Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was a five-star American Army general and one of the figures of 20th-century American military history. He was born Douglas MacArthur on January 26, 1880, at Little Rock Barracks, Arkansas, into a American military family — his father Arthur MacArthur Jr. was a Civil War general and Medal of Honor recipient. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating first in his class in 1903.

His military career spanned World War I (where he served as the Chief of Staff of the 42nd "Rainbow" Division and was wounded twice), the interwar period as US Army Chief of Staff (1930–1935), Field Marshal of the Philippine Army (1936–1941), and Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II (1942–1945). The March 1942 evacuation from the Philippines under direct Roosevelt orders — and the subsequent "I shall return" promise to the Filipino people — shaped his American Pacific Theater public persona.

His October 20, 1944 return to the Philippines at Leyte Gulf and the September 2, 1945 acceptance of the Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri made him one of the American military figures of the late 1940s. He served as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers in occupied Japan (1945–1951), overseeing the post-war reconstruction of Japan and the 1947 Japanese constitution drafting.

His Korean War tenure (1950–1951) was shaped by the September 1950 Inchon landing — one of the American military operations of the 20th century — and the April 11, 1951 firing by President Harry S. Truman over MacArthur's insubordinate public statements regarding the Korean War strategy. The firing produced the April 19, 1951 farewell address to the US Congress — featuring the line "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away" — that has been continuously cited as one of the American congressional speeches of the 20th century. He died on April 5, 1964, at age 84, in Washington, D.C.

His name Douglas is from the Scottish Gaelic Dubhghlas meaning "dark stream" — anchored in Scottish Clan Douglas tradition. Douglas has been continuously among the most-popular American boys' names for over a century.