Violation of Regulations Quotes

MacArthur had been the Commander of our Military Forces in Korea. He had a huge ego, and he wanted to cross the border and attack China since Chinese Troops were aiding the North Vietnamese. He had previously assured the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President that the Chinese would not send troops into Korea, but he was then wrong. And when they had attacked, they had erased the territorial gains that MacArthur had previously gained. The Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State had decided upon a strategy which this time did not follow MacArthur’s strategic advice. The President approved the strategy, but MacArthur spoke and acted contrary. The President met with MacArthur and reiterated the strategy that the President approved. But MacArthur did not follow the orders of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, he and Eisenhower were America’s two most famous military leaders, and of the two MacArthur was senior and thought that he should be President. After he was fired, MacArthur addressed a Joint Session of Congress and gave his "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech which was his first active step towards the Presidency. It was a very sentimental speech with little content and nothing about why he had disobeyed orders. He was totally shocked when it was Eisenhower who was selected to run for President and not him.

Goodpaster served as Staff Secretary and Defense Liaison Officer to President Eisenhower from 1954–1961. McCarthy accused many competent, loyal Americans of disloyalty, incompetence and treason. The reason that this particular quotation was noteworthy was that it particularly offended President Eisenhower and galvanized him into action to stop McCarthy’s excesses. See {632334}.

Insisting on complete party discipline, the Premier went public on something that most political leaders do in private—enforce party discipline by threatened party expulsion.

The newly developed M-16 rifle was resisted by the army brass who did not want to give up their old WWII weapons. There was even cases of army sabatoge of tests to avoid changing weapons. Ironically 40 years later, when the M-16 had been technologically eclipsed by the Russians who had twice the firepower rate and the Israelis who developed a more accurate weapon both more reliable, the army did not want to abandon the M-16 and its shortened version M-4.