Part 3 Chapter 16 Summary

In April of 1951, President Truman summarily relieved General Douglas MacArthur from his command in Korea and after a triumphant overnight stop in San Francisco, the war hero reached Washington to even greater accolades. On April 20, MacArthur addressed a joint session of Congress that was televised nationally. Congressmen and radio listeners alike cheered his dramatic rhetoric as he stated that, "there can be no substitute for victory." He claimed the unanimous support of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the position that had cost him his job and excoriated the appeasement practiced by civilians in the Truman Administration. The thirty-four minute speech ended with MacArthur applying to himself a popular barrack ballad of his youth, "Old soldiers never die. They just fade away." He whispered his final words: "Good-bye."

The General stepped down "into pandemonium," as congressmen swarmed to touch his sleeve...