My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. The room was hushed at the conclusion of his remarks. All West Point had given him was a lodestar, the academy motto: ‘Duty, Honor, Country.’”. He was the son of General Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero who had won the Congressional Medal of Honor at age 18 and later commanded U.S. forces in the Philippines. “Unhappily, I possess neither that eloquence of diction, that poetry of imagination, nor that brilliance of metaphor to tell you all that they mean.” It was perhaps the most eloquent downplaying of a speaker’s own rhetorical skills since Lincoln assured the gathering at Gettysburg, “The world will little note nor long remember what we say here.” MacArthur proceeded to move both young cadets and battle-tested officers to the brink of tears with his eloquence of diction, poetry of imagination, and brilliance of metaphor. Third, “Duty, Honor; Country” defines the structure of ideals of the United States Army ‘and of West Point, Honor is the keystone value. 3. But when I think of his patience in adversity of his courage under fire and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration I cannot put into words. When the Korean conflict erupted, he also commanded the United Nations forces in Korea. The long gray line has never failed us. Duty, honor, country: Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. “He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb,” Cousins wrote. The New American magazine, published twice a month in print and daily online, is the essential news source for freedom-loving Americans. Yet he remained confident, as he told the cadets on that farewell visit, that America’s army would prevail in future conflicts. In 1962, when I was less than a year old, General Douglas MacArthur came to West Point to accept the Sylvanus Thayer Award and gave the famous Duty Honor Country speech, in which he said: Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. This award is given to an outstanding citizen who embodies the West Point’s motto: Duty, Honor, Country. General MacArthur’s Farewell Speech — Duty, Honor, Country (May 12, 1962). Duty, honor, and country, the three words that can dictate what we can be, what we ought to be, and what we will be. In less than two years, he would join the ranks of the dead. Admiral James Doyle, who would have to execute the landing, observed: “If MacArthur had gone on stage, we never would have heard of John Barrymore.”, Yet the landing was a success and North Korean forces were routed. 16 August 1962: Meets with President Kennedy at the White House. Duty, Honor, Country. General MacArthur’s Farewell Speech — Duty, Honor, Country (May 12, 1962) The address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy in accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award on 12 May 1962 is a memorable tribute to the ideals that inspired that great American soldier. But MacArthur’s judgment may have been based less on narcissistic pride than on a shrewd understanding of the dramatic effect of his words on the people on the islands. I do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. For the enemy commander will reason that no one would be so brash to make such an attempt…. Let the indomitable spirit of Bataan and Corregidor lead on…. Near the end of his days, he urged President Johnson not to send ground forces into Vietnam. That said, I, as one of those former officers, have real concerns about what occurred in the nation’s capital between 2014 and the present day. But always in our ears ring the ominous words of Plato, that wisest of all philosophers: “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”. Always for them: Duty, Honor, Country. From one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice of courage. The address by General of the Army Douglas MacArthur to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy in accepting the Sylvanus Thayer Award on 12 May 1962 is a memorable tribute to the ideals that inspired that great American soldier. Last Edited: 27 Aug 2013 10:38 am. President Truman, without authorization from Congress, sent U.S. forces to fight on the peninsula under MacArthur’s command while insisting, “We are not at war.” Asked at a press conference if it would be correct “to call it a police action under the U.N.,” the President replied. He completed his active military service in 1951. Page Tools. Much has been made of the general’s flair for the dramatic. Are you content to let our troops stay in that bloody perimeter like beef cattle in the slaughterhouse? The foundation of the ethical code at West Point is found in the academy's motto, "Duty, Honor, Country." Through the use of rhetorical devices, MacArthur expresses the theme that Americans should defend the country sturdily and carry on its numerous objectives by means of his moral code: “Duty, Honor… They build your basic character. Are they capable of victory? It is the quality that empowers Marines to exemplify the ultimate in ethical and moral behavior: to never lie, cheat, or steal; to abide by an uncompromising code of integrity; to respect human dignity; and to have respect and concern for each other. Killing U.S., Boosting China, to “Save Climate”. At a conference in Tokyo, Admiral Forest Sherman, Chief of Naval Operations, summed up the Navy’s objections: “If every possible geographical and naval handicap were listed — Inchon has ’em all.” Listening to the arguments, MacArthur recalled something his father had told him long ago: “Doug, councils of war breed timidity and defeatism.” As he recounted the event in his memoir, Reminiscences, he responded with the following: The very arguments you have made as to the impracticalities involved will tend to ensure for me the element of surprise. This speech is a great example of personalizing a speech for the occasion and audience. The award was met with one of the most famous and motivating speeches in American history. MacArthur was 82 when he made that final appearance at West Point, no longer as agile physically, perhaps, as he was when, as a spry 70-year-old, he ruled as viceroy in Japan, while simultaneously directing a war against communist forces in Korea. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. Always their blood, and sweat, and tears, as they sought the way and the light and the truth. They teach you in this way to be an officer and a gentleman. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy’s breast. “During his infancy,” wrote historian and biographer William Manchester, “Indians attacked his father’s troops with bows and arrows; in his later years — when he proposed that wars be outlawed — superpowers were brandishing nuclear weapons.” He grew up in an age when an automobile was still a rare luxury. Jackson State University
Yet when he graduated as a second lieutenant in 1903, wrote Manchester, he was, like the rest of the Army, “professionally unprepared for the twentieth century’s wars. No human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this [Thayer Award]. The modern nation-state is relatively new. “The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor.” An article in the May-June 1997 issue of the Journal of Historical Review quotes MacArthur as saying, “My staff was unanimous in believing that Japan was on the point of collapse and surrender.”. As I listened to those songs [of the glee club], in memory’s eye I could see those staggering columns of the first World War, bending under soggy packs on many a weary march, from dripping dusk to drizzling dawn, slogging ankle deep through the mire of shell-pocked roads to form grimly for the attack, bule-lipped, covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving home to their objective, and for many to the judgment seat of God. 2. 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. Following the surrender, MacArthur spoke in a broadcast to the American people: A new era is upon us. 9 October 1962: Awarded Congressional Gold Medal. When retired General of the Army Douglas A. MacArthur made a farewell visit to his alma mater on May 12, 1962, it was to receive the Sylvanus Thayer Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the United States Military Academy. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Duty, Honor, Country is at the heart of the oath taken by the officers who defend this nation. That set the stage for MacArthur’s unveiling of a bold plan to land forces behind the enemy lines at Inchon and attack the North Koreans from both directions.
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