Marshall and MacArthur
On the D Day June 6,I wanted to remind myself that PEACE is the ultimate goal of all wars. On that day, my father-in-law Jack Mellow was in the Canadian Air Force as a mechanic servicing Spitfires in Southern England. He told of many who did not come back. My uncle who was the youngest brother of my father still is officially “Missing in Action” in the Pacific. He was18 years’ old. We must remember those who made ultimate sacrifices. The goal of all wars is no more hostiliy. The continuing hatred is the mark of the failed war.
George Marshall and Douglas MacArthur were the most successful generals not only because they were good at winning the war but also they succeeded turning the vanquished nations into prosperous and loyal allies. If lasting peace is the ultimate goal of all wars, it does not only come from good soldiers and superior weapons. It has to come also from successful work in reconciliation. No more war means the world without enemy. There were two American generals who helped former enemies to recover from the devastation. For a person who grew up in the culture which values and admires the successful revenge as the ultimate moral excellence of the lives of Samurai, it was not an easy realization.
Gen. George Marshall was a no nonsense tough Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army during the WW 2. He fired a record number of Generals for being tough enough according to Wikipedia. However, after the war in the late 1940’s, he proposed massive foreign aid program to help recover and restart whole Western Europe that included the former enemy of Germany. It was an unprecedented foreign aid program of the U.S. $ 13.3 billion. It was in today’s value about $137 billion U.S. dollars. It was unprecedented action not only in terms of the cost but also in terms of the idea helping the former enemy. Of course it was to prevent the spread of Communism. Nevertheless, that was how Western Europe quickly recovered from the devastation of the war particularly Western Germany leaving Eastern Europe behind with an impoverished Communist economy. That was how Democracy won and Communism was utterly defeated. Marshall Plan was the greatest success story of foreign a id program also as the practical benefit of reconciliation. It was an opposite of revenge. Which country today is the most prosperous solid economy in Europe? Germany. What a contrast it was comparing to the outcome of the harsh measures imposed on the defeated Germany after the First World War. The treatment Germany and its people suffered was the action of punishment and revenge. If something like the Marshall Plan was in place after the WW 1, Adolf Hitler and his right wing extremism would not have emerged.
Gen. Douglas MacArthur was equally a tough soldier. He was fired by President Harry Truman for being too tough in the Korean War. However, in the treatment of Japan after the WW2, he was not avenger. Of course the leaders of the Japanese military and the war criminals met the consequence of their actions. But MacArthur did not bring the Supreme Commander of the Japanese Armed Forces to the court. He kept Japanese Emperor in his position as the symbol of the nation. MacArthur knew Hirohito was a powerless puppet of the military. He also knew that without the imperial intervention the war would have continued resulting in massive American casualties. MacArthur ordered a massive food aid to Japan when the public was starving.
It is interesting that two men who made the most critical comments about war were American Generals. Dwight Eisenhower warned the danger of establishing “Military Industrial Complex” in 1961 at the end of his Presidency when Cold War was still raging. Douglas MacArthur commented during the early period of Vietnam War, “Anyone who contemplates another war in Asia has to have their head examined.” They must have known that superior military power does not bring peace.
Bloody conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the Northern Ireland that had lasted for centuries did not end because of superior weapons. The previously called “terrorist” the head of the IRA became the Chief Minister of Northern Ireland. It was reconciliation. Decades long bloody racial conflict under Apartheid was resolved with the conciliatory aproach to establish “Truth and Reconciliation Commission – TRC” in South Africa. It was Nelson Mandela’s idea supported by Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu. Tutu chaired the proceedings of TRC as the chair. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe who had aspired to rule Zimbabwe as the President for Life, brought in the notorious North Korea Military advisers to create 5th Brigade killing his rival nation Matebele people by the thousands. Despite its rich natural resource Zimbabwe still is economically backward under-developed country.