Read Online The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur by Mark Perry - Free Book Online
Authors: Mark Perry
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Kansas bred, “Ike” was a graduate of the West Point class of 1915 but had missed the Great War, serving in army backwaters instead. Hardworking and ambitious, Eisenhower was one of the army’s few intellectuals, which is how he built his reputation. His papers on industrial mobilization, written when he was a student at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, laid out a plan for organizing the nation’s industrial assets should war come. MacArthur was impressed by Eisenhower’s work, listened closely to his ideas on industrial mobilization, and planted Eisenhower in his outer office as his personal assistant. In effect, Eisenhower served as a high-level secretary, coordinating the work of MacArthur’s office and putting the chief of staff’s views onto paper. There wasn’t anything that MacArthur saw or signed that Eisenhower didn’t see first. “My office was next to his; only a slatted door separated us,” Eisenhower later remembered. “He called me to his office by raising his voice.”
But Eisenhower had other qualities, including an ability to build political networks. During his work on industrial mobilization, for example, he met a group of thinkers who would be important to Roosevelt. Among them was wealthy Wall Street stock manipulator Bernard Baruch, a self-made South Carolinian who sported a bowler hat, pince-nez, and an infectious smile. Having headed up Woodrow Wilson’s War Industries Board during World War One, Baruch found Eisenhower’s work on industrial mobilization appealing. The view that Eisenhower was an anonymous presence prior to his meteoric rise during World War Two undervalues this early experience and Eisenhower’s vast network of political contacts. But it wasn’t just Baruch and those around the Southern investor who were important to Eisenhower’s emerging influence. Eisenhower came to MacArthur with a reputation as an outspoken military theorist. One of the aide’s earliest associations was withGeorge Patton, who convinced him that the tank would revolutionize warfare. Additionally, and because of Patton, Eisenhower met Major General Fox Conner, who had been John Pershing’s military planner during the Great War. Conner, a brilliant strategist, was impressed by Eisenhower and, while commanding the U.S. garrison in Panama, insisted that Eisenhower be appointed his chief of staff. When Ike arrived, Conner provided him with a tutorial on military history and suggested that Eisenhower get to know George Marshall, the army’s most brilliant young officer. When Conner thought about the next war, he thought of Patton and Eisenhower leading great tank armies, racing over the fields of northern France with Marshall as their senior commander. This was in 1922, when people still thought the Great War was “the war to end all wars.” Conner knew better.
Although Eisenhower’s influence on MacArthur’s military thinking cannot be known with certainty, after Eisenhower joined MacArthur’s office in February 1933, the chief of staff began to spend increasing amounts of time thinking about the next war and how it would be fought. Fox Conner’s ideas, filtered through Eisenhower, only confirmed for MacArthur what he had seen for himself during a series of trips to Europe during the Hoover years. MacArthur’s observations sparked his constant warnings about European rearmament and his deep discomfort with the rise of German National Socialism. These trips spurred MacArthur to upgrade the regimen of the army’s Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and the curriculum of the Army War College, both of which represented the center of the service’s intellectual thinking. MacArthur also paid close attention to the development of a new combat rifle, turning down the recommendation of army developers who wanted to adopt a small-caliber Garand rifle for the army’s infantrymen. He preferred that soldiers be armed with a larger-caliber semiautomatic rifle. The resulting
But Eisenhower had other qualities, including an ability to build political networks. During his work on industrial mobilization, for example, he met a group of thinkers who would be important to Roosevelt. Among them was wealthy Wall Street stock manipulator Bernard Baruch, a self-made South Carolinian who sported a bowler hat, pince-nez, and an infectious smile. Having headed up Woodrow Wilson’s War Industries Board during World War One, Baruch found Eisenhower’s work on industrial mobilization appealing. The view that Eisenhower was an anonymous presence prior to his meteoric rise during World War Two undervalues this early experience and Eisenhower’s vast network of political contacts. But it wasn’t just Baruch and those around the Southern investor who were important to Eisenhower’s emerging influence. Eisenhower came to MacArthur with a reputation as an outspoken military theorist. One of the aide’s earliest associations was withGeorge Patton, who convinced him that the tank would revolutionize warfare. Additionally, and because of Patton, Eisenhower met Major General Fox Conner, who had been John Pershing’s military planner during the Great War. Conner, a brilliant strategist, was impressed by Eisenhower and, while commanding the U.S. garrison in Panama, insisted that Eisenhower be appointed his chief of staff. When Ike arrived, Conner provided him with a tutorial on military history and suggested that Eisenhower get to know George Marshall, the army’s most brilliant young officer. When Conner thought about the next war, he thought of Patton and Eisenhower leading great tank armies, racing over the fields of northern France with Marshall as their senior commander. This was in 1922, when people still thought the Great War was “the war to end all wars.” Conner knew better.
Although Eisenhower’s influence on MacArthur’s military thinking cannot be known with certainty, after Eisenhower joined MacArthur’s office in February 1933, the chief of staff began to spend increasing amounts of time thinking about the next war and how it would be fought. Fox Conner’s ideas, filtered through Eisenhower, only confirmed for MacArthur what he had seen for himself during a series of trips to Europe during the Hoover years. MacArthur’s observations sparked his constant warnings about European rearmament and his deep discomfort with the rise of German National Socialism. These trips spurred MacArthur to upgrade the regimen of the army’s Command and General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth and the curriculum of the Army War College, both of which represented the center of the service’s intellectual thinking. MacArthur also paid close attention to the development of a new combat rifle, turning down the recommendation of army developers who wanted to adopt a small-caliber Garand rifle for the army’s infantrymen. He preferred that soldiers be armed with a larger-caliber semiautomatic rifle. The resulting
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