Douglas MacArthur

Farewell address to a joint session of Congress, April 19, 1951 Eight days after President Truman relieved him of command in Korea, Douglas MacArthur came home to a hero's welcome and defended his conduct of the war before Congress and a national television audience. It is the clearest case on this list of a speech as a public argument against a sitting president's policy, delivered by a general. Most people know only the ending, where he quotes an old army ballad and says he will "just fade away." The full film shows the case he made first, about the Communist threat in Asia and his view of how the war should be fought.