GENERAL MARK W. CLARK - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 05/13/1977 - HFSID 177944

MARK W. CLARK
Mark W. Clark sends a typed letter criticizing Truman's firing of Mac Arthur.
Typed Letter signed: "Mark Clark", 8½x11. On letterhead of The Citadel Military College. Charleston, South Carolina, 1977 May 13. To Tom Ryan, Live Oak, California. In full: "I expect that's your first name but your writing is not quite clear enough for my old eyes. Your letter catches me at a bad time, for I have been in the hospital for an operation and just returned home, so my desk is piled high with correspondence. I'll have to be brief in trying to answer your questions. First, I did not feel that President Truman should have relieved General MacArthur at the time he did. General MacArthur was having a hard time in Korea and was naturally sending back bitter messages, yelling for help. Some of those messages were rather curt and I believe offended President Truman. I believe also, General MacArthur would have been the Republican nominee for the Presidency of the United States had he not be relieved. General Eisenhower and I were at West Point. We were nearly the same age, and were close friends. General MacArthur was ten or twelve years older than I was, and although I knew him, not intimately like Ike, I admired them both. Sincerely." Mark Wayne Clark (1896-1984), who assumed command of the Fifth Army in North Africa in 1943 and commanded the Fifth Army in the invasion of Italy in 1944, got his fourth star in March 1945. He accepted the surrender of German forces in Italy and Austria and, from 1945 to 1947, was the U.S. High Commissioner in occupied Austria. In 1953, as Commander in Chief of the United Nations Command, he signed the military armistice between the U.N. Command and the North Korean Army and Chinese People's Volunteers in Korea. That year, he also began his 12 years of service as President of The Citadel. He is buried on the campus of The Citadel next to Mark Clark Hall. Fine condition.