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Douglas MacArthur II

Douglas MacArthur II
United States Ambassador to Iran
In office October 13, 1969 – February 17, 1972
President	Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Armin H. Meyer
Succeeded by	Joseph S. Farland
United States Ambassador to Austria
In office May 24, 1967 – September 16, 1969
President	Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	James Williams Riddleberger
Succeeded by	John P. Humes
Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs
In office March 14, 1965 – March 6, 1967
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Fred Dutton
Succeeded by	William B. Macomber Jr.
United States Ambassador to Belgium
In office May 9, 1961 – February 11, 1965
President	John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	William A. M. Burden
Succeeded by	Ridgway B. Knight
United States Ambassador to Japan
In office February 25, 1957 – March 12, 1961
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	John M. Allison
Succeeded by	Edwin Reischauer
10th Counselor of the United States Department of State
In office March 30, 1953 – December 16, 1956
President	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Preceded by	Charles E. Bohlen
Succeeded by	G. Frederick Reinhardt
Personal details
Born	(1909-07-05)July 5, 1909 Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	November 15, 1997(1997-11-15) (aged 88) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Spouse	Laura Louise Barkley ​ ​ (m. 1934; died 1987)​
Parent	Arthur MacArthur III (father)
Education	Yale University
Occupation	Diplomat

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[edit]

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[edit]

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]

Ambassador to Japan[edit]

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. Marines 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]

Other posts[edit]

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 by Mojahedin-e Khalq, an Iranian dissident organization in 1970.^[3][5][14]

Later life and death[edit]

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

See also[edit]

• Girard incident
• Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan
• Anpo protests
• Hagerty Incident

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• 1982 interview with Ambassador MacArthur related to US diplomatic efforts related to Vietnam
• AppearancesonC-SPAN