Wendelin Van Draanen Quotes

MacArthur had been the Commander of our Military Forces in Korea. He had a huge ego, and he wanted to cross the border and attack China since Chinese Troops were aiding the North Vietnamese. He had previously assured the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the President that the Chinese would not send troops into Korea, but he was then wrong. And when they had attacked, they had erased the territorial gains that MacArthur had previously gained. The Joint Chief’s of Staff, the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State had decided upon a strategy which this time did not follow MacArthur’s strategic advice. The President approved the strategy, but MacArthur spoke and acted contrary. The President met with MacArthur and reiterated the strategy that the President approved. But MacArthur did not follow the orders of the Joint Chiefs. At the time, he and Eisenhower were America’s two most famous military leaders, and of the two MacArthur was senior and thought that he should be President. After he was fired, MacArthur addressed a Joint Session of Congress and gave his "Old Soldiers Never Die" speech which was his first active step towards the Presidency. It was a very sentimental speech with little content and nothing about why he had disobeyed orders. He was totally shocked when it was Eisenhower who was selected to run for President and not him.

Amazingly the newspaper castigated Cunningham for making obscene gestures and saying “Fuck You” to constituents who would tell the Congressman that there was too much Defense spending. The reason this was amazing is that the San Diego Union supported Cunningham every single time he ran for election and never wrote a word about his illegally swinging contracts to firms. He had been taking bribes all along and when the Federal judge sentenced him to jail called him the ‘most corrupt congressman in American History.’

Kennedy was a new, young President, and the more experienced Nikita Khrushchev was soon to be facing a Communist Party Congress in Russia and wanted to demonstrate his prowess. He therefore went after Kennedy diplomatically and got the better of him at that meeting. Kennedy was a fast learner and never again had such a poor foreign policy performance.

It is onerous for most governments to have one of their secret programs exposed by the press. But what is much worse for the government is the exposure of a secret program whose legality is not on a firm foundation.