Word: macarthur
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...been this way all over the nation, ever since Governor Earl Warren and half a million people turned out to meet General Douglas MacArthur in San Francisco on his return from the Far East. President Harry Truman had dismissed the outspoken General, but Congress invited him to a love fest where members wept openly. The people supported MacArthur against Truman, 66% to 25%, according to Gallup...
...support for MacArthur far exceeded the numbers of the minority (Republican) party in those days. MacArthur claimed to speak from above the parties -- and TIME believed him: "Soldier MacArthur was speaking his convictions, and they were tailored to no political wind." MacArthur himself said America's only hope was for the people to take back their government. "I have clearly seen that the soul of liberty is still living in the American heart. It is neither Democratic nor Republican, but American." The people sympathized with a military man done in by the politicians. He turned to the people...
...actually helped MacArthur that most of the press was critical of him. While the people were behind him, 85% of journalists surveyed backed Truman. That showed how out of touch were the news people. MacArthur knew that entrenched powers would try to muzzle him. "I am told in effect I must follow blindly the leader -- keep silent -- or take the bitter consequences." It helped too that he was not a politician: "I have been impelled as a patriotic duty of simple citizenship -- and a disagreeable duty it has been -- to expose for public consideration the failures and weaknesses...
...literal frenzy of MacArthur's reception -- Herbert Hoover called him "the reincarnation of St. Paul" -- faded over the months when he took his "Crusade" to the people. The lofty rhetoric, repeated from town to town, took on a road-show tinniness. His act verged on self-caricature. Yet enough appeal remained for Robert Taft, who was seeking the Republican presidential nomination, to offer him the vice-presidential slot. When MacArthur said he did not want to waste his time presiding over the Senate, Taft desperately offered to create a special role for him as overseer of military matters, his "deputy...
Like carousers who do not want to know too much about what happened the night before, Americans tend to forget or downplay emotional binges like the idolization of MacArthur. I was talking with a young journalist at the height of 1987's spasm of "Olliemania," when Oliver North seemed -- to some -- to be speaking truth to power. The reporter said he had never seen anything like it -- and I tried to contrast the few weeks of Ollie with the months of MacArthur's heroization. There are many cases in America's recent past in which people have turned from...