What famous quote comes from General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to Congress?

Answer 1

The quote, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away" was part of General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to a joint session of Congress on April 19, 1951, after President Truman fired him for ignoring orders about threatening China. The sentimental quote belies the seriousness of MacArthur's warning about and insight into the dangers of post-World War II Asia, particularly the Korean War and eventual "military action" in Vietnam.

[Another contributor adds: "According to General of the Army (5 star) Douglas McArthur, the line came from an old Barracks Ballad sung during his young cadet tenure at West Point (Military Academy). He mentioned the ballad during his final address to the Corps of Cadets on his final departure from the Army I believe somewhere around 1962."]

The full quote from the end of his address was:

"I am closing my 52 years of military service. When I joined the Army, even before the turn of the century, it was the fulfillment of all of my boyish hopes and dreams. The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that "old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

"And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.

"Good Bye."

You can read and view MacArthur's address at American Rhetoric: Top 100 Speeches, available via Related Links. For more information, also see Related Questions, below.

Answer 2

These are some quotes made by Douglas MacArthur:

A better world shall emerge based on faith and understanding.

Douglas MacArthur

A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.

Douglas MacArthur

Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.

Douglas MacArthur

Always there has been some terrible evil at home or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it.

Douglas MacArthur

Americans never quit.

Douglas MacArthur

And like the old soldier in that Ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the sight to see that duty.

Douglas MacArthur

Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory.

Douglas MacArthur

Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would yield every honor which has been accorded by war.

Douglas MacArthur

Duty, Honor, Country. Those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.

Douglas MacArthur

I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.

Douglas MacArthur

I have just returned from visiting the Marines at the front, and there is not a finer fighting organization in the world!

Douglas MacArthur

I have known war as few men now living know it. It's very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes.

Douglas MacArthur

I suppose, in a way, this has become part of my soul. It is a symbol of my life. Whatever I have done that really matters, I've done wearing it. When the time comes, it will be in this that I journey forth. What greater honor could come to an American, and a soldier?

Douglas MacArthur

I've looked that old scoundrel death in the eye many times but this time I think he has me on the ropes.

Douglas MacArthur

In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield.

Douglas MacArthur

In war there is no substitute for victory.

Douglas MacArthur

In war, you win or lose, live or die - and the difference is just an eyelash.

Douglas MacArthur

It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.

Douglas MacArthur

It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant Propaganda of fear.

Douglas MacArthur

Life is a lively process of becoming.

Douglas MacArthur