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On
May 12, 1962, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur entered his
name in the list of the recipients of the Sylvanus Thayer Award,
the greatest honor in the US military history. His address to the
cadets of the US Military Academy on this award presentation ceremony
is a monumental tribute to the ideals that inspired this great American
soldier. As long as the Americans serve their country as courageously
and honestly as he did, General MacArthur's dynamic words will never
fade away.
"Duty
- Honor - Country…
No
human being could fail to be deeply moved by such a tribute as this,
Thayer Award. Coming from a profession I have served so long and
a people I have loved so well, it fills me with an emotion I cannot
express.
But
this award is not intended primarily to honor a personality, but
to symbolize a great moral code, a code of conduct and chivalry
of those who guard this beloved land of culture and ancient descent.
For all hours and for all time, it is an expression of the ethics
of the American soldier…
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Duty, honor, country : Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying points to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn.
…And what sort of soldiers are those you are to lead? Are they reliable? Are they brave? Are they capable of victory?
Their story is known to all of you. It is the story of the American man-at-arms. My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many, many years ago, and has never changed. |
I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the world's
noblest figures; not only as one of the finest military characters,
but also as one of the most stainless.
His
name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. In his
youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality
can give.
He
needs no eulogy from me, or from any other man. He has written his
own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast.
But
when I think of his patience in adversity of his courage under fire
and of his modesty in victory, I am filled with an emotion of admiration
I cannot put into words.
He
belongs to history as furnishing one of the greatest examples of
successful patriotism.
He
belongs to posterity as the instructor of future generations in
the principles of liberty and freedom.
He
belongs to the present, to us, by his virtues and by his achievements.
Witness
to the Fortitude
In
20 campaigns, on a hundred battlefields, around a thousand campfires,
I have witnessed that enduring fortitude, that patriotic self-abnegation,
and that invincible determination which have carved his statue in
the hearts of his people.
From
one end of the world to the other, he has drained deep the chalice
of courage.
As
I listened to those songs of the glee club, in memory's eye, I could
see those staggering columns of the first World War, … blue-lipped,
covered with sludge and mud, chilled by the wind and rain, driving
home to their objective, and for many to the judgment seat of God.
I
do not know the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory
of their death.
They died, unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts,
and on their lips the hope that we would go on to victory.
Always
for them : Duty, honor, and country. Always their blood, and sweat,
and tears, as we sought the way and the light and the truth.
And
20 years after, on the other side of the globe, again the filth
of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of
dripping dugouts, those boiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential
rains of devastating storms, the loneliness and utter desolation
of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation from those they
loved and cherished, the deadly pestilence of tropical disease,
the horror of stricken areas of war.
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