Douglas MacArthur

“ The Japanese people, since the war, has undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern history with a commendable will, eagerness to learn, and mark capacity to understand, they have from the ashes left in war's work, erected in Japan an edifice dedicated to the primacy of individual liberty and personal dignity, and in the ensuing process there has been created a truly representative government committed to the advance of political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice. ”

“ While Asia is commonly referred to as the gateway to Europe, it is no less true that Europe is the gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail to have its impact upon the other.
There are those who claim our strength is inadequate to protect on both fronts, that we cannot divide our effort. ”

“ "Men, since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful.
"Military alliances, balances of power, leagues of nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blots out this alternative. ”

“ In war there is no substitute for victory.
There are some who for varying reasons would appease Red China. They are blind to history's clear lesson, for history teaches with unmistakable emphasis that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war. ”

“ I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes. ”

“ I have from the beginning believed that the Chinese Communist support of the North Koreans was the dominant one, their interest are present and parallel with those of the Soviet. But I believe that the aggressiveness recently displayed not only in Korea, but also in Indochina and Tibet and pointing potentially toward the south reflects predominantly the same lust for the expansion of power which has animated every would-be conquerer since the beginning of time. ”

“ That it may be counted upon to wheel a profoundly beneficial influence over the course of events in Asia is a tested by the magnificent manner in which the Japanese people have met the recent challenge of war, unrest, and confusion surrounding them from the outside and Czech communism within their own frontiers without the slightest slacking in the forward progress. ”

“ Some may say to avoid spread of the conflict into an all-out war with China. Others, to avoid Soviet intervention. Neither explanation seems valid, for China is already engaging with the maximum power it can commit, and the Soviet will not necessarily mesh its actions with our moves. Like a cobra, any new enemy will more likely strike whenever it feels that the relativity in military or other potential is in its favor on a worldwide basis. ”

“ I am closing my fifty-two years of military service. When I joined the army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my boyish hopes and dreams.
The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. ”

“ While no man in his right mind would advocate sending our ground forces into continental China, and such was never given a thought, the new situation did urgently demand a drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy as we had defeated the old. ”

“ I sent all for of our occupation division to the Korean battle front without the slightest qualms as to the effect the resulting power vacuum upon Japan, the results fully justified my faith. I know of no nation more serene, orderly, and industrious nor in which higher hopes can be evertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race. ”

“ Whether one adheres to the concept of colonization or not, this is the direction of Asian progress and it may not be stopped. It is a corollary of the shift of the world economic frontiers, as the whole epicenter of world affairs rotates back toward the area once it started. In this situation it becomes vital that our own country orient it's policies in consonance with this basic evolutionary condition rather than to pursue a course blind to reality that the colonial era is now past and the Asian peoples covet their right to shape their own free destiny. ”

“ Before one may objectively assess the situation now existing there, he must comprehend something of Asia's past and the revolutionary changes which have marked her cost up to the present. Long exploited by the so called colonial powers, with little opportunity to achieve any degree of social justice, individual dignity, or a higher standard of life such as guided our own noble administration in the Philippines. ”

“ This has produced a new and dominant power in Asia, which for its own purposes is allied with Soviet Russia, but which in its own concepts and methods has become aggressively imperialistic with a lust for expansion and increase power normal to this type of imperialism. There is little of the ideological concept either one way or another in the Chinese mecca. The standard live is so low and the capital accumulation has been so throughly dissipated by war that the masses are desperate and avid to follow any leadership which promise the alleviation of local stringencies. ”

“ I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and great pride - humility in the wake of those great American architects of our history who have stood here before me, pride in the reflection that this home of legislative debate represents human liberty in the purest form yet devised. ”

“ What the people strive for is the opportunity for a little more food in their stomachs, a little better clothing on their backs, a little firmer roof over their heads and the realization of the normal nationalist urge for political freedom. ”

“ While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene in support of the Republic of Korea, that decision, from a military standpoint, proved a sound one. As I say, it proved a sound one, as we hurled back the invader and decimated his forces. Our victory was complete, and our objectives within reach, when Red China intervened with numerically superior ground forces. ”

“ Any predatory attack from Asia, must be an amphibious effort, no amphibious force can be successful without control of the sea lanes and the air over those lanes in its avenue of advance. With naval and air supremacy and modest ground elements to defend bases, any major attack from continental Asia toward us, or our friends pacific would be doomed to failure. ”

“ Under such conditions the pacific no longer represents manicing avenues of approach for a prospective invader it assumes instead the friendly aspect of a peaceful lake, our line of defence is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of military effort and expense. ”

“ China up to 50 years ago was completely non-homogenous, being compartmented into groups divided against each other. The war making tendency was almost non-existent as they still followed the tenants of the Confucian ideal of pacifist culture. ”

“ At the turn of the century, under the regime of Chancellor Qing, efforts toward greater homogeneity produced the start of nationalist urge, this was further and more successfully developed under the leadership of Chiang Kaishek, but has been brought to its greatest fruition under the present regime to the point that it has now taken on the character of a united nationalism of increasingly dominant agressive tendencies. Through these past 50 years the Chinese people have thus become militarized in their concept and in their ideals. ”

“ Of our former ward the Philippines, we can look forward in confidence that the existing unrest will be corrected, a strong and healthy nation will grow in the longer aftermath of was terrible destructiveness, we must be patient, and understanding, and never fail them as in our hour of need they did not fail us. ”

“ Like blackmail, it lays the basis for new and successively greater demands until, as in blackmail, violence becomes the only alternative. Why, my soldiers asked of me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field? ”

“ These political social conditions have but an indirect bearing upon our own national security but do form a back drop to contemporary planning which must be thoughtfully considered if we are to avoid the pitfalls of unrealism. ”

“ The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence, an improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advances in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past two thousand years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh. ”

“ It envisions no attack against anyone, nor does it provide the bastions essential for offensive operations but properly maintained would be an invincible against digression. The hold of this literal defense line in the western Pacific is entirely dependant upon holding all segments there of. For any major breach of that line by an unfriendly power would render vulnerable to determine attack every other major segment. ”