Lessons from MacArthur’s West Point Speech: Duty & Honor

The first in a series of connections to Timeless & Timely topics in his 1962 speech

The Third of May 1808 by Francisco de Goya, 1814 (public domain - Wikipedia)

About this issue’s image¹

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”
—Mao Zedong, 1938

In the previous issue of Timeless & Timely, I promised a compilation of previous newsletters that touched on some of the leadership qualities mentioned in the timeless wisdom of General Douglas MacArthur at West Point.

However, I didn’t think the weekend would bring news inversely related to the slogan the military academy’s motto “Duty. Honor. Country.”

Since we focus on topics of leadership here, we occasionally get pulled into politics. Not for debates around policy, but for evaluation of leadership qualities, virtues, and character traits.

And taking the extraordinary step of calling the national guard on American citizens is the antithesis of what our military was trained for.

In fact, the last time a president called the national guard on Americans was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson deployed the national guard to protect protesters in Selma, Alabama from violence at the hands of those who were trying to stop the civil rights movement.²

Johnson used the Army to protect American citizens from violence when exercising their rights; it is markedly different thing from deploying the military to provoke and instigate chaos.

MacArthur’s words echo here:

“…a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words: Duty, Honor, Country.”

So, in following our promise to be timely as well as timeless, yesterday’s news gave us a stark contrast to the motto above.

And while this issue won’t focus on the wide range of leadership virtues MacArthur touched on (those will come in a future issue), here are four timeless entries that address matters of duty and honor.

Honor and Duty

In Honor and Duty, I explored the idea that the willingness to accept responsibility is integrity:

“Those in power—those with the ability to make a change—have a responsibility to take action when they can. To ignore it is to invite scorn and distrust.

To embrace the opportunities and seek a better, brighter option for all stakeholders is what separates the courageous from the cowardly.

Honor and duty. The backbone of character.

The building blocks of leadership.”

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