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To: Captain Peter Blood
Read William Manchester’s book on MacArthur, “American Caesar”, you get the good along with the bad.

Been there, done that. A somehwat balanced account of him. Recommend you read Stephen Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower. It explains why MacArthur had absolutely no role in Ike's administration.

Some things to consider about MacArthur:

* Accepted the medal of honor from Rosevelt for service, not bravery. No precedent for that. Eisenhower was also offered the MoH; but he he turned it down.

* MacArthur also personally approved a silver star for Congressman Lyndon Johnson, a powerful member of congress during WWII, for being shot at in a plane while in the Pacific theater. Johnson always wore the lapel pin of the silver star though it was clearly undeserved. Again, an unprecedented award of a decoration for heroism for purely political purposes.

* Has last speech to the Corps of Cadets at West Point was such total BS and theatrics.

* Doug Mac always had advance teams and propaganda agents working whereever he went. That's one reason soldiers didn't care for him.

68 posted on 03/14/2012 11:10:13 AM PDT by OldCorps
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To: OldCorps; Captain Peter Blood
A somehwat balanced account of him. Recommend you read Stephen Ambrose's biography of Eisenhower. It explains why MacArthur had absolutely no role in Ike's administration.

Ambrose knew how to sell books.

Some things to consider about MacArthur: * Accepted the medal of honor from Rosevelt for service, not bravery. No precedent for that. Eisenhower was also offered the MoH; but he he turned it down.

What does that prove? Eisenhower was an administrator whereas MacArthur was a combat commander who had already been recommended for a MOH in the Mexican intervention and WWI.

* MacArthur also personally approved a silver star for Congressman Lyndon Johnson, a powerful member of congress during WWII, for being shot at in a plane while in the Pacific theater. Johnson always wore the lapel pin of the silver star though it was clearly undeserved. Again, an unprecedented award of a decoration for heroism for purely political purposes.

There was certainly a political angle but MacArthur was unquestionably brave and may have appreciated the bravery shown by this young Congressman who could have remained safe in Washington but instead chose to navigate hazardous waters and then fly in a mission against an enemy which had it taken LBJ prisoner may have literally made a meal out of him.

* Has last speech to the Corps of Cadets at West Point was such total BS and theatrics.

I attended a meeting once when a man said something far less disparaging and it turned out one of the other men in the room was present for MacArthur's last speech and he had to be physically restrained.

* Doug Mac always had advance teams and propaganda agents working whereever he went. That's one reason soldiers didn't care for him.

Whose soldiers? Certainly navy men didn't care for him because MacArthur felt they were cowards. Marines didn't care for him because he considered them part of the army wrongfully subject to the cowards in the navy.

81 posted on 03/14/2012 1:21:41 PM PDT by fso301
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