DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S RETURN TO CHICAGO.

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR’S RETURN TO CHICAGO. David Halberstam’s last book, THE COLDEST WINTER, is about the Korean War and adds to his vivid portrayal of the last half of the twentieth century. This review by Peter Kann describes the bitter divisions in the country: “The fabled ‘wise men’ who peopled the Truman administration — and indeed the gutsy president himself — became largely paralyzed by this “China Lobby” and by the domestic political clout of an increasingly disdainful and defiant Gen. MacArthur. In April 1951, President Truman finally fired the general, who returned home to a hero’s welcome while the president’s popularity sank to new lows….” The most important historical event of my childhood or at least the event that had the most fuss made about it was the return of General Douglas MacArthur to Chicago. I was almost nine. All the schools in Elmhurst, Illinois were closed for the occasion. Our schools were almost never closed. I can recall only one time that they were closed for weather (when I used to point out the large number of snow days in Connecticut, Nick would mutter that when I walked to school, it was uphill both coming and going). With the attention that was paid to the moment, I believed that when I watched General MacArthur setting foot on the ground at the airport, I was watching history being made.