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Osotogary
12-23-04, 10:54 PM
President Harry S. Truman said this about General Douglas MacArthur.
..."I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son-of-a-b*tch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail."


Half to three quarters? Hmmmm. Do you think that this quote minus Geneal MacArther is true today?

hrscowboy
12-23-04, 11:04 PM
Oh hell yeah its still holds true...

DSchmitke
12-24-04, 07:14 AM
Ditto

Toby M
12-24-04, 09:28 AM
I have to believe that our military leadership is better than that. No, on the contrary, I think they are among the best military minds in the world today. Some of them however, seem to have lost sight of their objectives. Maybe got lost in their own quagmire of red tape. I think a few actually want to win the war for the sake of winning the war. Others want their names to be associated with the win...Most importantly, I think we have to have confidence in the leadership of the best trained and best equiped military in the world! If not, God help us...

Toby M
12-24-04, 09:31 AM
Oooops! My bad...I went back and re-read the question after I hit enter. The question was about MacArthur. Sorry about that. It's early in the morning and I haven't finished my coffee yet.

kentmitchell
12-24-04, 02:34 PM
Truman was a little man of limited intelligence who had a big, big mouth. He was no hero and not a great president.
Remember, a little earlier he had called the Corps the navy's "police force." It took him a while to come back from that gaffe and he had to eat a lot of crow to do it. Specifically, he went to the Marine Corps League convention, which happened to be in D.C., that year, and apologized in person.
Like a lot of politicians, he discovered the Corps is a force at the ballot box, too.

snipowsky
12-24-04, 03:16 PM
Isn't Harry Truman the whole reason Vietnam even happened? I've read in history books Ho Chi Minh asked Harry Truman for help seeking independence from the French. To make a long story short Mr. Truman with all his infinite wisdom declined, so Ho Chi decided to ask the communists and they happily complied. Now ain't that a *****?

Osotogary
12-24-04, 04:32 PM
Harry Truman was Harry Truman but what about the quote about the Generals? Could any one say that about the military leadership today? (I'm not talking NCO's here)

GunnyL
12-24-04, 04:53 PM
Personally, I don't think you make it to the General Ranks in the Marine Corps if you're a dumb SOB. It takes a lot for Marines to reach that level, I have however met some Colonels who were Dumb SOB's and some Lt. Col's who should have been General's but were passed over for their lack of Political Correctness. As for the other branches, I couldn't speak for them.

GunnyL

greensideout
12-24-04, 08:00 PM
Originally posted by kentmitchell
Truman was a little man of limited intelligence who had a big, big mouth. He was no hero and not a great president.
Remember, a little earlier he had called the Corps the navy's "police force." It took him a while to come back from that gaffe and he had to eat a lot of crow to do it. Specifically, he went to the Marine Corps League convention, which happened to be in D.C., that year, and apologized in person.
Like a lot of politicians, he discovered the Corps is a force at the ballot box, too.


Truman is from the Show Me State---We like him here!

To answer the question; Generals are politicians---nothing more, nothing less. I served with a sgt that was a Full Bird. He was offered a promotion to General, and refused it! He went back to NCO. He wanted no part of the political bull that he would face. Nice guy! He ran the Mess Hall and the food was great!

We called him the "Bird Sgt". True story.


The Navy's "police force"? Of course we are! The Marines are America's "police force"!

ivalis
12-24-04, 08:14 PM
my favorite quote involving Truman & the Corps went something like this,

......"the Marine Corps has a propaganda machine equal to Stalin's"......

i always took that as a compliment twoard the MC.

greensideout
12-24-04, 08:18 PM
You can really be a butt, Ivalis! But you make me laugh!

Have a wonderful holiday!

ivalis
12-24-04, 08:28 PM
same to you green (the christmas part, lol).

Truman was the only one to leave office broke. Speaks to his honesty not his intelligence. They broke the mold after him.

Arlene Horton
12-24-04, 09:07 PM
A long time ago someone referred to General MacArthur as "Dugout Doug". He blew out of the Philippines and left General "Skinny" Wainright to fight the Japanese. My father was a SeaBee in the South Pacific during WWII. His opinion of MacArthur was unprintable. He cheered when President Truman pulled the general out of command. I was too young to understand what it was all about but from some of the history books I've since read about the South Pacific during WWII seem to take a dim view of MacArthur's actions in the Philippines. True, he did a good job squaring away the Japanese high command and giving the Japanese a chance to change the mentality and increase the Japanese ability to make economic milestones.

greensideout
12-25-04, 08:45 PM
Screw the Jap economics!

I think that General MacArthur was 100% correct when he wanted to go north in Korea and even into China.

Korea is some kind of lunitic threat now and China is an economic threat.

General MacArthur was ahead of his time.

However, he got his feet wet showboating his "return". = Politician.