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As long as we’re doing this, I’d like to announce that I am the reincarnation of George Patton
That explains a lot...
RNJ
Richard,
Who did your dad like least, Patton or MacArthur? Inquiring minds want to know.
If Ricardo is claiming the Chariots of the Gods theory, I’m in my full rights to claim reincarnation. Now I can say I was at the Battle of Kadesh and the Hittites and Egyptians achieved a stalemate. No aliens helped the Egyptians, because I was there, as much as George C. Scott.
Who did your dad like least, Patton or MacArthur? Inquiring minds want to know.
I don't remember any Patton stories. I think my Dad may never even have met him. But he spent the first year of the Occupation of Japan on MacArthur's staff. We heard stories of dismal dinners while MacArthur regaled the captive guests with tales of his heroism and prowess, going all the way back to his starring role as pitcher on the West Point baseball team.
While I was in high school seventy years ago we lived on Bolling Air Force Base in Washington DC. I only ever overheard my parents arguing twice. This time they were warmly disputing whether they would call on MacArthur, by then relieved of command in Korea by President Truman, while we made our upcoming visit to New York City.
Dad said, "I won't go to kiss his ring in his throne room at the Waldorf Astoria."
My mother, citing mandatory military etiquette, said, "You know you have to."
In fact we went. MacArthur was charming. Well briefed as always, he knew I studied trumpet with the Principal of the National Symphony, and which sports I played. He complimented Mom on her charity work and her chairmanship of the Arlington Committee, whose members took turns representing the Air Force Chief of Staff at every Air Force funeral at the National Cemetery. Dad expressed tepid sympathy for one of MacArthur's long serving entourage of sycophants, who had fallen into disfavor upon his patron's exile.
In the elevator as we left Mom said, "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?"
Dad replied, "The old devil was always a great actor."
Years later, visiting Mom and Dad at Corpus Christi, I noticed a copy of Manchester's biography of MacArthur, "American Caesar" on the table between their armchairs. I went into the kitchen where Mom was supervising the preparation of dinner for my brother and me, our wives and children, and asked her what she thought of the book.
"You'll have to ask your father," she said. "He's the one reading it." I was a little surprised.
The next day Dad took my brother and me out fishing. The fish weren't biting. During a quiet spell I asked Dad about the book.
Dad responded, "He got most of what I know about pretty well right. Of course there were some things he didn't know about."
Dad must have known about, perhaps participated in MacArthur whitewashing the Emperor's role in WW II, but he never breathed a word of it. The world at large only heard of it after members of the wartime Imperial Household began to die off in the 1990s, and have their diaries come into the hands of journalists and historians.
After casting a few more times without getting a strike, Dad said grudgingly, breaking his habit of never swearing, "You have to admit, the son of a bitch was a great man."
Years later, visiting Mom and Dad at Corpus Christi, I noticed a copy of Manchester's biography of MacArthur, "American Caesar" on the table between their armchairs.
Having read extensively on MacArthur, in my opinion William Manchester's "American Caesar" is the best biography. I also think Manchester's three-volume biography of Winston Churchill is the finest of the many biographies of Churchill.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Having read extensively on MacArthur, in my opinion William Manchester's "American Caesar" is the best biography. I also think Manchester's three-volume biography of Winston Churchill is the finest of the many biographies of Churchill.
Bill
I read "American Caesar" as well. I don''t remember coming across anything in it that went against Dad's opinions of MacArthur, both pro and con.
One of Dad's friends who served with MacArthur in Korea told us of what he called the only known instance of the famous general exhibiting doubt, or even humility.
MacArthur turned the losing tide of the Korean war with a brilliant stroke. The North Koreans had pushed the USA and its allies into a tight perimeter at the very southern tip of the peninsula. Given time they promised to push them back into the sea, or at least to force a surrender. MacArthur assessed the enemy as over extended. He mounted an invasion at Inchon, half way up the west side of the peninsula, and struck east, rapidly cutting the North Korean forces in two, leaving the southern half to collapse for lack of supplies.
Dad's friend reported that as MacArthur watched from the bridge of his command ship while the first wave went ashore, he turned to his Executive Officer and said, "This had better work."
MacArthur's amphibious assault, the Inchon Landing, was a master stroke to be sure. It changed the course of the war. MacArthur was a genius in some respects, but like most geniuses he had huge flaws.
Bill
_____________________________
And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
If I remember correctly, the success of the Incheon landing was dependent on MacArthur’s knowledge of the tides in that delta. Having flown over the Incheon area from Kagoshima airport to Incheon international I can vouch for the extreme expanse of mudflats when the tide is out. It seems Doug-san himself was at Incheon years earlier and had noted the way the tides isolate certain parts of the sea/delta from navigation and took advantage of the timing of the tides.
MacArthur's amphibious assault, the Inchon Landing, was a master stroke to be sure. It changed the course of the war. MacArthur was a genius in some respects, but like most geniuses he had huge flaws.
Bill
He was such a genius that he should have been awarded a MacArthur Genius Award, but that hadn’t been created yet. I think he should get that grant posthumously, and that other towering U.S. genius Donald Trump should also be awarded a MacArthur Genius grant, and posthumously, hopefully he’ll get that grant soon.
But really I’m sorry for high jacking this thread about pulsation. Let me attempt to make it better and bring this full circle back on topic, by way of linking the brilliant intellect of MacArthur at Incheon to our pulsation understanding. Seriously his plan at Incheon worked because before that fleet was brought into the seas off the Korean Peninsula he insisted that every ship have the decks planked with timber from the Cedars of Lebanon. This angered Stalin to no end, and his attempts at having wings of MiG 15 sheeted with Baltic Birch plywood were a complete fiasco.
Isnt expensive , you can write it down and send to a ghost writer to review it (or not) , then he send it back to you for your review
Theres package including (or not) ghost writer+ publsher
Since you’re in the habit of giving unsolicited advice, perhaps you could benefit by a modicum of advice in return. I take up a lot of space on the page, this is true, but I’m interested in long form posts by other Foro writers, so I pose questions and wait until there are replies, then I pose another question after reading the replies, or I make a comment that inspires another response for someone else. So I carve out about the same amount of space for others to give thoughts as I take up giving my own thoughts. Try asking questions, and see what happens, don’t rush the others to write a response.
Once a fundamental consensus or answer on a topic has been established, pulsation = a good set up, more or less, then the topic will probably lapse into an off topic peripheral conversation with occasional reintroductions of the original topic. This is a long established pattern of engagement on the Foro.
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