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Douglas MacArthur  

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  • U.S. Army General One of the most celebrated and controversial military lead-ers in American history, Douglas MacArthur achieved his greatest notoriety in World War II as the U.S. commander in the Pacific theater. MacArthur best embodied the nation's will, effort, and ultimate victory in its war against Japan; his elevation to this iconic status was assured when, in March 1942, having been forced after months of dogged resistance to abandon the Philippines to Japanese invaders, he electri-fied an American public desperate for heroes and hopeful signs in those dark days by declaring, “I shall return.” Those three words, repeatedly and reproduced ad continually over the airwaves and in print, and matched with the iron-jawed visage of the general, stoic behind aviator sunglasses and a corncob pipe, came to symbolize his and the nation's deter-mination and certainty of eventual triumph. [Source: Encyclopedia of War & American Society; MacArthur, Douglas (1880–1964)]

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https://concepts.sagepub.com/social-science/concept/Douglas_MacArthur

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