lifted his head slightly and smiled to his wife and
General Whitney. "I shall return," he said.
These words gave hope to Jean MacArthur who
had heard them before. They made up the famous
battle slogan which MacArthur had first directed
to the soldiers, sailors, and nurses on Corregidor
and to the 18 million people of the Philippine
Islands when he was forced to flee from the Jap
anese onslaught in 1942. The words were also the
pledge that helped sustain the Filipinos during the
Japanese occupation; now it helped Jean Mac
Arthur believe that her husband would fight his
way back to health.
During his recovery, Jean, who has always
"drunk of the same cup," moved into the room
across the hall, where she stayed through the
three months of his hospitalization.
Home Life Has Been a Fortress
' This has always been the tone of their marriage.
With his wife and son, General MacArthur has
enjoyed a home life that has been its own strong
fortress within any theater of war. These two
his wife and his son know what Manila, Corregi
dor, and Inchon meant to him. They know and
he knows that they know. To each of them, he,
in turn, has given a sentimental devotion.
This devotion to his son is reflected in a recol
lection of General Whitney, a frequent companion,
who has seen the General weep on only three oc
casions. The General wept when Manila fell to
the Japanese and when he told the world about
the Bataan Death March. The third time he wept
was when his son fell while ice skating and broke
his arm.
When the MacArthurs lived in Brisbane, Aus
tralia, early in World War II, the General used to
. play a "boom-boom" game with five-year-old Ar
thur every morning. The game would start with
father receiving a smart salute from Arthur. Then
father and son marched about the room to the tune
of "boomity, boomity, boom," which they shouted
in chorus. When Arthur reached a certain chair,
he knelt and hid his eyes until his father shouted
an especially loud "boom!"
At that signal Arthur looked up to see what
his morning surprise was. Perhaps it was as insig-
mmm iiliiiiii' iirViniiiiimiiiiniii hrwi MriH
nificant as a pencil or some paper clips. But on
special occasions it could be a new toy. Because ,
this morning ritual was only for father and son,
the mother was never present. Her part in the
enterprise was to hide the boom-boom presents,
lest the too-doting father give his son all at the
same time. One boom-boom gift the boy cherished
was a tiny American flag, the symbol of the home
land he had never seen.
The General was named Father of the Year in
1942. In accepting this honor, he said: "By profes
sion, I am a soldier and take pride in that Jact. But
I am prouder infinitely prouder to be a father. A
soldier destroys in order to build; the father only
builds, never destroys.
"The one has the potentiality of death; the other
embodies creation and life."
Douglas MacArthur was as dutiful a son as he
is a father. When the MacArthurs were evacuating
Manila, he ran back to the family apartment to
get medals won by his father, Lt. Gen. Arthur
MacArthur, also a famous soldier.
With his mother, Douglas MacArthur enjoyed so
close an attachment that, when he was appointed
military adviser to the new governor of the Phil
ippines, he said that he would accept only if his
mother, then in her middle 80s, could come with
him. Come with him she did.
During the voyage, Douglas MacArthur, then
57, met Jean Faircloth of Murfreesboro, Tenn., an
attractive Southerner 20 years his junior. She be
came his second wife after an extended courtship
(his first marriage to Henrietta Louise Brooks
ended in divorce).
To MacArthur, his wife has always been "my
beloved wife; my best soldier." To Mrs. MacAr
thur, her husband is never "Douglas"; she calls
him "General" or more playfully, "Sir Boss."
The General, Jean, and young Arthur have
shared difficult and dangerous times, and their re
lationship still reflects these ordeals. Once, the
General ordered his wife not to take the child to
the barber for fear that he would catch cold. But,
"best soldier" though she was, Jean defied her
commander this time.
In Tokyo, the MacArthurs resided in the former
American embassy, a gaudy and unlivable estab-
Accompanying his alher on a visit to West Point in 1951, Arlhur
was given (his dress cap by the Corps of Cadets at the Academy.
T- v
dignilary, Dr. Ryotaru Azuma.
i x m,. "u ,v
lishment. When Arthur asked, "Will this be a
home?" the General assured him; "Your mother
will take care of us."
During the Korean war, MacArthur's family
shared with him the exultation of victory at In
chon and the despair and confusion that followed
Red Chinese intervention. Then, on April 12, 1951,
while the MacArthurs were entertaining two U.S.
Senators at lunch, Mrs. MacArthur was called to
the telephone. On an Armed Services Radio broad
cast, an old friend had heard the news of Mac
Arthur's recall because of his demands to attack
Red bases inside China.
This was the end of active service for an old
soldier whose earliest memory was the sound of
bugles in Fort Wingate, a lonely frontier post in
the territory of New Mexico, where his parents
took him as a babe in arms. But, as the senior mil
itary officer on the active rolls of the Armed Forces
of the United States, a post that ranks all other
offices, he had hoped to be assigned duties by the
President and to be consulted by the Joint Chiefs
of Staff. When no assignment and no request for
consultation came, he felt that he was a resource
that was being wasted.
MacArthur, however, feels that his warning in
Korea that "there is no substitute for victory" has
proved prophetic. He believes that, as the result
of our reluctance to pursue the Korean war to ulti
mate victory, we have allowed Red China to be
come a military colossus which threatens the peace
of the world.
Arthur Won't Be a Soldier
In the intervening years, the General's only son
has become a senior at Columbia College, major
ing in English. Arthur wants to be a writer and
has no intention of following in his family's mili
tary tradition. A soldier and a soldier's son, the
General has always encouraged his own son to
be self-reliant. He is content that this gentle and
intelligent boy has been drawn to the artistic rather
than to the military life. When Arthur showed in
terest in playing the piano, however, his father
watched closely, and when it was obvious the boy
was only an average player, he discouraged pro
fessional ambitions.
(Continued on iage 12)
ZT1
Iwo onnarsoJcJiur.s. JvvijjM 0. Eimmhuwurund UourIus MacArthur,
moot informally bufora (iltuncing a XVUitu Houhq lunchunn in VJ54.
Family Weekly, January 22, J961