The Pittsburgh Press (April 14, 1944)
Yanks down 112 Nazi planes
7 European countries raked in record U.S. blow by 4,000 aircraft
By Phil Ault, United Press staff writer
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Artillery trades blows in Italy
Allied planes attack railways near Rome
By Reynolds Packard, United Press staff writer
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Japs isolate British force in Indian base of Imphal
Invaders strike toward railway to Bengal; Allies close on key point in Burma
By Darrell Berrigan, United Press staff writer
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Five Jap bases at Truk bombed
Army Liberators raid naval base again
By William F. Tyree, United Press staff writer
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Letters put MacArthur on political spot
Observers believe he’s ‘available’
By Thomas L. Stokes, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington –
Gen. Douglas MacArthur has been put in a position where he might properly be expected to explain – to the people, and perhaps to the administration – exactly where he stands in the developing political campaign, whether he is a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination.
For, whether he intended it or not, he has been projected directly into political controversy by his correspondence with Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE), which the Congressman made public.
Makes self available?
Although there have been intimations that the general was a receptive candidate for the nomination, this was the first message from him to come to light bearing upon politics and political issues in the United States.
His two letters:
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Left the definite impression that he was making himself available for a possible convention draft, by his failure to disavow the suggestion by Mr. Miller in a letter which went into details as to how the general should conduct himself and what he should say if drafted by the convention.
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Stamped him as a critic of the Roosevelt administration by his comments on the Congressman’s vitriolic attack upon the New Deal.
In reference to Mr. Millet’s suggestion that he become a candidate and the Congressman’s prediction that he would sweep the country, the general replied, “I do not anticipate in any way your flattering prediction, but I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.” He did not thrust the offer aside.
Surprises Washington
The whole tone of his letters was patently political.
The revelation of the letters, which Mr. Miller said he released on his own responsibility, was a surprise here because the general hitherto has kept discreetly quiet about the talk of him as a candidate.
His friends have insisted that he did not want to become involved in political controversy in any way, that he would remain in his military role and remain silent, though they have not diminished on this account their campaign to draft him.
The Congressman timed release of the letters – the first of which was written Oct. 2 last year; the second, Feb. 11 – to follow the popular vote rolled up for the general in the Wisconsin and Illinois primaries, which, it is obvious, will be exploited in the campaign.
Ran behind Dewey
The general ran behind New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey in the delegate vote in Wisconsin, where he won three delegates, and his popular vote in Illinois was about half that rolled up by Governor Dewey in the 1940 Illinois preferential primary.
Mr. Miller scoffed at reports that the general might be brought him for “consultation.”
He said:
President Roosevelt and his palace guard are scared to death of the general right at this time. A lot of lesser lights have been brought home for consultation but not MacArthur. They want to keep him as far away from the voters as possible.
MacArthur is the idol of the country. The palace guard has another idol.
Mr. Miller said he had met Gen. MacArthur in this country and in Europe on two occasions but that they were not intimate friends.
He said:
I’m for him because I believe a military man of his stature in the White House would shorten the war – and that’s what we all want.
Organization Republican leaders, for the most part, have been hopping on the Dewey bandwagon.
Vandenberg silent
Senator Arthur H. Vandenberg (R-MI) is the only prominent Republican identified with the MacArthur movement. The Senator was apparently displeased with publication of the letters. He declined comment. Asked if he had received any letters, he retorted: “Ha! Ha! Good afternoon!”
The general has been a political enigma. He has refused to make public statements removing himself from the race when offered the opportunity by visiting interviewers, and left them with the impression the bee was buzzing around him.
Some of his friends have insisted that he didn’t want to make any statement because he didn’t want to give the slightest recognition to politics. Others have the impression he would accept a convention draft.
Maybe he will clear it all up now.
Text of letters from MacArthur
Washington (UP) –
The texts of Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s letters to Rep. A. L. Miller (R-NE) follow:
Dear Congressman Miller:
I thank you so sincerely for your fine letter of September 18 with its cordial expressions of real friendship. I do not anticipate in any way your flattering predictions but I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.
I knew your state well in the days of used-to-be. I have enjoyed many a delightful hunting excursion there and shall always remember with so much gratefulness the wholehearted hospitality and warm comradeship extended to me on such occasions. Those days seem singularly carefree and happy compared to the sinister drama of our present chaos and confusion.
Most cordially,
DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
Dear Congressman Miller:
I appreciate very much your scholarly letter of January 27. Your description of conditions in the United States is a sobering one indeed and is calculated to arouse the thoughtful consideration of every true patriot. We must not inadvertently slip into the same condition internally as the one which we dight externally. Like Abraham Lincoln I am a firm believer in the people and if given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring before them the real facts.
Out here we are doing what we can with what we have, I will be glad, however, when more substantial forces are placed at my disposition.
With cordial regard and best wishes,
DOUGLAS MacARTHUR
Draft boards to call non-fathers before men with families
Selection of registrants for induction does not follow in same order as exams
By John Troan
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Bricker assures West on Jap war
Portland, Oregon (UP) –
Ohio Governor John W. Bricker, bringing to a climax the Oregon phase of his campaign for the Republican nomination for the Presidency, last night blasted any eastern hopes for conversion to peacetime industry once Germany is beaten while the West would shoulder the war against Japan.
He said at a dinner rally here:
It has been suggested that as soon as the Germans are beaten, the East Coast can convert its war plants to the production of peacetime goods, leaving the West Coast to finish off the Japs.
I say that is dangerous and wishful thinking which will prolong the Japanese war. The defeat is the Japs is not the sole responsibility of any one geographic section of the country. It is the responsibility of 130 million Americans.
And we ought to have the full support of our Allies as well.
Mistakes blamed for war’s lag
Boston, Massachusetts (UP) –
Former Massachusetts Governor Joseph B. Ely, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, charged last night that mistakes of the “Communist-CIO-New Deal combination” have prolonged the war and cost the lives of American soldiers.
Mr. Ely told a Jeffersonian Democrats’ meeting:
The morale of the German people is sustained by the faults and inadequacies of the Roosevelt administration which will be the cause of sacrificing our sons, brothers, husbands and sweethearts.
Urging defeat of a fourth term, Mr. Ely asked:
Who are the fourth-term proponents? There is Earl Browder, the Communist; Sidney Hillman, the CIO revolutionary, and David Niles and John McCormack of the palace guard. What a strange conglomeration of bedfellows are lying down to sleep in the bed of Thomas Jefferson.
Mr. Ely will head an anti-Roosevelt slate on the April 25 Massachusetts presidential primaries.
Editorial: The MacArthur letters
Gen. MacArthur is the victim of careless letter-writing and of a friend who made public two of the general’s answers to fan mail. That seems to be the net of the incident caused by Rep. A. L. Miller’s publication of his correspondence with the general last fall and two months ago.
Why the freshman Nebraska Congressman, a leader in the Draft-MacArthur-for-President movement, should thus embarrass the general is not clear.
Since the general did not publicly request withdrawal of his name from primaries in which he was entered without authorization, he is in the position of an inactive though receptive candidate. But he has not publicly admitted that much, as has LtCdr. Harold E. Stassen.
Presumably the general’s unwillingness to fight for the nomination, or to participate in public debate, results from his feeling that a man cannot conduct a military campaign and a personal political campaign at the same time. Certainly Gen. MacArthur’s friends and backers – of all people – should respect this.
The private MacArthur statements in the letters are of three kinds:
First, in his October reply to Mr. Miller’s September statement that he could get the presidential nomination and carry every state, the general said: “I do not anticipate in any way your flattering predictions.”
Second, in the same letter, the general told Mr. Miller, “I do unreservedly agree with the complete wisdom and statesmanship of your comments.” This was an apparent reference to Mr. Miller’s assertion that “unless this New Deal can be stopped this time, our American way of life is forever doomed.”
When Mr. Miller in January deplored “this monarchy which is being established in America.” Gen. MacArthur replied to his “scholarly letter” that “we must not inadvertently slip into the same condition internally as the one which we fight externally.”
This, of course, was an extreme partisan implication, as unworthy of the general as Vice President Wallace’s loose “Fascist” name-calling is unworthy of him.
Third, when Mr. Miller criticized the allocation of war supplies to the Pacific, the general replied: “Out here we are doing what we can with what we have. I will be glad, however, when more substantial forces are placed at my disposal.” Like all commanders, Gen. MacArthur naturally would like stronger forces. But that is a decision for the General Staff to make in line with global strategy, not a subject for a subordinate commander to discuss with a civilian.
It is regrettable that Gen. MacArthur wrote these letters, even if they might have been written in confidence. The Allies need great generals, and Gen. MacArthur is one of them. To permit a political indiscretion to detract from his military prestige is seriously unfortunate.