The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur by Mark Perry Read Free Book Online Page A

occurred over the promotion of Colonel George Marshall, a Pershing favorite but in MacArthur’s eyes a suspect member of Pershing’s World War One command mafia, “the Chaumont crowd.” After doing good work with the CCC, Marshall expected and deserved a promotion and a chance at commanding American soldiers. Instead, MacArthur ordered his transfer to Chicago as an instructor with the Illinois National Guard—sidelining him and choking off his chance for promotion. Pershing was enraged by MacArthur’s decision. He admired Marshall, believing he would one day be among MacArthur’s successors as chief of staff. General Charles Dawes, the former vice president under Calvin Coolidge, agreed. He heard of MacArthur’s decision and weighed inwith his own views. “What! He can’t do that,” he told Pershing. “Hell no! Not George Marshall. He’s too big a man for this job. In fact he’s the best goddamned officer in the U.S. Army.”
    Backed by Dawes and other senior officers, Pershing intervened with MacArthur, pleading Marshall’s case. Pershing’s appeal was unusual: Retired senior officers rarely lobbied serving officers on the subject of promotions, but Pershing still had considerable influence in Washington and was anxious that Marshall’s talents be recognized. But MacArthur would not be moved; he viewed Marshall’s Chicago assignment as temporary, he told Pershing, until the coveted chief of infantry command became available. But when Marshall’s name did not appear on the next army promotion list, Pershing appealed to Roosevelt, who wrote a note to George Dern. “General Pershing asks very strongly that Colonel George C. Marshall (Infantry) be promoted to General,” Roosevelt wrote. “Can we put him on the list of next promotions?” Dern denied the request; he had spoken to MacArthur, he told Roosevelt, and Marshall would have to wait. MacArthur pleaded his innocence: While Marshall was not on the current list, he explained, the colonel would be on the
next
list, and MacArthur hinted of big plans for him. Marshall wasn’t convinced. At fifty-five, Marshall felt that his time was running out. “I have possessed myself in patience, but I’m fast getting too old to have any future importance in the Army,” he wrote to Pershing.
    MacArthur’s plea of innocence wasn’t convincing to Marshall, and it wasn’t convincing to Pershing. The former commander of the American Expeditionary Forces admired MacArthur’s record in the Great War, but he had less regard for the army chief’s personality. Then too, MacArthur was a follower of former chief of staff Peyton March, an outspoken Pershing competitor and critic. The two had clashed repeatedly during the Great War, as Pershing exerted his independence from War Department control—and from Peyton March. Put simply, March envied Pershing his fame, believing he, March, should get as much credit as Pershing received for winning the war. When, in 1932, Pershing’s memoirs were published to great acclaim (he won that year’s Pulitzer Prize), March decided to respond by writing his own memoirs. This was innocent enough, but MacArthur took the extraordinary step of allowing March the use of a War Department office and its staff to help him in hisresearch. Pershing seethed. He had disliked MacArthur before, but had acceded to MacArthur’s appointment as chief of staff at Hoover’s insistence. Now, in the wake of the Marshall and March incidents, Pershing had become a MacArthur enemy.
    While the Pershing flap had repercussions for MacArthur’s standing among Pershing’s friends, it did little to undercut his status as chief of staff, and it certainly didn’t convince Roosevelt that he should be replaced. But this didn’t mean the people around Roosevelt had abandoned their views that the president should get rid of him, either by directly relieving him or by forcing his resignation. Finally, in mid-May 1934, they got their chance. That month, MacArthur