Analysis Of General Douglas Macarthur's Farewell Speech

General Douglas MacArthur was an exemplary man. He led the United States through both World Wars and was awarding over countless awards for serving his duty in the Marine Corps. One of his more outstanding awards was the Sylvanus Thayer Award. On May 12, 1962 General MacArthur gave his farewell speech after receiving his honorable medal (MacArthur, 1962). His farewell speech impacted the lives of many, making it one of the best speeches in American history in my opinion. Throughout his speech, General MacArthur is saying goodbye while also explaining his choices were not made to disrespect President Truman at the time, but to protect people in Asia from the spread of Communism. General MacArthur attempted to persuade his political audience
A small reason that I became aware of while reading the speech was that he kept repeating, “Duty, Honor, Country” (MacArthur, 1962). I think he was attempting to make the audience connect with that, but all I received from reading that over and over again was the propaganda of glittering generality. Glittering generality is when someone repeats or says something that really has no meaning to their message, but just makes it sound better. It’s putting meaning behind something that does not actually have it (Miller, 1937). Duty, honor, and country could mean a wide variety of things, and did not entirely connect with General MacArthur’s point. I believe he kept saying those words just to get Congress to somehow believe they mean something to the speech. I personally do not believe that the idea in question has a legitimate relationship to the virtuous words being said (Nelson, Titworth, Pearson, 2014). I also do think that it is a misguided plan being advanced simply because it is General MacArthur saying the phrase. That is the only part of his speech that did not make it nearly as good as it could’ve