This is another entry in the Life Magazine, 1964 series. If you want to read the series from the beginning, use the link above.
This is the final episode of this series and I can't say I'm sad. The 1960's are fascinating... the way a train wreck is. The US was in the final stages of industrialization and just beginning the move towards an information economy. It was a turbulent time, but without a sense of proportion (and our perception of it today is just as skewed). Imagine the seriousness of the Vietnam war and racial equality juxtaposed with topless swimsuits and "Now People". About the only consolation for the sixties was that the seventies would be worse: more trivial and less serious and full of absolutely horrible fashion and design.
Next in our hit parade is an article titled, "They Died Hard - Those Savage Men". I'm just guessing, but I imagine that MacArthur took some heat after WWII for the way he seemed to abandon the Philippines; leaving 30,000 troops behind to the tender mercies of the Japanese. The Bataan Death March couldn't have gone down well at home, once news got out. This article was his chance to tell the story from his point of view (and there were probably many books and articles of a similar type).
I'm not going to go into a lot of detail. He vowed to return, he did return and I guess that's the main part. MacArthur seems to have been the real McCoy as a general and smarter people than I have hashed all of this over in entire books. A blog entry just isn't the place to debate a major military campaign. Still there are some parts that are interesting. For example, I hadn't realized that the "I shall return" remark was really just a comment he made off of the top of his head. He meant it, but it wasn't an expression of US policy, just a remark. Here are his words:
In Australia, reporters pressed me for a statement, I said, "The President of the United States ordered me to break through the Japanese lines and proceed from Corregidor to Australia, for the purpose, as I understand it, of organizing the American offensive against Japan, a primary objective of which is the relief of the Philippines. I came through and I shall return.
I spoke casually enough, but the phrase "I shall return" seemed a promise of magic to the Filipinos. It was scraped in the sands of beaches; it was daubed on the walls of barracks; it was stamped on mail envelopes; it was whispered in church cloisters. It became the battle cry of a great underground that no Japanese bayonet could still.
It's probably just my own lack of knowledge, but I hadn't realized the degree to which MacArthur's battle plan used indirect warfare. As he advanced from island to island, he tended to avoid the enemy's strong points and be content to simply cut them off and effectively neutralize them without bothering to fight them. George Patton was doing the same thing in Europe at about the same time. The idea of indirect warfare wasn't new - Alexander used it, so did Napoleon and it was brilliantly displayed in the Thunder Run that took Baghdad in the second Gulf War - but it is the mark of a skilled tactician to use it so effectively.
I also hadn't realized how much Roosevelt declined in his final months:
I told him that I knew nothing of the political situation in the US, but that he, Roosevelt, was an overwhelming favorite with the US troops. This seemed to please him greatly.
I had been shocked at his personal appearance. He was a shell of the man I had known. It was clearly evident that his days were numbered. I never saw him alive again; he was dead nine months later.
There was one more article in the magazine, but it was about Rick Reichardt, a baseball player who had just set a record for the biggest signing bonus: $200,000. He was supposed to be a great hitter (he batted .472 at the University of Wisconsin), but he never panned out. The best he ever did was .288 in 1966 and he was out of baseball by 1974. I doubt the Los Angeles Angels thought they got their money's worth.
We'll wind up with one more advertising picture, for Old Taylor bourbon:
The big, hollow steel world was the most famous symbol of the 1964 World's Fair and Old Taylor probably paid good money to use it. It's a pretty ad in my opinion. That bourbon looks good; it's making me thirsty as I type.
So, that's it for the Life Magazine, 1964 Series. I've enjoyed it, but I'm glad I'm done. Next time, maybe I'll tackle something more straight forward, like a Popular Science from the 1930's or something. I hope you've enjoyed the series, use the comments if you have feedback or requests.
Note: this entry is part of a series called "Life Magazine, 1964",
which contains the following entries:
Life Magazine, 1964
Life Magazine, 1964, Part II
Life Magazine, 1964, Part III
Life Magazine, 1964, Part IV
Life Magazine, 1964, Part V
