August 22, 1922 - November 26, 2007
85 Years, 3 Months and 4 Days
Old Soldiers Never Die...
They just Fade Away
by Douglas Mac Arthur
MacArthur's Speeches: "Old Soldiers
Never Die..."
1951 had not been a good year for Douglas MacArthur: after almost losing a war in Korea it seemed he
had already won, he was dismissed by President Truman, making headlines around the world. But for thirty-seven
minutes on April 19, he held America in the palm of his hand. MacArthur's address before a joint session of Congress,
one of the great moments in the early days of television, offered him a unique opportunity to tell his side of
the story. He did not disappoint.
Critics and much of the public soon saw through the holes in his arguments. But his final words, drawing the curtain
on an unparalleled military career, surely rank as one of the great exit lines in American history.
General MacArthur's Address to Congress
April 19, 1951
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker and Distinguished Members of the Congress:
I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and pride -- humility in the weight of those great architects
of our history who have stood here before me, pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represent
human liberty in the purest form yet devised.
Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of the entire human race.
I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the
realm of partisan considerations. They must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest if our course
is to prove sound and our future protected.
I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of receiving that which I have to say as solely expressing
the considered viewpoint of a fellow American.
I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind:
to serve my country.
The issues are global, and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector oblivious to those of another
is to court disaster for the whole. While Asia is commonly referred to as the Gateway to Europe, it is no less
true that Europe is the Gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail to have its impact upon
the other. There are those who claim our strength is inadequate to protect on both fronts, that we cannot divide
our effort. I can think of no greater expression of defeatism.
If a potential enemy can divide his strength on two fronts, it is for us to counter his effort. The Communist threat
is a global one.
Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction of every other sector. You can not appease or otherwise
surrender to communism in Asia without simultaneously undermining our efforts to halt its advance in Europe.
Beyond pointing out these general truisms, I shall confine my discussion to the general areas of Asia. Before one
may objectively assess the situation now existing there, he must comprehend something of Asia's past and the revolutionary
changes which have marked her course up to, the present. Long exploited by the so-called colonial powers, with
little opportunity to achieve any degree of social justice, individual dignity or a higher standard life such as
guided our own noble administration in the Philippines, the people of Asia found their opportunity in the war just
past to throw off the shackles of colonialism and now see the dawn of new opportunity and heretofore unfelt dignity,
and the self-respect of political freedom.
Mustering half of the earth's population, and 60 percent of its natural resources these peoples are rapidly consolidating
a new force, both moral and material, with which to raise the living standard and erect adaptations of the design
of modern progress to their own distinct cultural environments.
Whether one adheres to the concept of colonialization or not, this is the direction of Asian progress and it may
not be stopped. It is a corollary to the shift of the world economic frontiers as the whole epicenter of world
affairs rotates back toward the area whence it started.
In this situation, it becomes vital that our own country orient its policies in consonance with this basic evolutionary
condition rather than pursue a course blind to reality that the colonial era is now past and the Asian peoples
covet the right to shape their own free destiny. What they seek now is friendly guidance, understanding and support,
not imperious direction, the dignity of equality and not the shame of subjugation.
Their pre-war standard of life, pitifully low, is infinitely lower now in the devastation left in war's wake. World
ideologies play little part in Asian thinking and are little understood.
What the peoples strive for is the opportunity for a little more food in their stomachs, a little better clothing
on their backs and a little firmer roof over their heads, and the realization of the normal nationalist urge for
political freedom.
These political-social conditions have but an indirect bearing upon our own national security, but do form a backdrop
to contemporary planning which must be thoughtfully considered if we are to avoid the pitfalls of unrealism.
Of more direct and immediately bearing upon our national security are the changes wrought in the strategic potential
of the Pacific Ocean in the course of the past war.
Prior thereto the western strategic frontier of the United States lay on the literal line of the Americas, with
an exposed island salient extending out through Hawaii, Midway and Guam to the Philippines. That salient proved
not an outpost of strength but an avenue of weakness along which the enemy could and did attack. The Pacific was
a potential area of, advance for any predatory force intent upon striking at the bordering land areas.
All this was changed by our Pacific victory, our strategic frontier then shifted to embrace the entire Pacific
Ocean, which became a vast moat to protect us as long as we hold it. Indeed, it acts as a protective shield for
all of the Americas and all free lands of the Pacific Ocean area, We control it to the shores of Asia by a chain
of islands extending in an arc from the Aleutians to the Mariannas held by us and our free allies.
From this island chain we can dominate with sea and air power every Asiatic port from Vladivostok to Singapore
-- with sea and air power every port, as I said, from Vladivostok to Singapore -- and prevent any hostile movement
into the Pacific.
Any predatory attack from Asia must be an amphibious effort. No amphibious force can be successful without control
of the sea lanes and the air over those lanes in its avenue of advance. With naval and air supremacy and modest
ground elements to defend bases, any maj . or attack from continental Asia toward us or our friends in the Pacific
would be doomed to failure.
Under such conditions, the Pacific no longer represents menacing avenues of approach for a prospective invader.
It assumes, instead, the friendly aspect of a peaceful lake.
Our line of defense is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of military effort and expenses. It envisions
no attack against anyone, nor does it provide the bastions essential for offensive operations, but properly maintained,
would be an invincible defense against aggression.
The holding of this defense line in the western Pacific is entirely dependent upon holding all segments thereof,
for any major breach of that line by an unfriendly power would render vulnerable to determine attack every other
major segment. This is a military estimate as to which I have yet to find a military leader who will take exception.
For that reason, I have strongly recommended in the past. as a matter of military urgency, that under no circumstances
must Formosa fall under Communist control. Such an eventuality would at once threaten the freedom of the Philippines
and the loss of Japan and might well force our western frontier back to the coast of California Oregon and Washington.
To understand the changes which now appear upon the Chinese mainland, one must understand the changes in Chinese
character and culture over the past 50 years. China up to 50 years ago was completely non-homogenous, being compartmented
into groups divided against each other. The war-making tendency was almost non-existent as they still followed
the tenets of the Confucian ideal of pacifist culture.
At the turn of the century under the regime of Chang Tso Lin efforts toward greater homogenity produced the start
of a nationalist urge. This was further and more successfully developed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-Shek,
but has been brought to its greatest fruition under the present regime to the point that it has now taken on the
character of a united nationalism of increasingly dominant aggressive tendencies.
Through these past 50 years the Chinese people have thus become militarize in their concepts and in their ideals.
They now constitute excellent soldiers, with competent staffs, and commanders. This has produced a new and dominant
power in Asia, which, for its own purposes, is allied with Soviet Russia but which in its own concepts and methods
has become aggressively imperialistic, with a lust for expansions and increased power normal to this type of imperialism.
There is little of the ideological concept either one way or another in the Chinese make-up. The standard of living
is so low and the capital accumulation has been so thoroughly dissipated by war that the masses are desperate and
eager to follow any leadership which seems to promise the alleviation of woeful stringencies.
I have from the beginning believed that the Chinese Communists' support of the North Koreans was the dominant one.
Their interests are at present parallel with those of the Soviet, but I believe that the aggressiveness recently
displayed not only in Korea but also in Indo-China arid Tibet and pointing potentially toward the South reflects
predominantly the same lust for the expansion of power which has animated every would-be conqueror since the beginning
of time.
The Japanese people since the war have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history, With a commendable
will, eagerness to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in war's wake erected
in Japan an edifice dedicated to the supremacy of individual liberty and personal dignity and in the ensuing process
there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom
of economic enterprise, and social justice.
Politically, economically, and socially Japan is now abreast of many free nations of the earth and will not again
fail the universal trust. That it may be counted upon to wield a profoundly beneficial influence over the course
of events in Asia is attested by the magnificent manner in which the Japanese people have met the recent challenge
of war, unrest and confusion surrounding them from the outside and checked communism within their own frontiers
without the slightest slackening in their forward progress.
I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront, without the slightest qualms as to the effect
of the resulting power vacuum upon Japan. The results fully justified my faith.
I know of no nation more serene, orderly and industrious, nor in which higher hopes can be entertained for future
constructive service in the advance of the human race.
Of our former ward, the Philippines, we can look forward in confidence that the existing unrest will be corrected
and a strong and healthy nation will grow in the longer aftermath of war's terrible destructiveness We must be
patient and understanding and never fail them. As in our hour of need, they did not fail us.
A Christian nation, the Philippines stand as a mighty bulwark of Christianity in the Far East, and its capacity
for high moral leadership in Asia is unlimited.
On Formosa the government of the Republic of China has had the opportunity to refute by action much of the malicious
gossip which so undermined the strength of its leadership on the Chinese mainland. The Formosan people are receiving
a just and enlightened administration with majority representation in the organs of government, and politically,
economically and socially they appear to be advancing along sound and constructive lines,
With this brief insight into the surrounding area, I now turn to the Korean conflict.
While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that
decision from a military standpoint, proved a sound one. As I said, it proved to be a sound one, as we hurled back
the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China
intervened with numerically superior ground forces.
This created a new war and an entirely new situation, a situation not contemplated when our forces were committed
against the North Korean invaders; a situation which called for new decisions in the diplomatic sphere to permit
the realistic adjustment of ail litary strategy. Such decisions have not been forthcoming.
While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never
given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political
aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old one.
Apart from the military need, as I saw It, to neutralize sanctuary protection given the enemy north of the Yalu,
I felt that military necessity in the conduct of the war made necessary the intesification of our economic blockade
against China, the imposition of a naval blockade against the China coast, removal of restrictions on air reconnaissance
of China's coastal area and of Manchuria, removal of restrictions on the forces of the Republic of China on Formosa,
with logistical support to contribution to-their effective operations against the Chinese mainland.
For entertaining these views, all professionally designed to support our forces in Korea and to bring hostilities
to an end with the least possible delay and at a saving of countless American arid allied lives, I have been severely
criticized in lay circles, principally abroad, despite my understanding that from a military standpoint the above
views have been fully shared in the past by practically every military leader concerned with the Korean campaign,
including our own Joint Chiefs of Staff.
I called for reinforcements, but was informed that reinforcements were riot available. I made clear that if not
permitted to destroy the enemy built-up bases north of the Yalu, if not permitted to utilize the friendly Chinese
Force of some 600,000 men on Formosa, if not permitted to blockade the China coast to prevent the Chinese Reds
from getting succor from without, and if there was to be no hope of major reinforcements, the position of the command
from the military standpoint forbade victory.
We could hold in Korea by constant maneuver and in an approximate area where our supply line advantages were in
balance with the supply line disadvantages of the enemy, but we could hope at best for only an indecisive campaign
with its terrible and constant attrition upon our forces if the enemy utilized its full military potential.
I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a solution.
Efforts have been made to distort my position. It has been said in effect that I was a warmonger. Nothing could
be further from the truth.
I know war as f ew other men now living know it, and nothing to me--and nothing to me is more revolting. I have
long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless
as a means of settling international disputes.
Indeed, the Second Day of September, 1945, just following the surrender of the Japanese nation on the Battleship
Missouri, I formally cautioned as follows:
"Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to
devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods
were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international
scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed,
leaving the only path to be 'by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out, this
alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon
will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement
of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature and all
the material and cultural developments of the past 2000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh.
"
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to
a swift end. War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war there can be no substitute for victory.
There are some who for varying reasons would appease Red China. They are blind to history's clear lesson, for history
teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars. It points to no single instance
where this end has justified that means, where appeasement has led to more than a sham peace. Like blackmail, it
lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only other
alternative. Why, my soldiers asked me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field? I could not answer.
Some, may say to avoid spread of the conflict into an all-out war with China, Others, to avoid Soviet intervention.
Neither explanation seems valid, for China is already engaging with the maximum power It can commit, and the Soviet
will not necessarily mesh its actions with our moves. Like a cobra, any new enemy, will more likely strike whenever
it feels that the relativity of military and other potentialities is in its favor on a world-wide basis.
The tragedy of Korea is further heightened by the fact that its military action was confined to its territorial
limits. It condemns that nation, which it Is our purpose to save, to suffer the devastating impact of full naval
and air bombardment while the enemy's sanctuaries are fully protected from such attack and devastation.
Of the nations of the world, Korea alone, up to now, is the sole one which has risked its all against communism.
The magnificence of the courage and fortitude of the Korean people defies description. They have chosen to risk
death rather than slavery. Their last words to me were: "Don't scuttle the Pacific.î
I have just left your fighting sons in Korea. They have done their bust there, and I can report to you without
reservation that they are splendid in every way.
It was my constant effort to preserve them and end this savage conflict honorably and with the least loss of time
and a minimum sacrif ice of life. Its growing bloodshed has caused me the deepest anguish and anxiety. Those gallant
men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.
I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was
the fullfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath
at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have all since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the
most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that 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.
Courtesy of PBS.ORG
"For those who fought for it...
freedom has a flavor the protected will never know!"
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