Ex Libris: Douglas MacArthur

In this latest installment of our ‘Ex Libris’ series, we look at the general whose whose reading influenced his strategy in wartime.

Gen. Douglas MacArthur. Library of Congress. Public domain

Son of an active duty soldier, Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) grew up on military posts and then spent 52 years in uniform. Praised by admirers as a military genius and criticized by detractors as a narcissistic dilettante, he won high honors during his time as a cadet at West Point, commanded troops in combat during World War I, was chief of staff under presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, and helped lead America to victory against Japanese imperial forces during World War II.

Douglas MacArthur as West Point superintendent. Public Domain

Following Japan’s surrender in 1945, MacArthur became the chief administrator of that island nation. His policies prevented mass starvation, rebuilt the battered country, and transformed it into a constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary government.

When the Korean War erupted in 1950, he commanded the multinational force that turned back North Korea’s invasion of the south. Relieved of command by President Harry Truman for his divergent views on handling Chinese military support for the communist North, MacArthur returned stateside after his 14-year-sojurn in the Pacific. After a brief failed run for the presidency, he spent his last years in retirement, acting frequently as a consultant for presidents and politicians.

Whatever his defects of character, even this condensed version of events mark MacArthur as a consequential figure in American history.

A Lifelong Reader

That MacArthur would take an interest in military history is no surprise. His father Arthur MacArthur had won the Medal of Honor during the Civil War—later his son would repeat that feat—and according to biographer William Manchester in “American Caesar,” was a “walking encyclopedia of political, military, and economic facts.” A daughter of the Confederacy, MacArthur’s mother Mary “Pinky” Hardy also raised her two boys to be soldiers, telling them stories about the Civil War and making certain that “her sons never lacked books about martial heroes. In her lap they learned the virtue of physical courage and the disgrace of cowardice.”

At West Point, MacArthur absorbed tactics and strategy from his study of bygone military campaigns, but that was only the beginning of his military education. In a  2022 interview, military historian and scholar Kelly Jordan informed listeners that “it was reported that MacArthur’s library contained over 5,000 volumes, making it among the largest private collections ever assembled. MacArthur read and studied the campaigns of Julius Caesar, Gustavus Adolphus, and other successful commanders, viewing military history as the laboratory of a professional soldier.”

Note that Jordan uses the past tense “was reported” regarding MacArthur’s library. Here’s why.

Gustavus Adolphus leading a cavalry charge. He was a central figure in the Thirty Years' War. Public Domain

The Flames of War

In 1935, after MacArthur accepted the post of military adviser to the Philippine Army, he and his family moved into a palatial suite in the Manila Hotel. To that deluxe residence, he brought the library mentioned by Jordan. There, they lived comfortably until late 1941, when Japan brought war to the islands. With the situation dire, and defeat almost certain for the combined American and Filipino forces, Roosevelt ordered the evacuation of MacArthur, his wife, and their young son. That escape via a PT boat meant leaving behind most of their possessions, including the library and many personal records.

During the four years of fighting that heavily damaged Manila and ended the Japanese presence in the Philippines, nearly all of these books were destroyed.

Nevertheless, today’s visitors to the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia will find a large collection of books owned by MacArthur, many of them given to the general during or after the war by admirers to help him rebuild his library.

The Moral Compass of a Poem

At one point, literature took a direct hand in steering MacArthur’s destiny. A plebe at West Point, he became caught up in a hazing scandal in which he was one of the victims. An official board was demanding that he reveal the names of his tormentors, yet his mother had drilled into him as a boy never to lie and never to snitch.

On the day he was to name names or face dismissal, his mother delivered a poem, Margaret Grafflin’s “Like Mother, Like Son” to MacArthur. The poem, which emphasizes that a mother’s reputation is exalted or blackened by the deeds of a son, ends with this stanza:

By yours then the task, if task it shall be, To force the proud world to do homage to me. Be sure it will say, when its verdict you’ve won, ‘She reaped as she sowed. Lo! This is her son.’

MacArthur read the poem, appeared before the board, and refused to testify against his fellow cadets. He was nevertheless permitted to remain at the Academy.

"Like Mother, Like Son" by Margaret Johnston Grafflin can be found in this 1936 anthology of poems.

Like other inveterate readers—Churchill comes to mind—MacArthur understood the power of language and words to move hearts. His “I shall return” promise in regard to the Philippines, his “Duty, Honor, Country” address at West Point, and his speech before Congress—“Old soldiers never die. They just fade away”—remain memorable.

As biographer Geoffrey Perrett said, “He’s not just unlike most other men, he’s unlike most other soldiers. There is an element in MacArthur’s temperament that is really that of the writer, the poet, the artist who has somehow ended up in uniform.”

Reading had helped shape this warrior-poet.

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