Q: How do you think history should remember him?
SCHALLER: I think they should remember him as a man who achieved many things
and because of, if you want to get classical, hubris, ambition, resentment,
most of what he had accomplished in a positive sense was undone.
He was a man who clearly led the Army during the Great Depression and
kept it as a fighting force together in a period of terrible economic distress.
Who as a military commander in the Pacific War against Japan, parlayed limited
resources and opportunities into a solid record of achievement. He was someone
who, during the occupation of Japan, took a battered nation and through
inspiration and organization helped it recover greatly. I think those are the
positive things one can remember him for.
More negatively, I can think of reasons for being much more critical.
His leadership during the Korean War, for example. His provocation for a war
against China, the risks he took as much for political reasons as for those of
his own vaulting ambition to seek the Presidency I think endangered both
national interests and ironically ruined, in a sense, his own solid reputation
as a commander.
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