Had late Gen Douglas McArthur been of a politician instead of being a general, could be a great prez of USA?

Question

History tells us that some great men of honor with their particular profession, could have opted and landed as a great politician also?

Answer 1

While MacArthur had some great leadership qualities and was a great military tactician, he was a little too old to run for President when he returned from Korea.

Five or ten years earlier and there would have been some immense changes in the world if MacArthur had been the American President. He did "forward thinking" at a time when it was not the common thing to do.

Truman's mistake in relieving MacArthur at that crucial time in Korea, may have been the incident that gave the Russian and Chinese their ideas for Vietnam. They saw America as a weak-kneed army that would not hold against a large force.

MacArthur would have stopped the Chinese in Korea and the Chinese would have backed down because they would have lost the Russian support..

He did things on the battlefield that surprised his own people: his return to the Philippines and the Inchon Landing are classic examples.

Answer 2

He did run in a manner of speaking. He was drafted as a Republican candidate but did not win the party nomination. I believe that was the same year that Truman narrowly won against Dewey (1948).

I think he would have been an OK President. Eisenhower was a mediocre President even though he was a great military leader.

Answer 3

One does not become a general in the military without being a great politician. As for Doug, he was a formidable man and as such, he had powerful enemies that he could not neutralize in his attempt to enter civilian politics. In our system of government, the more powerful you appear, the more resistance develops to handing over the keys to the country (and it's nuclear arsenal) to you.

Answer 4

He wasn't seen that way by either political party and he had quite the ego. There was some not so behind the seen efforts to guage his electability, and the results were not good for him. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, basically the far east, while Ike had the glamour job n Europe.

Answer 5

No, McArthur once laid out a plan to Eisenhower for a nuclear attack on China which Ike thank God ignored. That kind of thinking would have led us to nuclear destruction.

Answer 6

I think McArthur would have been a great President. If we would have had him during Vietnam he would have said "screw the Russians, nuke those slant eyed SOB's!"

Answer 7

no