The Korean War: The Untold Truth

Chapter 5 Introduction (2)
Later, even more frustratingly, the Joint Chiefs of Staff lost control of the American field commander in the war, General Douglas MacArthur.They allowed him to disobey the military order in spirit, if not in letter.They risked letting him lead the army, even if his formation put the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers in danger.They treated him not as an inferior, but as a surly, naughty child who had to be coaxed and cajoled into obedience.Allowing these intolerable things to happen is the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Omar Bradley, who commanded a 130 million-strong ground force in Europe in World War II, an American Largest force ever commanded by a general.But Bradley is still difficult to control MacArthur."He treated us like we were a bunch of little kids," Bradley lamented at one point.

MacArthur was certainly not an ordinary field general. MacArthur was 1950 years old in 70. This senior general of the U.S. Army is the most irritatingly complex figure the U.S. Army has ever created. between the lines. "MacArthur's flamboyant theatricality ("He could have been another John Barrymore," said Army Chief of Staff Gen. Lawton Collins: "He could have been another John Barrymore.") drew either adulation or contempt from those around him. His enormous size His self-awareness allowed no hint that he could go wrong in anything, at any time. His messianic eloquence subdued the doubters, made them follow him, and fall into his grasp. He was honored by his bravery. Awarded 13 medals (including 1 Medal of Honor). He seems to sometimes deliberately mock death, or conversely, he has a sense of immortality, feeling that he can be exposed to enemy fire without harm. (Nevertheless, in his The Marines who commanded operations in the Pacific theater derided him as "burrowing Doug"—an absent commander who showed up for photographers rather than actual combat. The nickname had Unfair.) But for the U.S. Army, Douglas MacArthur was unique. He was a big star, he received all kinds of honors, and held every high position from West Point cum laude to chief of staff. From 1945 By 1951, MacArthur was governor, rebuilding shattered Japan into a democracy after his victory in the Pacific War. MacArthur was so devoted to his duty in Japan (so he said) that he didn't even return to Japan after the war. The United States went to accept the traditional hero's triumphant ceremony. He has not returned to his homeland for 13 years, but it doesn't matter, he still sticks to his position. Therefore, in the eyes of the American public, he is like an almost mythical figure. out of reach and magnified.

Beneath MacArthur's veneer of ego and fortitude, however, was an unfathomable mass of self-doubt and self-abuse.What makes MacArthur restless is his overly doting mother, Pinkie MacArthur, whom all the evidence clearly proves to be stupid.She felt her husband, a Civil War general and hero, had been under-represented (despite his many accolades, including the Medal of Honor).She'd been messing with the Army on behalf of her husband for years, until the poor guy died.She then turned her affections on "Little Douglas," first helping him win a commission to West Point, and then following him to West Point (she lived on campus in the Taylor Hotel, and his dormitory was within sight of her. Inside).Throughout his career, she harassed and prodded him to "achieve more", wrote to senior officials urging his promotion, followed him step by step from one dull job to the next. At one point in the 20s, MacArthur tried to get rid of her by marrying a slender divorcee from coffeehouse society, who almost succeeded in persuading MacArthur to leave the army and join banking.MacArthur's mother refused to attend their wedding.When gossip columnists reported that MacArthur's wife continued her carnival social life (with other men) while he was living overseas, MacArthur hurried to divorce court.

This was in 1929, and this scene stung MacArthur.It is only because of journalistic taste and the Defamation Act that this much-vaunted general has not been publicly revealed as a cuckold and jilted husband. How can a commander lead an army if he cannot keep his family together?Another blow to his arrogance came in 1932.At that time, MacArthur put on a full set of combat uniforms and commanded troops and tanks to march towards the destitute veterans.The veterans gathered in Washington to demand their retirement compensation, and MacArthur was ordered to drive them out of the pitiful camp.MacArthur found the task annoying, but he followed orders.He was ridiculed by the media as a rogue thug who went to beat up the brothers he had commanded in France.

For this reason, MacArthur retreated from the rivers and lakes.As Army chief of staff, he had an elegant residence at Fort Meyer in the leafy Virginia countryside across the Potomac from Washington.But now MacArthur longed for privacy, not the goldfish-bowl life of a military post.He had some special fun on his mind.

Under the arrangement of a trusted lieutenant, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Jefferson Davis, he rented an apartment on Corollama Road in Northwest Washington, a retreat known only to a few close friends.MacArthur entertained batch after batch of prostitutes here, sometimes two or three or even four at a time, but he was only as an admiring, superior man, not a sexual partner.In his memoirs of his days with MacArthur, Davis says:

What he thought of as happy hour was bringing them in for an evening.He never fucked them, he just sat in an easy chair and made the girls marvel at what a great guy he was.

He also has a sadistic streak.We would go to a brothel in Baltimore, and MacArthur would pick an outstanding prostitute and treat her very well—taking her to dinner, reciting poems, buying her flowers, holding her in a daze, treating her Fascinated.And the first time she utters some stressful words, as if to get something permanent from him, he'll call her a "little whore" and walk away.He would also laugh at her on the drive back to Washington.

Another eccentricity of MacArthur is very serious.Many nights, he called Davis into the living room.He sat, with a loaded revolver in his hand, and narrated the untold hardships of being one of America's finest soldiers.In the eyes of his fellow officers and the American public, he is the pride of the American military, but does he really deserve the recognition?In the hours before dawn, MacArthur would ruefully declare that he was a half-titled hero, only because his mother insisted that he become "a glorious Apollo, Rowland, and George Washington all rolled into one."He felt that he was overrated both as a person and as a general.He is afraid that at some point in his life he will face a test that he cannot overcome, and then fail.But a death at a time and a manner of his own choosing—here he sometimes pointed a pistol to his temple—would save him the shame of failure and bring him peace of mind.

Davis' role was to persuade MacArthur to put his pistol down and to say that he was such a valuable soldier that the country could not live without him.MacArthur would go on to say he was "comfortable and relieved" to die in the company of such a close friend, but he agreed to put the gun down.Throughout the 20s, he kept re-enacting the scene.

(End of this chapter)