Associated Press Stenographic Transcript of General Douglas MacArthur's Address to Congress
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OCR Page 1 of 8ARCHIVES 3. RECORDS AMD 19
AP STENOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPT OF GENERAL MacARTHUR'S ADDRESS
TO CONGRESS, APRIL 19, 1951, AS CHECKED AGAINST OFFICIAL
RECORD.
Mr. President, Mr. Speaker and Distinguished Members of the
Congress:
I stand on this rostrum with a sense of deep humility and
pride -- humility in the weight of those great architects of our
history who have stood here before me, pride in the reflection
that this home of legislative debate represents human liberty in
the purest form yet devised.
Here are centered the hopes and aspirations and faith of
the entire human race.
I do not stand here as advocate for any partisan cause, for
the issues are fundamental and reach quite beyond the realm of
partisan considerations. They must be resolved on the highest
plane of national interest if our course is to prove sound and
our future protected.
I trust, therefore, that you will do me the justice of
receiving that which I have to say as solely expressing the
considered viewpoint of a fellow American.
I address you with neither rancor nor bitterness in the
fading twilight of life, with but one purpose in mind: to serve
my country.
The issues are global, and so interlocked that to consider
the problems of one sector oblivious to those of another is to
court disaster for the whole. While Asia is commonly referred to
as the Gateway to Europe, it is no less true that Europe is the
Gateway to Asia, and the broad influence of the one cannot fail
to have its impact upon the other. There are those who claim our
strength is inadequate to protect on both fronts, that we cannot
divide our effort. I can think of no greater expression of
defeatism.
If a potential enemy can divide his strength on two fronts,
it is for us to counter his effort. The Communist threat is a
global one.
Its successful advance in one sector threatens the destruction
of every other sector. You can not appease or otherwise surrender
to communism in Asia without simultaneously undermining our efforts
to halt its advance in Europe.
Beyond pointing out these general truisms, I shall confine
my discussion to the general areas of Asia.
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