Research Paper: General Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur, born January 26th, 1880 in Little Rock, Arkansas. MacArthur was an American five-star general and the Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific during World War II.
He received the Medal of Honor for his service during the Philippines Campaign, which made him and his Father Arthur MacArthur, Jr, the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He is one of five men to ever earn the rank of General of the US Army and the only man to become a field marshal in the Philippine Army. Born and raised in a military family in the American Old West, MacArthur was valedictorian at the West Texas Military Academy, and First Captain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated top of the of 1903.
During the 1914 United States occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission, for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. MacArthur returned to the War Department, where he was promoted to major on 11 December 1915. In June 1916, he was assigned as head of the Bureau of Information at the office of the Secretary of War, Newton D. Baker. MacArthur has since been
Morrow 2 regarded as the Army's first press officer. Following the declaration of war on Germany on 6 April 1917, Baker and MacArthur secured an agreement from President Wilson for the use of the National Guard on the Western Front. MacArthur suggested sending first a division organized from units of different states, so as to avoid the appearance of favoritism toward any particular state. Baker approved the creation of this formation, which became the 42nd ("Rainbow") Division, and appointed Major General William A. Mann, the head of the National Guard Bureau, as its commander; MacArthur was its chief of staff, with the rank of colonel. At MacArthur's request, this commission was in the infantry rather than the engineers. The 42nd Division was assembled in August and September 1917 at Camp Mills, New York, where its training emphasized open-field combat rather than trench warfare. It sailed in a convoy from Hoboken, New Jersey, for France on 18 October 1917; MacArthur made the passage on the transport Covington. On 19 December, Mann was replaced as division commander by Major General Charles T. Menoher.
In the fighting on the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross Twice and the Silver Star seven times. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of the United States Army Forces in the Far East. A series of disasters followed, beginning with the destruction of his air on Dec. 8, 1941, and the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese.

Morrow 3 MacArthur’s forces were soon compelled to withdraw to Bataan, where they held out until May 1942. In March 1942, MacArthur would soon become Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area. For his exceptional defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was again awarded the Medal of Honor. He officially accepted Japan’s surrender on September 2, 1945, aboard the USS Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay, and oversaw the economic, political, and social changes.
He led the United States Nations Command in the Korean War until he was removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on April 11, 1945. He later became Chairman of the Board of Remington Rand. A day after his arrival in San Francisco from Korea on April 18, 1951, MacArthur had flown with his family to Washington, D.C. where he was scheduled to address a joint session of Congress. It was his and Jean's first visit to the continental United States since 1937.
When they had been married; Arthur IV, now aged 13, had never been to the U.S. On April 19, 1951, MacArthur made his last official appearance in a farewell address to the U.S. Congress presenting and defending his side of his disagreement with Truman over the conduct of the Korean War. During his speech, he was interrupted by fifty ovations. MacArthur returned to the United States and settled in Washington D.C., the American public welcomed him back as a hero, but Truman continued to be openly critical of his actions. MacArthur devoted much of his time to
Morrow 4 defending his actions in Korea and criticizing Truman’s inaction, accusing him of having allowed Communism to run rampant in the region. He was also considered as a potential Republican presidential candidate, though none of these exploratory campaigns ever developed further. In 1952, MacArthur met with Dwight Eisenhower, who had just been elected president, and advised him on how to end the Korean War. His decidedly extreme strategy, which included the use of atomic weapons, was rejected. Around this time, MacArthur and his wife moved to New York City, and he was elected chairman of the board for Remington Rand, a manufacturer of typewriters and early computers. Besides the duties that came with this post, MacArthur devoted his time to writing his memoirs, which would later be published as Reminiscences and serialized in Life magazine. He would also meet with presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson to advise them on military matters. Douglas MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., on April 5, 1964, at the age of 84. He was honored with a state funeral and was buried in the Douglas MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia. The memorial is not only the resting place of MacArthur and his wife Jean, but also home to a museum collection documenting his life and military service.