National Affairs: The General in Seattle

Seattle’s welcome to General Douglas MacArthur seemed almost unanimous as 300,000 turned out to cheer him. Seattle’s farewell to MacArthur was angrily divided along party lines. Between hail & farewell, the general, in uniform, had delivered his sharpest attack to date on the Truman Administration.

“Our political stature,” said he, “has been sadly impaired by a succession of diplomatic blunders abroad and reckless spendthrift aims at home . . . There is a growing anxiety in the American home as disclosures reveal graft and corruption over a broad front in our public service. Those charged with its stewardship seem either apathetic, indifferent, or in seeming condonation . . . Despite failures in leadership, [the people] have it in their power … to reject the socialist policies covertly and by devious means being forced upon us, to stamp out Communist influence which has played so ill-famed a part in the past misdirection of our public administration . . . Our country will then reassume that spiritual and moral leadership recently lost in a quagmire of political ineptitude and economic incompetence.”

Democrats in the audience began walking out quietly while MacArthur was midway in his speech. Next morning, Fair Dealing Congressman Hugh Mitchell called MacArthur a “demagogue,” and refused to show up for a MacArthur ceremony welcoming a shipload of veterans home from Korea. A Washington Democratic National committeeman and the Truman-appointed U.S. collector of customs resigned in protest from Greater Seattle, Inc., the nonpartisan civic group which invited MacArthur to inaugurate Seattle’s centennial show.

That night, MacArthur retired to a slightly more strategic position. At his farewell dinner to 400 Seattle civic leaders in the Olympic’ Hotel, he declined to make a speech because, he said, his wife had told him he had “talked enough in Seattle.” He had remonstrated and promised to “just talk to them about nothing—that’s what everybody likes,” but Mrs. MacArthur won out, he said.