A Question of Subordination

"I do not know why I was recalled," said General MacArthur. "I am still completely uninformed, because the reasons contained in the order are not valid . . . I was operating in what I call a vacuum. I could hardly have been said to be in opposition to policies which I was not even aware of ... Any insinuation by anyone, however high his office, that I have ever in any way failed ... to carry out my instructions is completely unworthy and unwarranted. No more subordinate soldier has ever worn the American uniform."

"Were you recalled with the action to take effect summarily, immediately? Is that a customary procedure?" asked New Hampshire's Republican Styles Bridges.

MACARTHUR: "I have never known it in the American Army and I know of no precedents any place ... I don't think there is any question that the interest of the United States was jeopardized in such a summary mode of turning over great responsibilities which involve the security of the country." Was Acheson responsible? No. "It was the judgment of one individual. The final judgment will be made by public opinion and the historical future."

Psychological Warfare. Senator Morse wanted to know about charges that the general had embarrassed the Administration by issuing his cease-fire proposal to the Communist commander in the field at a time when he knew the Administration was preparing its own proposal.

MACARTHUR: "The statement I put out . . . was a military appraisal . . . largely prepared as a part of psychological warfare ... It was the last thing in the world that I would have wished to have done, to embarrass the President or anyone else who is working to bring about peace."

MORSE: "You received a notice from the Joint Chiefs of Staff that, in effect, in the future you should get clearance?"

MACARTHUR: "I did not regard it as a rebuke."

KEFAUVER OF TENNESSEE: "You did not feel that the order . . . affected things like your letter to Congressman Martin?"

MACARTHUR: "Senator, my letter . . . was merely a routine communication such as I turn out by the hundreds. It made so little impression upon me . . . that when I heard one of my staff officers saying there had been some criticism, I had to go into the files. I didn't even recall what the circumstance was."

KEFAUVER: "If [your chief of staff] had written to me, knowing that I was in a big debate in Congress about whether you were right in deciding how you were going to make that magnificent reconquest,of the Philippines . . . and criticizing even mildly what you had decided to do ... would you have sanctioned him doing so?"

MACARTHUR: "Certainly ... As a theater commander I had my own responsibilities and I made my own recommendations and would again. If they disagreed with those of higher authority, the question of the judgment of that higher authority is not within my hands. That is a matter for public opinion ... I do not believe in the gag rule . . . If [a military man] does not perform his duties satisfactorily, he is subject to removal. If an Administration doesn't conduct its processes satisfactorily, every four years we have a referendum."

Political Mistake. MacArthur insisted that his differences were not with the military. "I am not aware of having had any differences with the Joint Chiefs of Staff on military questions at all."

But had the State Department asked for consultations with him on its China policies? asked Wisconsin's Senator Alexander Wiley. "None whatsoever," said MacArthur. General George Marshall had been his guest in Tokyo on his way to China on the famed 1946 Marshall Mission, but "never discussed in any way, shape or manner his mission."

MacArthur added that, in his opinion, "the greatest political mistake we made in a hundred years in the Pacific was in allowing the Communists to grow in power in China. I think, at one stroke, we undid everything, starting from John Hay, through Taft, Leonard Wood, Woodrow Wilson, Henry Stimson, and all those great architects of our Pacific policy. I believe it was fundamental, and I believe we will pay for it, for a century."

WILEY: "Would you have sought to have amalgamated the Commies and Nationalists [as Marshall tried to do]?"

MACARTHUR: "Just about as much chance as getting them together as that oil and water will mix."

Farewell. The hearings over and his views spread wide on the record, Douglas MacArthur flew back to New York in the Bataan. This week he announced that he considered the hearings "his final official act," and turned the Bataan back to the Defense Department. Said MacArthur: "A great plane, a great crew, a great pilot. As it flies out of my life, I feel I am losing something of inestimable value, an old friend."

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