Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and 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 theater during World War II. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War with initial success, but was contentiously removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951. He later became chairman of the board of Remington Rand.

About Douglas MacArthur in brief

Summary Douglas MacArthurDouglas MacArthur was an American five-star general and 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 theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the Philippines campaign, which made him and his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. the first father and son to be awarded the medal. He led the United Nations Command in the Korean War with initial success, but was contentiously removed from command by President Harry S. Truman on 11 April 1951. He later became chairman of the board of Remington Rand. MacArthur was born 26 January 1880, at Little Rock Barracks, Little Rock, Arkansas, to Arthur MacArthur, a U.S. Army captain, and his wife, Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur. Arthur Jr. was a son of Scottish-born jurist and politician Arthur MacArthur Sr. The family lived on a succession of Army posts in the American Old West. MacArthur is also distantly related to Matthew Perry, a Commodore of the US Navy and Commodore of Commodore Matthew Perry’s Navy Ship, the USS Perry. In his memoir, Reminiscences, MacArthur wrote: “I learned to ride and shoot and even read and write almost before I could walk or write.” He was one of only five to rise to the rank of General of the Army in the US Army, and the only one to be conferred the rank of field marshal in thePhilippines Army. In 1925, he became the Army’s youngest major general.

He served on the court-martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell and was president of the American Olympic Committee during the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam. In 1930, he was involved in the expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters from Washington, D. C., and the establishment and organization of the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1937, MacArthur retired to become Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. In 1941, MacArthur gave a speech in which he famously promised \”I shall return\” to the Philippines, and fulfilled that promise. He officially accepted the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri, which was anchored in Tokyo Bay, and he oversaw the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951. As the effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw sweeping economic, political and social changes. He refused to fight for the South in the Civil War, and refused to attend her wedding to her sister, who was a prominent Norfolk, Virginia, family. He died on 1 August 1876, and Malcolm, born on 17 October 1878, died of measles in 1883. He had three sons, the youngest of whom was the youngest, Arthur III, born the following August 1, 1876. His last son, Malcolm, was born on 1 July 1883, and died in 1884. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery, alongside his father, Arthur Jr., and his brother Arthur III.