General Douglas MacArthur’s Famed “Duty, Honor, Country” Address to the Corps of Cadets at West Point on May 12, 1962, Signed

On May 12, 1962, General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, age 82, delivered his farewell address to the cadets at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he had set academic records as a student and where as superintendent in the early 1920s he brought the curriculum of the revered institution into the 20th century. In accepting the school’s Sylvanus Thayer Medal for outstanding service to his country, MacArthur organized his speech around the sacred motto of West Point: “Duty, Honor, Country.” It was the last public act of a military career that spanned more than a half-century; that witnessed triumphs and tragedies, glory and disgrace.

To author and Pacific War veteran William Manchester, MacArthur was “the most-gifted man-at-arms this nation has produced.” Several of MacArthur’s contemporaries were equally profuse in their praise of his abilities. During World War I, Secretary of War Newton Baker called him “the greatest American field commander produced by the war.” One American general said of MacArthur’s heroics then “On a field where courage was the rule, his courage was the dominant factor.” George Marshall, who commanded MacArthur during World War II, called him “our most brilliant general.” British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called him “the glorious commander,” while British Army Chief of Staff Alan Brooke viewed him as “the greatest general and the best strategist that the war produced.”

MacArthur fought and led American soldiers in three great wars of the 20th century—World Wars I and II, and the Korean War. He earned 13 medals for bravery, including the Congressional Medal of Honor. He served as superintendent of West Point and Army Chief of Staff. During World War II in the Southwest Pacific, according to military historian Mark Perry, MacArthur “coordinated the most successful air, land, and sea campaign in the history of warfare.” After the war, he led an enlightened and successful occupation of Japan that transformed that nation from a militaristic empire into a stable, prosperous and peaceful democracy. In Korea, he produced a strategic gem—the surprise landing at Inchon, which cut off and stranded enemy forces in the south, sent communist North Korean forces reeling north over the 38th parallel, and freed the South Korean capital of Seoul. He was soon, however, at loggerheads with President Truman, who relieved him from duty.

On that day in May 1962 on the plain at West Point, the Korean controversy was forgotten; only the heroics mattered to the cadets who listened in awe as MacArthur explained the meaning of “Duty, Honor, Country.” “Those three hallowed words,” MacArthur told the cadets, “reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be.” They are not a slogan or a flamboyant phrase, he continued, “they build your basic character; they mold you for your future roles as custodians of the nation’s defense. … They teach you … to be an officer and a gentleman.” The American soldier, MacArthur stated, is “one of the world’s noblest figures, not only as one of the finest military characters, but also as one of the most stainless.”

MacArthur reflected on the soldiers he led in both world wars and Korea and the conditions they endured. He recalled “the filth of murky foxholes, the stench of ghostly trenches, the slime of dripping dugouts, those broiling suns of relentless heat, those torrential rains of devastating storm, the loneliness and utter desolation of jungle trails, the bitterness of long separation from those they loved and cherished, … the horrors of stricken areas of war.” Through it all, MacArthur continued, the American soldier showed “resolute and determined defense … indomitable purpose … and [won] complete and decisive victory.” He stated of the gray-uniformed West Point graduates, “The long gray line has never failed us. Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.”

MacArthur finished this timeless speech – which many consider the greatest ever given by an American military figure – with a personal reflection that has made it unforgettable. “The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished – tone and tints. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen then, but with thirsty ear, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you. But I want you to know that when I cross the river, my last conscious thoughts will be of the Corps, and the Corps, and the Corps. I bid you farewell.”

We offer a copy of this speech, signed; the first signed copy of it that we have ever carried.