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Humility and Leadership
Ike Learns A Painful But Valuable Lesson

Where does a leader "draw the line" in his dealings with others?

When does he choose to assert himself forcefully and when does he choose to keep his mouth shut, especially in dealing with those in positions of command and authority?

More profoundly, where does a leader draw the line in regard to determining his own behavior, notwithstanding the behavior of others? Ike learned a great deal about the arts of both leading and following from an arduous experience: his work as a veritable "slave" for General Douglas MacArthur in the 1930s.

After Ike's assignment as a Major to the general staff of the Army in 1929, he was quickly pulled into the orbit of MacArthur, who became the new Army Chief of Staff in 1930.

General MacArthur and Ike

Though brilliant in a number of ways, MacArthur was often so arrogant that he acted foolishly. In 1932, for example, MacArthur tarnished his name when he went far beyond the orders of President Hoover in dispersing the so-called "Bonus Army" of unemployed veterans who protested their joblessness by camping out in Washington. He bragged to the press about routing a gang of "insurrectionists" who threatened "revolution." Ike was appalled, for he had counseled MacArthur to avoid unnecessary provocations in confronting his fellow World War I veterans. While publicly defending his chief, Ike was privately bitter about the Army's attack upon its veterans. "I can't understand how such a damn fool could have gotten to be a general," Ike wrote in his diary, referring to MacArthur.

Early in 1933, Ike moved into an alcove next to MacArthur's office. He quickly became an important but demoralized functionary. Though MacArthur valued highly Ike's talents as a writer and organizer, he treated his assistant like a drudge. Ike did his job superbly, though he hated it. "I always resented the years that I spent as a slave in the War Department," Ike recalled. But he also observed years later that his “ambition in the army . . . was to make everybody I worked for regret it when I was ordered to other duty.”

In 1935, MacArthur was sent to the Philippines, where he had served before. He asked Eisenhower to accompany him, and he offered Ike a number of powerful inducements. Ike went - serving with a general of MacArthur’s stature was no small matter - but he lived to regret it.

MacArthur's task of building a Philippine defense force was virtually hopeless, due to budgetary constraints. But MacArthur regaled himself with pomp and pageantry. He requested that the Filipinos make him a Field Marshal, complete with a gold baton and extra pay. Once again, Ike was appalled, and he chose to rebuke his chief in private.

Biographer Carlo D'Este has observed that Eisenhower gradually managed to "challenge one of the U.S. Army's most autocratic soldiers with virtual impunity," adding that "no one ever stood up to [MacArthur] more forcefully than Eisenhower." At last, in 1939, Ike openly rebelled when MacArthur deliberately misrepresented his actions to the President of the Philippines. Ike requested reassignment to Washington.