Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1880 and died in Washington D.C. In 1964 at the age of 84.
He became a five-star general and was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II.
MacArthur officially accepted Japan’s surrender on 2 September 1945, and oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951.
As the effective ruler of Japan, he was responsible for sweeping economic, political and social changes.
His illustrious career spanned a period of 36 years 1914 to 1951 starting with fighting the Mexican Revolution and ending with a somewhat ignominious dismissal by President Harry Truman in 1951 during the war in Korea.
MacArthur was always a somewhat flamboyant figure with a penchant for personal publicity. His attitude to ending the Korean War was simply too extreme for the president.
There is no doubt that he was a dedicated soldier with his own slant on war as these quotes reveal:
- The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.
- 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.
- The world is in a constant conspiracy against the brave. It’s the age-old struggle: the roar of the crowd on the one side, and the voice of your conscience on the other.
- Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
- You are remembered for the rules you break.
- Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.
- In war, you win or lose, live or die – and the difference is just an eyelash.
- Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
- It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.
- A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.
- We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.
- I have known war as few men now living know it. It’s very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.
These quotes offer an insight into the mind and thinking of General Douglas MacArthur.
Are you old enough to remember him? Do you know exactly why he was fired?
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