Books
Adlai Stevenson and the
World
By John Bartlow Martin
©1978 Anchor Press/
Doubleday
$7.95 paperback
In his sequel to Adlai Stevenson
of Illinois, John Bartlow Martin
completes his task of chronicling
the career of two-time presidential
candidate Adlai Stevenson.
Adlai Stevenson and the World
covers Stevenson’s life from his
defeat for the presidency by
Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, his
years as the leading liberal
spokesman of the land, his sec
ond defeat to Eisenhower in 1956,
his years as United States Am
bassador to the United Nations, to
his death on a London street in
1965.
Few men have had theirlives as
fully exposed as Stevenson,
whose major claim to fame was
two unsuccessful bids for the pres
idency of the United States. Vet it
is those very campaigns that give
such treatment legitimacy. The
1952 campaign may stand as the
finest example of the art of re
sponsible, partisan political de
bate during the last half of the 20th
century.
Martin provides a wealth of de
ir
tail to his biography, so much de
tail, in fact, that the essential fiber
of Stevenson the man is at times
drowned in a sea of triviality.
Martin s treatment of Stevenson's
daily life (gathered from over
65,000 index cards — nearty three
for every day he lived) at times
reaches beyond academic or
even personal interest to such
minutiae as what Stevenson ate,
drank, what time he went to bed
and how well he slept. Even when
reporting substantive activities,
few details were overlooked. One
example should suffice:
“On April 14 (1953) Stevenson
and his companions left Singa
pore at 8:15 a.m. aboard a U.S.
Airforce DC-3 for Kuala Lumpur,
capital of the Federation of
Malaya.” As an introduction for a
major event such detail may be
justified, but this excerpt is typical
of mere daily diary type reporting.
But the main purpose of the
book — to record Adlai Steven
son, the man and his career — is
achieved Stevenson's impact on
the politics of the 50s was enorm
ous. For nearly 15 years Steven
son was the personification of
political decency and moral and
intellectual integrity. While
Senator Joseph McCarthy witch
hunted and Eisenhower shunned
the intellectual, Stevenson,
through his leadership, laid the
foundation for programs that were
to become the "New Frontier” of
John Kennedy and the "Great
Society" of Lyndon Johnson.
Stevenson's flaws also were
many, and are recorded with
equal concern for detail. His views
on Indo-China were scarcely dis
cernable from those of John Fos
ter Dulles or Richard Nixon.
Stevenson, whose main ooncern
was always with global politics,
saw the emerging civil rights
struggle of the 1950s and 1960s
as an annoyance. Described by
some as "complex, ambitious,
and aristocratic," Stevenson
could also be vain, pompous and
frivolous. He was a womanizer of
renown, preferring the rich and/or
powerful female to the exclusion
of all others.
Near the end of his life, Steven
son was a worn and tired man. His
hectic social life, and ever
pressing need to speak out on the
issues of the day and a demand
ing schedule as a representative
of the United States to the rest of
the world, left him physically and
emotionally drained. George Ball
(ten days before Stevenson's
n
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death) described him as “a terribly
unhappy man. History had passed
him by."
But thanks to Martin and others,
history has not passed Adlai
Stevenson by. His career shines
as a model for all liberal intellectu
als as an example of what can be
accomplished within the
framework of honest and honora
ble politics. Stevenson's comment
about possible epitaphs may be
truer than he hoped....''I have
often thought that if I had any
epitaph that I would rather have
than another, it would be to say
that I had disturbed the sleep of
my generation." Our current gen
eration could well use being dis
turbed by the spirit of Stevenson.
By Dan Spickler
American Caesar
By William Manchester
©1978 Little. Brown &
Company
$15 hardbound. 793 pages
During the siege of Corregidor
(the Rock) and Bataan in World
War II, the American soldiers
commanded by General Douglas
MacArthur composed some verse
which they sung to the tune of
“The Battle Hymn of the Repub
lic." One stanza went:
Dougout Doug MacArthur lies
ash akin' on the Flock
Safe from all the bombers and
from any sudden shock
Dugout Doug is eating of the
best food on Bataan
And his troops go starving
on...
Dugout Doug come out from
hiding
Dugout Doug come out from
hiding
Send to Franklin the glad tid
ings
That his troops go starving on!
But this man whom the soldiers
of Bataan ridiculed as a coward
had earned nine decorations from
bravery on the battlefields of
France in World War I in 1918
MacArthur’s fellow officers pre
sented him with a cigarette case
inscribed ‘‘The Bravest of the
Brave,” and his immediate
superior described him as "the
bloodiest fighting man in this
army."
William Manchester of Death of
a President fame has chosen both
a compelling and difficult subject
for his latest biography. MacArthur
is a compelling protagonist be
cause of his pivotal role in Ameri
can history. MacArthur’s life
began in a frontier fort where he
grew up surrounded by bugles
and columns of blue-coated sol
diers; his life ended during the
Cold War with the atomic bomb as
the ultimate weapon. MacArthur
fought in five wars, was a general
in three, and several times was
touted as a presidential candi
date. Such life begs for biographi
cal scrutiny.
But, as the anecdotes of his
bravery and cowardice suggest,
his character also defies ready
analysis, and herein lies
Manchester's greatest problem.
Manchester calls him "a great
thundering paradox of a
man... the most protean, most
ridiculous, most sublime. ” To
Manchester's great credit he suc
ceeds in revealing both the
ridiculous and the sublime in
MacArthur. MacArthur’s best
moments on the battlefield and off
are artfully described, as well as
his equally common moments of
paranoia, spitefulness, and in
subordination.
Manchester is less successful,
though, in illuminating the founda^
tions of his subject's character —
the forces that molded him into the
complex man that he was. At the
end of the book I knew about
Douglas MacArthur, but I still did
not understand him.
Manchester refrains from exten
sive psychoanalysis of MacAr
thur; perhaps more analysis of his
personality would have been ap
propriate. MacArthur's father (a
Medal of Honor winner in the Civil
War) and mother influenced him
greatly, of course. Manchester
suggests that Douglas spent his
entire life trying to live up to the
heritage of his father’s heroism.
But Manchester deals with
MacArthur's childhood and
adolescence in less than ten
pages, and that is not enough.
The roots of his personality re
main a mystery.
MacArthur's public life makes
for fascinating reading, though,
and in this area Manchester is at
his best. History buffs, especially
those interested in military of Far
Eastern history, should find the
accounts of MacArthur's role in
Korea. Japan, and the Phillippines
valuable, Manchester’s prose is
deft; his research is thorough.
Douglas MacArthur will be re
membered as one of the most im
portant individuals erf the 20th cen
tury, and American Caesar de
serves reading for its fine elucida
tion of MacArthur's place in his
tory. By Martin Stadius
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