidencia para apoyar su punto de vista. En primer lugar, la mayoría de Marcos encuentra su paralelo en Mateo y Lucas. Debido a que es mucho más corto que Mateo y Lucas, los últimos dos entonces deben ser expansiones de Marcos. En segundo lugar, los tres Evangelios siguen el mismo bosquejo cronológico general, pero cuando Mateo o Lucas se apartan de la cronología de Marcos, el otro está de acuerdo con Marcos. Expresado de otra manera, Mateo y Lucas no se apartan de la cronología de Marcos en los mismos lugares.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (El manual bíblico MacArthur: Un estudio introductorio a la Palabra de Dios, libro por libro)
The history of failure in war can almost be summed up in two words: 'Too late.' Too late in comprehending the deadly purpose of a potential enemy; too late in realizing the mortal danger; too late in preparedness; too late in uniting all possible forces for resistance, too late in standing with one's friends.” General Douglas MacArthur, 1940
F.X. Holden (Okinawa (Future War #2))
In the United States the fate of veterans was also fraught with problems. In 1918, when they returned home from the battlefields of France and Flanders, they had been welcomed as national heroes, just as the soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are today. In 1924 Congress voted to award them a bonus of $1.25 for each day they had served overseas, but disbursement was postponed until 1945. By 1932 the nation was in the middle of the Great Depression, and in May of that year about fifteen thousand unemployed and penniless veterans camped on the Mall in Washington DC to petition for immediate payment of their bonuses. The Senate defeated the bill to move up disbursement by a vote of sixty-two to eighteen. A month later President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans’ encampment. Army chief of staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the troops, supported by six tanks. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower was the liaison with the Washington police, and Major George Patton was in charge of the cavalry. Soldiers with fixed bayonets charged, hurling tear gas into the crowd of veterans. The next morning the Mall was deserted and the camp was in flames.7 The veterans never received their pensions.
Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma)
If our concept of… civilization was to mean anything,” he stated, “we had to acknowledge the humanity of even our misled and murderous enemies.” When he got into Japan, and then into Hiroshima—no small feat in an occupied country closely controlled by General Douglas MacArthur and his forces—Hersey managed to interview dozens of blast survivors.
Lesley M.M. Blume (Fallout: The Hiroshima Cover-up and the Reporter Who Revealed It to the World)
1. Destruction of the unity among the Western countries, thereby isolating the United States. 2. Alienating the Western peoples from their governments so that the efforts of the Western countries to strengthen themselves will be undermined.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
By 1932 the nation was in the middle of the Great Depression, and in May of that year about fifteen thousand unemployed and penniless veterans camped on the Mall in Washington DC to petition for immediate payment of their bonuses. The Senate defeated the bill to move up disbursement by a vote of sixty-two to eighteen. A month later President Hoover ordered the army to clear out the veterans’ encampment. Army chief of staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the troops, supported by six tanks. Major Dwight D. Eisenhower was the liaison with the Washington police, and Major George Patton was in charge of the cavalry. Soldiers with fixed bayonets charged, hurling tear gas into the crowd of veterans. The next morning the Mall was deserted and the camp was in flames.7 The veterans never received their pensions.
Bessel van der Kolk (The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma)
If we examine Lee first upon the art at which he surpassed, we find a curiously dispassionate understanding not just of the technique, but of the place of war in the life of civilized man. Napoleon too was a philosopher of battle, but his utterances are marred by cynicism. Those of Lee have always the saving grace of affirmation. Let us mount with the general the heights above Fredericksburg and hear from him one of the most searching observations ever made. It is contained in a brief remark, so innocent-seeming, yet so disturbing, expressed as he gazed upon the field of slain on that December day. "It is well this is terrible; otherwise we should grow fond of it." What is the meaning? It is richer than a Delphic saying. Here is a poignant confession of mankind’s historic ambivalence toward the institution of war, its moral revulsion against the immense destructiveness, accompanied by a fascination with the “greatest of all games.” As long as people relish the idea of domination, there will be those who love this game. It is fatuous to say, as is being said now, that all men want peace. Men want peace part of the time, and part of the time they want war. Or, if we may shift to the single individual, part of him wants peace and another part wants war, and it is upon the resolution of this inner struggle that our prospect of general peace depends, as MacArthur so wisely observed upon the decks of the Missouri. The cliches of modern thought have virtually obscured this commonplace of human psychology, and world peace programs take into account everything but this tragic flaw in the natural man—the temptation to appeal to physical superiority. There is no political structure which knaves cannot defeat, and subtle analyses of the psyche may prove of more avail than schemes for world parliament. In contrast with the empty formulations of propagandists, Lee’s saying suggests the concrete wisdom of a parable.
Richard M. Weaver (The Southern Essays of Richard M. Weaver)
The general once described Eisenhower as “the best clerk I ever had,” and after serving MacArthur as an aide in both Washington and the Philippines, Eisenhower was well versed in his theatrical ways. “In many ways MacArthur is as big a baby as ever,” Eisenhower noted. “But we’ve got to keep him fighting.” 20
Walter R. Borneman (The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea)
General Douglas MacArthur was the most brilliant, most important, and most valuable military leader in American history—at least that’s what Douglas MacArthur thought. When asked by a proper British gentlewoman if he had ever met the famous general, Dwight D. Eisenhower—himself about to march into history—supposedly replied, “Not only have I met him, ma’am; I studied dramatics under him for five years in Washington and four years in the Philippines.
Walter R. Borneman (The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea)
Both the American and Chinese militaries acknowledge that the US has lost, or at least failed to win, four of the five major wars it has entered since World War II.21 (Korea was at best a draw, Vietnam a loss, and Iraq and Afghanistan unlikely to turn out well. Only President George H. W. Bush’s war in 1991 to force Saddam Hussein’s Iraq to retreat from Kuwait counts as a clear win.) Reflecting on that record, former secretary of defense Robert Gates stated the obvious: “In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should ‘have his head examined,’ as General MacArthur so delicately put it.”22
Graham Allison (Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?)
People say, ‘If the Congress were more representative of the people it would be better.’ I say the Congress is too damn representative. It’s just as stupid as the people are, just as uneducated, just as dumb, just as selfish.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Midway was merely a convenient target chosen by Yamamoto to draw the Americans out, and both sides’ objectives were attritional attempts to degrade their opponents’ carrier units. Nevertheless, the result created space for the Americans to begin their cautious advance back across the Pacific. This started with Guadalcanal and proceeded along two axes. Nimitz would command the larger and predominantly naval effort across the central Pacific, and island fortresses such as Saipan and Iwo Jima would soon go down in military legend. To the south, General Douglas MacArthur led a campaign across New Guinea and the Philippines, with a more land-based focus. Notwithstanding that, it was off Leyte Gulf in the Philippines in October 1944 that the Imperial Japanese Navy suffered a fatal blow in the largest naval battle in history, during which four carriers and three battleships were lost.
Charles River Editors (The Greatest Battles in History: The Battle of Midway)
When I look back in history at great generals who risked their troops and their own lives for victory, or at scientists who shut themselves up in their laboratories for months or even years, trying to discover something we now take for granted, or at a missionary who burned his life out by the time he was thirty, trying to get the gospel to some people in a foreign land, I remind myself that this is the mark of greatness. If the desire for comfort is always diverting you, if you can’t take pain and you’ve always got to find the easy way, then you’ll never know what greatness is.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Hard to Believe: The High Cost and Infinite Value of Following Jesus)
you do not get what is the foundation of the very liberty that we breathe, that the people are entitled to have the facts, that the judgment of the government itself is subject to their opinion and to their control, and in order to exercise that, they are entitled to the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Senator.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Known as "Ike,” Eisenhower was born prior to the Spanish American War on October 14, 1890. Graduating from West Point Military Academy in 1915, he served under a number of talented generals including John J. “Blackjack” Pershing, Douglas MacArthur and George Marshall. Although for the greatest time he held the rank of Major, he was quickly promoted to the rank of a five star general during World War II. During this war he served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces in Europe. Eisenhower was responsible for organizing the invasion of North Africa and later in 1944, the invasion of Normandy, France and Germany. Following World War II, influential citizens and politicians from both political parties urged Eisenhower to run for president. Becoming a Republican, the popular general was elected and became the 34th President of the United States. Using the slogan “I like Ike!” he served as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 to 1961. Having witnessed the construction of the German Autobahn, one of lasting achievements we still use is the Interstate Highway System, authorized in 1956. ] He reasoned that our cities would be targets in a future war; therefore the Interstate highways would help evacuate them and allow the military greater flexibility in their maneuvers. Along with many other accomplishments during his administration, on January 3, 1959 Alaska became the 49th state and on August 21, 1959 Hawaii became the 50th state. On March 28, 1969, at 79 years of age, Eisenhower died of congestive heart failure at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington D.C. He was laid to rest on the grounds of the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas. Eisenhower is buried alongside his son Doud, who died at age 3 in 1921. His wife Mamie was later buried next to him after her death on November 1, 1979.
Hank Bracker
Believing, submissive Bible study leads to the knowledge of God’s will. A mind saturated with such knowledge will also be able to comprehend general principles of godly behavior. With that wisdom will come understanding of how to apply those principles to the situations of life. That progression will inevitably result in godly character and practice.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Colossians and Philemon MacArthur New Testament Commentary (MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series Book 22))
Mr Blore was writing carefully in a little notebook. ‘That’s the lot,’ he muttered to himself. ‘Emily Brent, Vera Claythorne, Dr Armstrong, Anthony Marston, old Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur, CMG, DSO, Manservant and wife: Mr and Mrs Rogers.
Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
General Douglas Macarthur once said: “I am concerned for the security of our great nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.
D.A. Carey (Arks of America (Arks of America, #1))
In 1957, General Douglas MacArthur said, “Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear—kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fever—with the cry of a grave national emergency … Yet, in retrospect, these disasters seem never to have happened, seem never to have been quite real.
Sherrod Brown (Desk 88: Eight Progressive Senators Who Changed America)
From God’s general plan to reconcile all things to Himself, Paul turns to the specific reconciliation of believers like the Colossians. That they had been reconciled was evidence enough that Christ was sufficient to reconcile men and women to God. Their reconciliation foreshadowed the ultimate reconciliation of the universe. To impress on them Christ’s power to reconcile men to God, Paul reminds the Colossians of what they were like before their reconciliation. They were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds. Apallotrioō (alienated) means “estranged,” “cut off,” or “separated.” Before their reconciliation, the Colossians were completely estranged from God.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Colossians and Philemon MacArthur New Testament Commentary (MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series Book 22))
Paul’s passion was to proclaim Him who had done so much for him. Katangellō (proclaim) means to publicly declare a completed truth or happening. It is a general term and is not restricted to formal preaching. Paul’s proclamation included two aspects, one negative, one positive. Admonishing is from noutheteō. It speaks of encouraging counsel in view of sin and coming punishment. It is the responsibility of church leaders. In Acts 20:31, Paul described his ministry at Ephesus: “Night and day for a period of three years I did not cease to admonish each one with tears.” But it is also the responsibility of every believer. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians, “If anyone does not obey our instruction in this letter, take special note of that man and do not associate with him, so that he may be put to shame. And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thess. 3:14-15). Colossians 3:16 commands, “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another.” Paul expressed his confidence that the Romans were “full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, and able also to admonish one another” (Rom. 15:14). If there is sin in the life of a believer, other believers have the responsibility to lovingly, gently admonish them to forsake that sin. Teaching refers to imparting positive truth. It, too, is the responsibility of every believer (Col. 3:16), and is part of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:20). It is especially the responsibility of church leaders. “An overseer, then, must be … able to teach” (1 Tim. 3:2). Admonishing and teaching must be done with all wisdom. This is the larger context. As discussed in chapter 2, wisdom refers to practical discernment—understanding the biblical principles for holy conduct. The consistent pattern of Paul’s ministry was to link teaching and admonishment and bring them together in the context of the general doctrinal truths of the Word. Doctrinal teaching was invariably followed by practical admonitions. That must also be the pattern for all ministries.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Colossians and Philemon MacArthur New Testament Commentary (MacArthur New Testament Commentary Series Book 22))
There is an irony here. MacArthur, the most political of generals, never succeeded in politics, while three of the most apolitical generals in American history, Washington, Grant, and Eisenhower, did.
Stephen E. Ambrose (Eisenhower: Soldier and President)
The first Superfortress reached Tokyo just after midnight, dropping flares to mark the target area. Then came the onslaught. Hundreds of planes—massive winged mechanical beasts roaring over Tokyo, flying so low that the entire city pulsed with the booming of their engines. The US military’s worries about the city’s air defenses proved groundless: the Japanese were completely unprepared for an attacking force coming in at five thousand feet. The full attack lasted almost three hours; 1,665 tons of napalm were dropped. LeMay’s planners had worked out in advance that this many firebombs, dropped in such tight proximity, would create a firestorm—a conflagration of such intensity that it would create and sustain its own wind system. They were correct. Everything burned for sixteen square miles. Buildings burst into flame before the fire ever reached them. Mothers ran from the fire with their babies strapped to their backs only to discover—when they stopped to rest—that their babies were on fire. People jumped into the canals off the Sumida River, only to drown when the tide came in or when hundreds of others jumped on top of them. People tried to hang on to steel bridges until the metal grew too hot to the touch, and then they fell to their deaths. After the war, the US Strategic Bombing Survey concluded: “Probably more persons lost their lives by fire at Tokyo in a six-hour period than at any time in the history of man.” As many as 100,000 people died that night. The aircrews who flew that mission came back shaken. [According to historian] Conrad Crane: “They’re about five thousand feet, they are pretty low... They are low enough that the smell of burning flesh permeates the aircraft...They actually have to fumigate the aircraft when they land back in the Marianas, because the smell of burning flesh remains within the aircraft. (...) The historian Conrad Crane told me: I actually gave a presentation in Tokyo about the incendiary bombing of Tokyo to a Japanese audience, and at the end of the presentation, one of the senior Japanese historians there stood up and said, “In the end, we must thank you, Americans, for the firebombing and the atomic bombs.” That kind of took me aback. And then he explained: “We would have surrendered eventually anyway, but the impact of the massive firebombing campaign and the atomic bombs was that we surrendered in August.” In other words, this Japanese historian believed: no firebombs and no atomic bombs, and the Japanese don’t surrender. And if they don’t surrender, the Soviets invade, and then the Americans invade, and Japan gets carved up, just as Germany and the Korean peninsula eventually were. Crane added, The other thing that would have happened is that there would have been millions of Japanese who would have starved to death in the winter. Because what happens is that by surrendering in August, that givesMacArthur time to come in with his occupation forces and actually feedJapan...I mean, that’s one of MacArthur’s great successes: bringing in a massive amount of food to avoid starvation in the winter of 1945.He is referring to General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander for the Allied powers in the Pacific. He was the one who accepted theJapanese emperor’s surrender.Curtis LeMay’s approach brought everyone—Americans and Japanese—back to peace and prosperity as quickly as possible. In 1964, the Japanese government awarded LeMay the highest award their country could give a foreigner, the First-Class Order of Merit of the Grand Cordon of the Rising Sun, in appreciation for his help in rebuilding the Japanese Air Force. “Bygones are bygones,” the premier of Japan said at the time.
Malcolm Gladwell
General Macarthur looked out of the carriage window. The train was just coming into Exeter, where he had to change.
Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
Emily Brent, Vera Claythorne, Dr. Armstrong, Anthony Marston, old Justice Wargrave, Philip Lombard, General Macarthur, C.M.G., D.S.O. Manservant and wife: Mr. and Mrs. Rogers.
Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
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.
Walter R. Borneman (The Admirals: Nimitz, Halsey, Leahy, and King--The Five-Star Admirals Who Won the War at Sea)
Then General MacArthur literally called in the cavalry--and the infantry. As thousands of government employees watched, a phalanx of soldiers marched against the veterans, forcing them out of their camps at bayonet point. And just to make sure, tanks were deployed, too--under the command of Major George S. Patton--as well as gas. Yes, it's true: Soldiers of the United States Army gassed veterans of World War I in the streets of the nation's capital in the summer of 1932.
Richard Rubin (The Last of the Doughboys: The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War)
Suzuki seemed oblivious to Japan's responsibility for the war. In a footnote to Zen and Japanese Culture, he placed all the responsibility on Western intellectualism: "The intellect presses the button, the whole city is destroyed. . . . All is done mechanically, logically, systematically, and the intellect is perfectly satisfied. Is it not time for us all to think of ourselves from another point of view than that of mere intellectuality" (Suzuki 1970, 338). According to Suzuki, all this would not have happened if the Westerners had, like the Japanese, had more respect for nature. In another footnote, he wrote: "I sometimes wonder if any of the Great Western soldiers ever turned into a poet. Can we imagine, for instance, in recent times, that General MacArthur or General Eisenhower would compose a poem upon visiting one of those bomb-torn cities?" Apparently, Suzuki was unaware that perhaps the chief cause of war and its fuel were found in the same warrior mystique that he exalted in several previous chapters of the same book.
Bernard Faure (Chan Insights and Oversights)
Trascendencia. Los grandes equipos tienen un propósito mayor que el individual; por ejemplo, sepultar al general MacArthur, ganar el campeonato de la NBA.
Jeff Sutherland (Scrum: El arte de hacer el doble de trabajo en la mitad de tiempo)
How are you going to defeat ISIS? TRUMP: I would hit them so hard. I would find a general. I would find the Patton or the MacArthur. I would hit them so hard your head would spin. O’REILLY: Are you telling me that you’re going to send American ground troops into Syria [where ISIS was basing]? TRUMP: I’m not telling you anything. And the reason I’m not … is because I don’t want them to know the game plan.
Bill O'Reilly (The United States of Trump: How the President Really Sees America)
It is little remembered that there was a second Pearl Harbor. Ten hours after being alerted to the first, Japanese planes struck Clark Field in the Philippines, destroying one hundred and two planes, including all but three of General Brereton’s B-17s. He had pleaded with MacArthur to attack Japanese air bases in Formosa. MacArthur replied through his aide, Major General Richard K. Sutherland, that he had been ordered not to make “the first overt act.” What was Pearl Harbor if not an overt act? Brereton demanded. While the debate went on, the Japanese, at first delayed by fog, hit near high noon, finding MacArthur’s planes nearly lined up in rows like the shooting gallery it was. “What the hell!” roared Air Corps chief Hap Arnold when he heard about it. • • • • • At 1458 in Honolulu, Tadeo Fuchikami finally made his delivery of Marshall’s alert to the “Commanding General” at Fort Shafter. It was thrown in a wastebasket without carrying out the request to pass it on to the Navy. “For a while I thought the Day of Infamy had been my fault,” Fuchikami mused many years later. Then I realized I was just one of the sands of time.” The Pearl Harbor attack had left eighteen warships sunk or damaged, including five battleships, and one hundred and eighty-eight planes destroyed. The raid killed two thousand four hundred and three Americans. The Japanese lost twenty-nine planes and fifty-five fliers. Kido butai returned home with three hundred and twenty-four surviving planes.
Associated Press (Pearl Harbor)
By the spring of 1941, there was no longer any doubt that America was gearing up for war. In March, Roosevelt announced Lend-Lease aid to Great Britain, and in May, he declared a state of “unlimited national emergency.” Such support for Great Britain did nothing to ease American relations with Japan. In July, determined to stop further Japanese expansion beyond Indochina, the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands acted in concert to shut off the flow of raw materials upon which the Japanese war machine relied. The three countries instituted an embargo against Japan of oil, steel, and other strategic imports. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States, closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping, and recalled Major General Douglas MacArthur to active duty to defend the Philippines. Far from slowing Japan’s war-making capabilities, these actions, particularly the oil embargo, served only to increase the urgency Japan felt to subjugate China and gobble up oil and rubber from the East Indies. By September, after a German U-boat fired a torpedo at the American destroyer Greer (DD-145) while it was on convoy duty in the North Atlantic, Roosevelt authorized a shoot-on-sight policy against U-boats. A month later, the destroyer Reuben James (DD-245) spotted a periscope too late and caught a torpedo that blew off its bow. The ship sank in five minutes. Out of a complement of 143 officers and men, only 44 enlisted men survived.
Walter R. Borneman (Brothers Down: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona)
By the spring of 1941, there was no longer any doubt that America was gearing up for war. In March, Roosevelt announced Lend-Lease aid to Great Britain, and in May, he declared a state of “unlimited national emergency.” Such support for Great Britain did nothing to ease American relations with Japan. In July, determined to stop further Japanese expansion beyond Indochina, the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands acted in concert to shut off the flow of raw materials upon which the Japanese war machine relied. The three countries instituted an embargo against Japan of oil, steel, and other strategic imports. Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the United States, closed the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping, and recalled Major General Douglas MacArthur to active duty to defend the Philippines. Far from slowing Japan’s war-making capabilities, these actions, particularly the oil embargo, served only to increase the urgency Japan felt to subjugate China and gobble up oil and rubber from the East Indies. By
Walter R. Borneman (Brothers Down: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona)
As the Arizona’s men gathered for breakfast and the enemy submarine report from the Ward made its way up the naval chain of command, the Army’s Opana Mobile Radar Station at Kahuku Point on the northern tip of Oahu shut down for the day. Privates Joseph Lockard and George Elliott had been on duty since 4:00 a.m., and their three-hour shift training on a relatively new warning system was over. Lockard had been instructing Elliott in reading the radarscope, but just as he reached to turn it off, a large image began to march across his screen from the north. Lockard’s first thought was that something had gone haywire with his set, but when everything checked out, he and Elliott called in a report of what appeared to be more than fifty planes approaching Oahu about 130 miles out. The Information Center at Fort Shafter, to which they reported, was charged with directing pursuit aircraft to intercept any incoming threat, but it was also shutting down for the day. The senior officer remaining at the Information Center was First Lieutenant Kermit Tyler, the executive officer of the 78th Pursuit Squadron, who was serving only his second day of duty at the center. Tyler would always be adamant that it never crossed his mind that these incoming planes could possibly be enemy aircraft, particularly as a far more likely explanation presented itself. Two squadrons of B-17 bombers, totaling twelve aircraft, were nearing Hickam Field from the northeast that morning after an overnight flight from California. After refueling, they were supposed to continue on to the Philippines to augment General MacArthur’s air force. Tyler was convinced that the Opana station had detected this flight of bombers and told Lockard and Elliott, “Well, don’t worry about it.”14
Walter R. Borneman (Brothers Down: Pearl Harbor and the Fate of the Many Brothers Aboard the USS Arizona)
Some twenty-three hundred miles away Major General H.H. “Hap” Arnold, head of the Army Air Corps, had traveled to Hamilton Field near Sacramento to personally see off a flight of thirteen B-l 7s destined for MacArthur in the Philippines by way of Hawaii. The first leg to Hickam Field took fourteen hours, so the big bombers flew with only four-man crews and were unarmed. One of the pilots objected. At least they ought to carry their bomb sights and machine guns. Arnold said they could be put aboard but without ammunition to save weight. So the bombers could home in on its signal, Major General Frederick L. Martin, head of the Hawaiian Air Force, had his staff ask station WGMB in Honolulu to stay on all night. Sure thing, general. Another night of ukuleles and Glenn Miller drifting out across the Pacific courtesy of the U.S. Army Air Corps. When Lieutenant Colonel George W. Bicknell of Army intelligence heard about it, he blew up. Why tip our hands whenever we have planes coming in? Why not keep WGMB on the air every night? One of those who caught the station was Lieutenant Kermit Tyler on his way to work the graveyard shift at the radar coordinating station at Fort Shafter. Must be planes coming in from the States, he told himself.
Associated Press (Pearl Harbor)
June 25, 1950, Kim Il-sung’s troops stormed across the border with Soviet-supplied tanks. They quickly captured Seoul and swept southward until all that was left of South Korea was a pocket around the southeastern coastal city of Pusan. The daring amphibious landing at Incheon of forty thousand U.S. troops under the command of General Douglas MacArthur in September reversed the Communist gains. Besides the United States and South Korea, troops of fifteen nations joined a U.N. coalition—among them Britain, Australia, Canada, France, and the Netherlands. They recaptured Seoul and headed north to Pyongyang and beyond. As they approached the Yalu River, however, Chinese Communist forces entered the war and pushed them back. Two more years of fighting produced only frustration and stalemate. By the time an armistice was signed on July 27, 1953, nearly three million people were dead and the peninsula lay in ruins.
Barbara Demick (Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea)
He thought to himself: “He’ll ask me now if I was old enough to be in the War. These old boys always do.” But General Macarthur did not mention the War.
Agatha Christie (And Then There Were None)
There is a lure in power. It can get into a man’s blood just as gambling and lust for money have been known to do. This is a Republic. The greatest in the history of the world. I want this country to continue as a Republic.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
the essence of what General Douglas MacArthur said is right: All defense and no offense doesn’t get you very far. General Patton provides supporting cover when he advised, “Never let the enemy choose the battlefield.
Paul Coughlin (No More Christian Nice Guy: When Being Nice--Instead of Good--Hurts Men, Women, and Children)
Age wrinkles the body................Quitting wrinkles the soul.
Douglas MacArthur
But unlike the Jewish nation, the Gentiles’ mourning will not generally result from genuine repentance. “Mourn” is from koptō, which literally means “to cut.” The word became associated with mourning due to the pagans’ practice of cutting themselves when in extreme grief or despair. First Kings 18:28 records that the frenzied, panicked prophets of Baal “cut themselves according to their custom with swords and lances
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Because the Time is Near: John MacArthur Explains the Book of Revelation)
Arthur MacArthur was the most flamboyantly egotistic man I had ever seen, until I met his son.
Major General Enoch Crowder
RESUMEN Jala la palanca correcta. Cambia el desempeño de tu equipo. Este desempeño tiene mucho más influencia –en varios órdenes de magnitud– que el individual. Trascendencia. Los grandes equipos tienen un propósito mayor que el individual; por ejemplo, sepultar al general MacArthur, ganar el campeonato de la NBA. Autonomía. Concede a los equipos libertad para tomar decisiones sobre cómo actuar, para que se les respete como maestros en su oficio. La posibilidad de improvisar marcará toda la diferencia, sea que la unidad cubra una revolución en Medio Oriente o
Jeff Sutherland (Scrum: El arte de hacer el doble de trabajo en la mitad de tiempo)
Apart from explicit general application in principlizing the main parts in the exposition, the expositor is not compelled to give a set number of points of specific application before a sermon can have an appli-cational impact. That is not to say he should not make some illustrative applications, but if the text is allowed to speak fully, applications will multiply far beyond what he can anticipate as the Spirit of God takes His Word and applies it to each listener.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Preaching: How to Preach Biblically (MacArthur Pastor's Library))
General Douglas MacArthur said, “Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. People grow old by deserting their ideals.… You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.
John C. Maxwell (Good Leaders Ask Great Questions: Your Foundation for Successful Leadership)
The three “undervalued" components of expository sermon preparation include introductions, illustrations, and conclusions. Due to the complexities of pastoral ministry in general and message preparation particularly, pastors tend to let these three slide. The congregation, in contrast, eagerly looks forward to how its pastor will handle these elements of the message. This discussion, which intends to equip the preacher for a new level of expository excellence, is built around purposes, sources, variations, guidelines, and preparation tips for these three parts of an exposition.
John F. MacArthur Jr. (Preaching: How to Preach Biblically (MacArthur Pastor's Library))
Pearl Harbor conference are interesting, it is apparent that the final decisions in regard to the Marianas had already been made by the Joint Chiefs, and the Truk-by-pass decision would await the results of the carrier strikes. General MacArthur continued his opposition to the Central Pacific route as late as February 1944, when be sent his deputy, Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, USA, to Washington in a desperate effort to convince the Joint Chiefs that both Truk and the Marianas should be by-passed and that the impetus should be along the New Guinea-Mindanao axis of advance. General Sutherland had been in Washington but a short time when he found it necessary to advise MacArthur that the die was, indeed, cast: the Marianas operation was a certainty; the
Carl W. Hoffman (Saipan: The Beginning of the End)
Written by the great general Douglas MacArthur about his own son, the words are eloquent and touching. Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak; and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. Build me a son whose wishes will not take the place of deeds; a son who will know Thee—and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. Lead him, I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. Build me a son whose heart will be clear, whose goal will be high, a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men, one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom and the meekness of true strength. Then I, his father, will dare to whisper, “I have not lived in vain.
Franklin Graham (Through My Father's Eyes)
General Douglas MacArthur: “For years, I have believed that war should be abolished as an outmoded means for resolving disputes between nations.
Tom Hofmann (Benjamin Ferencz, Nuremberg Prosecutor and Peace Advocate)
when General MacArthur overcame all the barriers that they placed in the way of success, and threatened to attack the Communists on their own ground, in Manchuria, the conspirators arranged to have him relieved of his command.
Emanuel Joesephson (Rockefeller "Internationalist")
«No hay ninguna cosa ni situación que pueda sobrevenir a un creyente en esta vida que no halle en las Escrituras una regla general y esa regla es iluminada con ejemplo»
John F. MacArthur Jr. (La consejería: Cómo aconsejar bíblicamente)
Although there was no definitive proof, it was likely that General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme commander of the Southwest Pacific War and the media darling of the war despite having fled the Philippines and leaving his men and the Filipinos to be decimated and tortured by the Japanese, was in the midst of it all. He held great sway with West Point, having graduated first in his class in 1903. Later as superintendent he made it a priority to increase the level of its sports programs. Given his popularity and pain-in-the-ass prickliness and flash-flood indignance when he perceived phantom insult and his presidential aspirations, the top command and administration were terrified of MacArthur,
Buzz Bissinger (The Mosquito Bowl: A Game of Life and Death in World War II)
Truman’s combination of firmness and patience had held freedom’s ground without provoking war. It was hard to imagine any chief executive doing better.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Harry Truman was a man of the ordinary people of America; Dean Acheson was everything ordinary Americans loved to hate.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
More than Korea was at stake, the president asserted. “The attack upon Korea makes it plain beyond all doubt that communism has passed beyond the use of subversion to conquer independent nations and will now use armed invasion and war.” The aggression must not be allowed to spread, as to Formosa.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
THE WORLD was alarmed, Harry Truman was livid. And he blamed Douglas MacArthur for getting him into this mess. In his five years as president, Truman had tolerated repeated slights and affronts from MacArthur
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
How could this American so well understand the Asian concept of face, and be so magnanimous, as to spare the soldiers the humiliation of having to turn over their weapons to an enemy? MacArthur countermanded an order by the U.S. Navy forbidding Japanese fishing vessels to venture across Tokyo Bay, lest some launch mines against the American ships there. The Japanese needed to eat, he explained matter-of-factly.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
His white hands were smooth as wax, only blemished by the brown spots of age,” wrote Faubion Bowers, a major who often rode guard in the front seat. “His fingers were exquisitely manicured, as if lacquered with polish. He held them in his lap, peacefully. His profile, which I knew better than his full face, was granitic. He was always immaculately clean-shaven, and I never saw a nick on him. He had large bones, an oversize jaw that jutted a little. From face to walk, from gesture to speech, he shone with good breeding….He was really very beautiful, like fine ore, a splendid rock, a boulder.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
He made a checklist of objectives: “Destroy the military power. Punish war criminals. Build the structure of representative government. Modernize the constitution. Hold free elections. Enfranchise the women. Release the political prisoners. Liberate the farmers. Establish a free labor movement. Encourage a free economy. Abolish police oppression. Develop a free and responsible press. Liberalize education. Decentralize the political power. Separate church from state.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
When famine threatened the devastated country, he commandeered three million tons of food from U.S. Army stores. Congress conducted an inquiry, which MacArthur brushed aside. “Give me bread or give me bullets,” he told the inquisitors.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Since the eighteenth century American defense had rested upon a War Department and a separate Navy Department. The separation reflected America’s distinctive approach to war and the country’s peculiar position in the world. America’s founders believed war would be an occasional endeavor best conducted by part-time soldiers: citizens called to arms on the rare occasions when geographically isolated America was attacked from abroad.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Julius Caesar, the general who made himself dictator. The Constitution guarded against Caesarism by designating the president of the United States the commander-in-chief of America’s armed forces; no general, however popular or ambitious, must overrule the president. American practice hedged against Caesarism by hollowing out the army between wars; the citizen-soldiers were sent home, leaving potential Caesars no one to command.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
He began with the importance of collective action in Korea. “For the first time in all history, men of many nations are fighting under a single banner to uphold the rule of law in the world,” he said. “This is an inspiring fact. If the rule of law is not upheld we can look forward only to the horror of another war and ultimate chaos. For our part, we do not intend to let that happen.” Since World War II the communists had engaged in subversion; in Korea they had turned to brutal aggression. The United States had no choice other than to act swiftly and boldly. “If the history of the 1930s teaches us anything, it is that appeasement of dictators is the sure road to world war. If aggression were allowed to succeed in Korea, it would be an open invitation to new acts of aggression elsewhere.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
We here fight Europe’s war with arms, while there it is still confined to words. If we lose the war to communism in Asia, the fate of Europe will be gravely jeopardized. Win it, and Europe will probably be saved from war and stay free.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Bradley admitted. “The swiftness and magnitude of the victory were mind-boggling. We had been on the point of despair, bracing for a ‘Dunkirk’ at Pusan and/or a disaster at Inchon. A mere two weeks later the North Korean Army had been routed and all South Korea had been regained. MacArthur was deservedly canonized as a ‘military genius.’ Inchon was his boldest and most dazzling victory. In hindsight, the JCS seemed like a bunch of Nervous Nellies to have doubted.
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Truman nodded agreement with what Acheson and the others had said. The Soviet Union, not China, was America’s principal enemy; Europe was the heart of America’s forward defense; Korea was symbolically important but not strategically vital; America must not alienate its allies. The president was pleased at the consensus in the highest councils of the administration. He left the meeting satisfied—but still uncertain. He knew that MacArthur had his own ideas about American strategy and
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)
Acheson stepped conceptually back. “We must ask ourselves: What do we want in Korea?” He looked around the room. “The answer is easy,” he said. “We want to terminate it. We don’t want to beat China in Korea—we can’t. We don’t want to beat China any place—we can’t. They can put in more than we can.” American policy in Korea must keep the broader challenge in mind. “Our great objective must be to hold an area, to terminate the fighting, to turn over some area to the Republic of Korea,
H.W. Brands (The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War)