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<text>
<title>
(1940s) Gen. Douglas MacArthur
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1940s Highlights
PEOPLE
</history>
<link 07810>
<link 00049><article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
General Douglas MacArthur
</hdr>
<body>
<p>(December 29, 1941)
</p>
<p> To Douglas MacArthur it seemed scarcely strange that his life
should have come full circle. Last year, trying to explain to
a reporter how he felt about the Philippines, he roared: "When
George Dewey sailed into Manila Bay on May 1, 1898 it was
Manifest Destiny working itself out. By God, it was Destiny that
brought me here! It was Destiny."
</p>
<p> For Douglas MacArthur the Philippines are more than a battle
assignment. The Philippines are in his blood. His father,
Lieut. General Arthur MacArthur, swashbuckling boy hero of the
Civil War, was military governor of the islands, 40 years ago;
his mother died there; he himself has served three tours of duty
there. Under Manila's tropic palms he wooed his second wife, 20
years his junior, and fathered his sturdy three-year-old son.
The Philippines are the only home he has known since 1935, when
he arrived to stake his professional reputation as a soldier on
the thesis that the islands can be defended.
</p>
<p> Last year the U.S. Army buckled to the task of re-equipping
its Philippine Department. In the summer of 1941 it decided to
recall MacArthur to the U.S. flag. On July 26, 1941 MacArthur
was named Lieutenant General in command of the United States
Army Forces in the Far east (the Army shortens the title to
USAFEE, but MacArthur prefers to call it the Army of the Far
East, the A.F.E.). Last week President Roosevelt capped the
return of the MacArthur to action by making him, again, a full
four-star General.
</p>
<p> To his new command, MacArthur brought a dowry of Filipino
loyalty. Relations between Filipinos and the U.S. Army in the
Philippines had hitherto been only cordial. But MacArthur, who
had created the Philippine Army, trusted it and could command
it as he wished. "I know a fighting army when I see one," he had
said, "and these men are a fighting army."</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>