Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880—5 April 1964) American military leader.

• "I said, to the people of the Philippines whence I came, I shall return. Tonight, I repeat those words: I shall return!"
  • March 30, 1942, on arrival in Australia from the Philippines

• "I have returned. By the grace of Almighty God, our forces stand again on Philippine soil."
  • October 17, 1944, on landing in Leyte, Philippines

• "I see that the flagpole still stands. Have your troops hoist the colors to its peak, and let no enemy ever haul them down."
  • March 2, 1945, to Colonel George M. Jones and the 503rd Regimental Combat Team, who recaptured Corregidor.

• "In war there is no substitute for victory."
  • April 19, 1951, farewell address to a Joint Session of Congress

• "The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
  • April 19, 1951, farewell address to a Joint Session of Congress

• "In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the corps, and the corps, and the corps. I bid you farewell."
  • May 12, 1962, Sylvanus Thayer Award acceptance speech to the cadets of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York

• "Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would gladly yield every honor which has been accorded me in war."

• "I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a method of settling international disputes."