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April 10, 2000 - Bill Cooper
49:14
Mac Arthur – April 19, 1951
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Oh, easy, I know, as it is so hard.
Yes, I am quite a good loser.
But I shall not be sated by your love.
I shall not be sated by your love.
I'm William Cooper.
You're listening to the Hour of the Dime.
I'm William Cooper.
Good evening, folks.
Spring has sprung up here on the mountain.
We're having beautiful days.
I understand there's still some bad weather and snow in some parts of the country, but never fear.
Spring is here.
And it will get to where you're at probably pretty soon.
I'm going to Well, let's let it be a surprise.
We'll talk about it later.
So, without any further ado, I think you're going to like this, folks.
So, you might want to have pen and paper with you.
You might want to remember some of this.
Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars And bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, and distinguished members of the Congress,
I stand on this rostrum with a sense of...
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 form of legislative debate represents human liberty
in the purest form yet devised.
Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faiths of the entire human race.
I do not stand here as advocate Or any partisan cause, for the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of partisan consideration.
They must be resolved on the highest plane of national interest if our cause is to prove sound and our future protected.
I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of receiving that which I have to say as solely expressing the considered viewpoint of a fellow American.
I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the fading twilight of life,
with but one purpose in mind, to serve my country.
The issues are global, and so interlocked that to consider the problems of one sector
oblivious to those of another is but the court disaster for the whole.
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, but we can abide our effort.
I can think of no greater expression of defeatism.
If a potential enemy can divide his strength on two fronts, it is for us to counter his
effort.
you The communist threat is a global one.
Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction of every other sector.
You cannot appease or otherwise surrender to communism in Asia, without simultaneously undermining our efforts to halt its
advance in Europe.
Beyond pointing out these general truisms, I shall confine my discussion to the general areas of Asia.
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 course 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.
The peoples of Asia found their opportunity in the war just passed to throw off the shackles
of colonialism, and now see the dawn of new opportunity, a heretofore unfelt dignity and
a self-respect of political freedom.
Offering half of the earth's population and sixty percent of its natural resources, these
peoples are rapidly consolidating a new force, both moral and material, with which to raise
the living standard and erect adaptations of the design of modern progress to their
own distinct cultural environments.
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 to the shift of the world economic frontiers, as the whole epicenter
of world affairs rotates back toward the area whence it started.
In this situation, it becomes vital that our own country orient its policies in consonance
with its basic evolutionary condition, rather than pursue a course blind to the reality
that the colonial era is now past, and the Asian peoples have it right to shape their
own predestiny.
you What they seek now
His friendly guidance, understanding, and support, not in curious direction.
The dignity of equality, not the shame of subjugation.
Their prewar standard of life, pitifully low, is infinitely lower now in the devastation left in war's wake.
World ideologies play little part in Asian thinking and are little understood.
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.
These political social conditions have put an indirect burden upon our own national security, but do form a backdrop to contemporary planning which must be thoughtfully considered if we are to avoid the pitfalls of unrealism.
of more direct and immediate bearing upon our national security, or the changes wrought in the strategic potential of the Pacific Ocean in the course of the past war.
Prior thereto, the western strategic frontier of the United States lay on the littoral line of the Americas, with an exposed island Extending out through Hawaii, Midway, and Guam to the Philippines.
That salient proved not an outpost of strength, but an avenue of weakness along which the enemy could and did attack.
The Pacific was a potential area of advance for any predatory force intent upon striking at the bordering land area.
All this was changed by our Pacific victory.
Our strategic frontier then shifted to embrace the entire Pacific Ocean, which became a vast moat to protect us as long as we held it.
Indeed, it acts as a protective shield for all of the Americas and all free lands of the Pacific Ocean area.
We can pull it to the shores of Asia by a chain of islands extending in an arc from the Aleutians to the Marianas held by us and our free allies.
From this island chain we can dominate with sea and air power every Asiatic port from Vladivostok to Singapore, with sea and air power every As I said, from Vladivostok to Singapore, and prevent any hostile movement into the Pacific.
Any predatory attack from Asia must be an amphibious effort.
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 friend's Pacific would be doomed to failure.
Under such conditions, the Pacific no longer represents menacing avenues of approach for
a prospective invader.
It assumes instead the friendly aspect of a peaceful life.
Our line of defense is a natural one and can be maintained with a minimum of military effort and expense.
It envisions no attack against anyone, nor does it provide the bastions essential for offensive operations, but properly maintained would be an invincible defense against aggression.
The holding of this little defense line in the Western Pacific is entirely dependent upon holding all segments thereof, for any major breach of that line by an unfriendly power would render vulnerable to determine attack every other major segment.
is a military estimate as to which I have yet to find a military leader who will take exception.
For that reason, I have strongly recommended in the past As a matter of military urgency, that under no circumstances must Formosa fall under enemy control.
Formosa is Taiwan, for those of you who may not know that.
Such an eventuality would at once threaten the freedom of the Philippines and the loss
of Japan, and might well force our western frontier back to the coast of California,
Oregon, and Washington.
To understand the changes, which now appear upon the Chinese mainland, one must understand the changes in Chinese character and culture over the past fifty years.
China, up to fifty years ago, was completely non-homogeneous, being compartmented into groups divided against each other.
The war-making tendency was almost non-existent as they still follow the tenets of the Confucian ideal of pacifist culture.
At the turn of the century, under the regime of Chancellor Wing, efforts for greater homogeneity produced the start of a nationalist urge.
This was further and more successfully developed under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek, 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, aggressive
tendencies.
Through these past fifty years, the Chinese people have thus become militarized in their
concepts and in their ideals.
They now constitute excellent soldiers with competent staff and commanders.
and there's no reason not to.
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 increased power Normal to this type of imperialism, there is little of the ideological concept either one way or another in the Chinese makeup.
The standard of living is so low, and the capital accumulation has been so thoroughly dissipated by war, that the masses are desperate and avid to follow any leadership which seems to promise the alleviation of local stringencies.
I have from the beginning believed that the Chinese Communist support of the North Koreans was the dominant one.
Their interests were at present parallel to those of the Soviets, but I believe that the aggressiveness recently displayed, not only in Korea, but also in China and Tibet, and pointing potentially toward the South, reflects the same lust for the expansion of power which has animated
every would-be conqueror since the beginning of time.
The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reformation recorded in modern
this thing.
With a commendable will, even as to learn, and marked capacity to understand, they have from the ashes of the Left and War of Right 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 task of
political morality, freedom of economic enterprise, and social justice.
Politically, economically, and socially, Japan is now a politically, economically, and socially, Japan is now abreast
of many free nations of the earth and will not again fail the universal trust.
That it may be counted upon to wield a profoundly beneficial influence over the course of events
in Asia is attested 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 checked
communism within their own frontiers without the slightest slackening in their forward
progress.
I sent all four of our occupation divisions to the Korean battlefront without the slightest
forms 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 in justice, nor in which higher hopes
can be entertained for future constructive service in the advance of the human race.
Of our former ward, the Philippines, we can look forward in confidence that the existing unrest We'll be corrected, and a strong and healthy nation will grow in the longer aftermath of war's terrible destructiveness.
We must be patient and understanding, and never fail them as in our hour of need.
They did not fail us.
A Christian nation, the Philippines stands as a mighty bulwark of Christianity in the
Far East, and its capacity for high moral leadership in Asia is unlimited.
On Formosa, the government of the Republic of China has had the opportunity to refute
by action much of the malicious gossip which so undermined the strength of its leadership
on the Chinese mainland.
The Formosan people are receiving a just and enlightened administration with majority representation
on the organs of government, and politically, economically and socially they appear to be
advancing along sound and constructive lines.
Thank you.
Bye.
With this brief insight into the surrounding areas, I now turn to the Korean conflict.
While I was not consulted prior to the President's decision to intervene and support the Republic of Korea, That decision, from a military standpoint, proved a sound
one.
I agree.
As I said, 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.
This created a new war and an entirely new situation.
A situation not contemplated when our forces were committed against the North Korean invaders.
a situation which called for new decisions in the diplomatic sphere to permit the realistic
adjustment of military strategy.
Such decisions have not been forthcoming.
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 would urgently demand a
drastic revision of strategic planning if our political aim was to defeat this new enemy
as we have defeated the old.
Apart from the military need, as I saw it, to neutralize the sanctuary protection given
the enemy north of the Yalu, I felt its military necessity in the conduct of the war made necessary,
first, the intensification of our economic blockade against China, two, the imposition
of a naval blockade against the China coast, three, removal of restrictions on air reconnaissance
of China's coastal areas and of Manitoba, four, removal of restrictions on the forces
of Republic of China on Formosa with logistical support to contribute to their effective operation
against the Chinese.
For entertaining me to promise the alleviation of local stringencies, I have from the beginning believed that the Chinese Communist support of the North Koreans was the dominant one.
Their interests were at present parallel to those of the Soviets.
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 or the expansion of power which has animated every would-be
conqueror since the beginning of time.
The Japanese people, since the war, have undergone the greatest reclamation
I'm a bad person.
I'm going to go ahead and get started.
I'm...
I make clear that if not permitted to destroy the enemy build-up bases north of the Yalu, if not permitted to utilize the friendly Chinese force of some 600,000 men on Formosa, if not permitted to blockade the China coast to prevent the Chinese Reds from getting And if there were to be no hope of major reinforcements, the position of the command from the military standpoint saw a bad victory.
We could hold in Korea by constant maneuver and at an approximate area for our...
for only an indecisive campaign with its terrible and constant attrition upon our forces
if the enemy utilized his full military potential.
I have constantly called for the new political decisions essential to a solution.
Efforts have been made to distort my position.
It has been said in effect that I was a war monger.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more rewarding.
I have long advocated its complete abolition as its very destructiveness on both front
and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.
Indeed, on the second day of September 1945, just following the surrender of the Japanese
nation on the battleship Missouri, I formally cautioned the following.
.
I'm sorry.
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 insofar 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 principle of war.
you The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative.
We have had our last chance.
If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, our margadon will be at our door.
The problem, basically, is theological.
and involves a spiritual reproducence and 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 that we are to save the planet.
But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available
means to bring it to a strict end.
War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
In war, there is no substitute for victory.
War's very object is victory, not prolonged indecision.
There are some who, for varying reasons, would appease Red China.
They are blind to history's clear lesson.
Our history teaches With unmistakable emphasis, that appeasement but begets new and bloodier war.
It points to no single instance where this end has justified that means.
Their appeasement has led to more than a sham peace.
Like blackmail, it lays the basis For new and successively greater demands, until, as in Blackmail, violence becomes the only other alternative.
my soldiers asked of me, surrender military advantages to an enemy in the field.
I said, not a word.
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.
I hope that 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.
The tragedy of Korea is further heightened by the fact that as military action is confined
to its territorial limits, it contends that nation, which it is our purpose to save, to
suffer the devastating impact of full naval and air bombardment while the enemy's sanctuaries
are fully protected from such attack and devastation. Of the nations of the world, Korea alone up
to now is the sole one which has risked its all against communism.
the magnificence of the courage and fortitude of the Korean people defies this pressure.
They have chosen to risk death.
rather than slavery. Their last words to me were, don't shuttle the Pacific.
I have just left your fighting sons in Korea.
They have met all tests there.
and I can report to you without reservation that they are splendid in every way.
It was my constant effort to preserve them and end this savage conflict honorably
and with the least loss of time.
and a minimum sacrifice of life.
It's growing bloodshed that has caused me the deepest anguish and anxiety.
Those gallant men will remain often in my thoughts and in my prayers always.
I am closing my 52 years of military service.
Thank you.
When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all my voyage 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 barrack ballads of that day, Which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die.
They just fade away.
And like the old soldier of that battle, 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.
You have just been listening to the goodbye speech of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur
to the joint session of Congress on, guess when folks?
April the 19th, 1951.
That's right, it was April the 19th, 1951.
There's something about that date that keeps cropping up all the time.
and it is swiftly approaching again.
I suggest that you be ready for a repeat of past occurrences.
♪ God bless America,
stand at attention.
Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies, to the ocean, wide we swim.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
God bless America, from the mountains to the prairies, to the oceans, my home.
God bless America, my home sweet home.
520-333-4578.
520-333-4578 and take your calls for the rest of this hour.
520-333-4578 and taking your calls for the rest of this hour.
Did you, I hope you were able to hear the whole speech that General MacArthur gave during
his very famous, back then at least, resignation speech or goodbye speech to the Congress meeting
in joint session on April the 19th, 1929.
He said some very important things and actually was predicting the future, I believe.
He talked a lot about Communist China.
He talked about the necessity to protect and preserve the Republic of China on Taiwan, which back then was known as Formosa.
He spoke about what would happen if Taiwan falls to the Communist Chinese, that we would lose the entire, most probably, the most hot entire western Pacific Rim, and would have to retreat back to our own shores.
He talked about a lot of things that were very important.
He talked about doing everything possible To keep from getting in a war.
But once you're in a war, the object is to win.
There's no other object of war.
And to pretend otherwise, it's complete folly.
520-333-4578 is the number.
And the phone's open.
And I'm going to call the phone number.
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, Mr. Bowman.
He's the type of man you can't beat.
Oh, yeah.
It ain't no matter if you're gay or he's Mr. Bowman.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Hey, Mrs. Rosen, look at me.
Is there a letter, a letter for me?
I've been standing here all day, and you say all the time.
Oh, oh, so patiently.
Oh, just a card, it's just a letter.
That you need to turn it over to me.
I'm rolling back, oh yeah I'm in your pain, I'm in your pain, oh yeah
I'm in your pain, I'm in your pain, oh yeah I'm in your pain, I'm in your pain, oh yeah
So many days you set me back You saw the pills and you made my heart
You were the star to make me feel better I'll even make a better Alexa.
Well, looks like nobody's interested in this topic.
Good night, folks.
God bless each and every single one of you.
Good night, April and Allison.
I love you.
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