The Power of the Savior

On April 27, 1951, I stood in the window of a high school building in Milwaukee, watching (I was assured) the next President of the United States drive by through cheering crowds. The night before, in Chicago, he had addressed 55,000 people who turned out in drafty Soldier Field despite chilly weather. Before reaching Milwaukee, he had passed people, clustered all along his route, who broke into applause at the sight of his car.

It had been this way all over the nation, ever since Governor Earl Warren and half a million people turned out to meet General Douglas MacArthur in San Francisco on his return from the Far East. President Harry Truman had dismissed the outspoken General, but Congress invited him to a love fest where members wept openly. The people supported MacArthur against Truman, 66% to 25%, according to Gallup.

The support for MacArthur far exceeded the numbers of the minority (Republican) party in those days. MacArthur claimed to speak from above the parties -- and TIME believed him: "Soldier MacArthur was speaking his convictions, and they were tailored to no political wind." MacArthur himself said America's only hope was for the people to take back their government. "I have clearly seen that the soul of liberty is still living in the American heart. It is neither Democratic nor Republican, but American." The people sympathized with a military man done in by the politicians. He turned to the people for the way to the country's salvation: "You can always trust them and believe in them, for in their hearts they are good and true." The people, in turn, looked to him as a savior. MacArthur for President organizations mushroomed.

It actually helped MacArthur that most of the press was critical of him. While the people were behind him, 85% of journalists surveyed backed Truman. That showed how out of touch were the news people. MacArthur knew that entrenched powers would try to muzzle him. "I am told in effect I must follow blindly the leader -- keep silent -- or take the bitter consequences." It helped too that he was not a politician: "I have been impelled as a patriotic duty of simple citizenship -- and a disagreeable duty it has been -- to expose for public consideration the failures and weaknesses, as I view them, which have brought our once righteous and invincible Nation to fiscal instability, political insecurity, and moral jeopardy at home and to universal doubt abroad."