18. MacArthur for President ran into opposition from the men he commanded in the Pacific
Vandenburg found strong support among arch-conservatives for MacArthur. He planned a Republican convention in which the two announced candidates – Wendell Wilkie and Thomas Dewey – became deadlocked, after which he would lead a “ground roots movement” to draft MacArthur by acclamation. As he and his operatives canvassed and polled potential voters he found resistance to the idea was consistent among one group – veterans who had served under MacArthur, either in the Pacific or before the war. Vandenburg, under the guise of fact-finding trips over morale at the front, sent representatives to canvas the troops in the Pacific theater. The consistent response over MacArthur’s leadership was negative from the men fighting the war.
In early 1944, a private correspondence between MacArthur and Congressman Arthur Miller of Nebraska was released to the press. It revealed MacArthur’s machinations behind the scenes to secure the Republican nomination, even as his public relations staff had made repeated denials of any political ambitions on the part of the General. On April 30, 1944, his staff released a statement in which MacArthur said, “I request that no action be taken that would link my name in any way with the nomination. I do not covet it nor would I accept it”. MacArthur twice more considered running for the office of President, but his 1944 behind the scenes machinations while serving in uniform was unique in American history.
