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Douglas MacArthur II

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Douglas MacArthur II
United States Ambassador to Iran
In office
October 13, 1969 – February 17, 1972
PresidentRichard Nixon
Preceded byArmin H. Meyer
Succeeded byJoseph S. Farland
United States Ambassador to Austria
In office
May 24, 1967 – September 16, 1969
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Richard Nixon
Preceded byJames Williams Riddleberger
Succeeded byJohn P. Humes
9th Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
In office
March 14, 1965 – March 6, 1967
PresidentLyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byFred Dutton
Succeeded byWilliam B. Macomber Jr.
United States Ambassador to Belgium
In office
May 9, 1961 – February 11, 1965
PresidentJohn F. Kennedy
Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded byWilliam A. M. Burden
Succeeded byRidgway B. Knight
United States Ambassador to Japan
In office
February 25, 1957 – March 12, 1961
PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byJohn M. Allison
Succeeded byEdwin Reischauer
10th Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office
March 30, 1953 – December 16, 1956
PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded byCharles E. Bohlen
Succeeded byG. Frederick Reinhardt
Personal details
Born(1909-07-05)July 5, 1909
Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.
DiedNovember 15, 1997(1997-11-15) (aged 88)
Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse
Laura Louise Barkley
​
​
(m. 1934; died 1987)​
Parent
EducationYale University
OccupationDiplomat

Douglas MacArthur II (July 5, 1909 – November 15, 1997) was an American diplomat. During his diplomatic career, he served as United States ambassador to Japan, Belgium, Austria, and Iran, as well as Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs.[1] He was the nephew of the U.S. general Douglas MacArthur.[2]

Early life and education

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MacArthur's parents were Captain Arthur MacArthur III and Mary McCalla MacArthur. Through his mother, he was a grandson of Bowman H. McCalla, great-grandson of Colonel Horace Binney Sargent, and great-great-grandson of Lucius Manlius Sargent. Named for his uncle, General Douglas MacArthur, he was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, in 1909.[3]

MacArthur graduated from Milton Academy in Milton, Mass., and from Yale College, Class of 1932. He married Laura Louise Barkley on August 21, 1934, the daughter of future U.S. Vice President Alben Barkley.[3]

He married Laura Louise Barkley, the daughter of President Harry S. Truman's vice president Alben W. Barkley in 1934. They had a daughter named Laura MacArthur, two grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.[4]

Diplomatic career

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After serving as an Army officer, MacArthur began his Foreign Service career in 1935 with a post in Vancouver. He was assigned to Vichy France during the early years of World War II, served as secretary of the U.S. Embassy there from 1940 to 1942, and was interned in Baden Baden, Germany with other U.S. diplomatic staff and civilians for two years after the U.S. broke relations with the Vichy government. Following an internee exchange in March 1944, he served as part of General Dwight Eisenhower's political staff and then led the political section of the U.S. Embassy in Paris until 1948.[5] He went on to become chief of the State Department's Division of Western European Affairs in 1949, where he assisted in the formation of NATO, and served as Counselor of the State Department from 1953 to 1956, where he led the U.S. negotiations for the SEATO treaty.[3][6]

Douglas MacArthur II (left), then US Ambassador to Belgium, presents Basil F. Macgowan with a retirement gift

Ambassador to Japan

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MacArthur was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Japan in December 1956 and presented his credentials in February 1957.[6]

During his four years in Tokyo, MacArthur oversaw the re-negotiation of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, known as "Anpo" in Japanese. MacArthur appeared on the cover of the June 27, 1960, issue of Time magazine, in which he was characterized as "the principal architect of present-day U.S. policy toward Japan."[7]

However, the new treaty was met with the massive Anpo Protests in Japan, and was only ratified with great difficulty.[8] As the protests grew in size in June 1960, MacArthur summoned the heads of major newspapers and television station NHK to his office and demanded more favorable coverage of the treaty.[9]

Then on June 10, MacArthur deliberately provoked the so-called "Hagerty Incident" (ハガチー事件, Hagachii jiken). That afternoon, MacArthur was leaving Tokyo's Haneda Airport in a black car carrying himself and President Eisenhower's press secretary James Hagerty, who had just arrived in Japan to prepare for a planned visit by Eisenhower, when MacArthur ordered that the car be deliberately driven into a large crowd of anti-treaty protesters.[10] The mob surrounded the car and proceeded to smash the car's windows and tail lights, slash its tires, and dance on the roof until MacArthur and Hagerty finally had to be rescued by a U.S. Marine helicopter.[11] MacArthur had hoped that by provoking the incident, he would force the Japanese government to carry out a more forceful police response to suppress the protests ahead of Eisenhower's planned arrival. However, MacArthur's gambit backfired, as widespread shock at the Hagerty Incident helped force prime minister Nobusuke Kishi to cancel Eisenhower's visit, for fears that his safety could not be guaranteed.[12]

It was revealed in 1974 that MacArthur had negotiated a secret agreement with the Japanese foreign minister Aiichiro Fujiyama to allow the transit of American nuclear weapons through Japanese territory.[3] It was also revealed, through documents declassified in the 2000s, that MacArthur pressured the Japanese judiciary, including Chief Justice Kōtarō Tanaka, to uphold the legality of the United States military presence in Japan after a lower court decision found it unconstitutional.[13]

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Following his time in Japan, MacArthur served as Ambassador to Belgium (1961–1965), Assistant Secretary of State (1965–1967), Ambassador to Austria (1967–1969) and Ambassador to Iran (1969–1972). While in the latter post, he escaped an attempted kidnapping in 1970 by a network of opposition guerillas in Iran.[14][3][5][15] Months later, Iranian military officials sentenced four guerrillas to life imprisonment for their involvement in the attempted kidnapping.[16]

Later life and death

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MacArthur died in Washington, D.C., in 1997.[3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training Foreign Affairs Oral History Project Ambassador Douglas MacArthur, II" (PDF). Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. December 15, 1986. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 11, 2024. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  2. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Pace, Eric (November 17, 1997). "Douglas MacArthur 2d, 88, Former Ambassador to Japan". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  4. ^ Pearson, Richard (November 16, 1997). "MACARTHUR II DIES AT 88". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved January 8, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Pearson, Richard (November 16, 1997). "MacArthur II Dies at 88". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  6. ^ a b "Douglas MacArthur II – People – Department History – Office of the Historian". history.state.gov. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  7. ^ "The TIME Vault: 1960".
  8. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 234. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  9. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 17–24. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  10. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 29. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  11. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 27–29. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  12. ^ Kapur, Nick (2018). Japan at the Crossroads: Conflict and Compromise after Anpo. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0674984424.
  13. ^ "U.S. coerced court in '59 base case". The Japan Times Online. May 1, 2008. ISSN 0447-5763. Retrieved March 13, 2019.
  14. ^ The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations. Yale University Press. January 1988. p. 191. ISBN 0-300-04412-7.
  15. ^ United States Department of State (1983). State. p. 6.
  16. ^ Newton, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings. Facts On File. p. 178.
[edit]
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Japan
1957–1961 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Belgium
1961–1965 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Austria
1967–1969 		Succeeded by
Preceded by United States Ambassador to Iran
1969–1972 		Succeeded by
Government offices
Preceded by Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
March 14, 1965 – March 6, 1967 		Succeeded by
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