he was chief of staff to douglas macarthur in the philippines in the 1930s. he said i studied drama under macarthur. eisenhower was the best i ever had. there was no love lost between those two. you can imagine the meeting at the eisenhower white house was an awkward one. how do you rate these guys other than the way the publisher put them on the jacket of a book? how do you tell who is the greatest general? that is a wonderful question and it is one that can probably not be adequately answered because in the days of generals on horseback the general commanded troops and attacked but by the time we get to the second world war we had generals who were supremely good at staff work but they would have been terrible battle tactics. at and would have been an awful supreme commander because that job require diplomacy. george c. marshall, the greatest solar this country ever produced would have been a mediocre battle captain due to his age and lack of experience commanding field troops. is difficult to say who was best but it is fortunate for the allies and america t

we remember douglas smith up -- macarthur and admiral chester nimitz. some may remember jimmy doolittle or vinegar joe still well. those who have walked around halls of the museum here probably see pictures of a diesel smith and other generals. but it was eisenhower, the conqueror of europe, and his to lead horses. schools, silver dollars, and the roster of american president. these three men, we have said in our pentium of military heroes, men who can be spoken of alongside grant and lee, sam houston commander jackson, black jack pershing, washington, says sherman, sheridan command few others. while they won a victory in europe after years of developing their partnership i think that it may be their greatest victory, the victory that they made in leaving their imprint on the american psyche. well, they'll have been very patient with me. as jamie indicated, this is to be a discussion, not just a monologue. the payoff to me and to you, hopefully, is that i get to hear what you have to say. so, we have some questions. i would love to hear them. i believe

from douglas macarthur to senior members of the military, there was a perfect desire when they could end those deaths and macarthur wrote a shocking memo to warren to eisenhower during the period after eisenhower was inaugurated suggesting his plan and fired by truman and you begin to see why. the plan to end war was to invite the soviets and chinese to in negotiation session to withdraw influence from europe and asia. should they refuse? of course they would. using nuclear weapons destroyed every chinese air field within flying distance of korea and a radioactive way so that -- it is impossible to imagine the world today had eisenhower followed that advice. as far as i can tell it is the last time there was a significant communication. as the presidency went on there are multiple occasions usually by the joint chiefs and national security council in which the use of nuclear weapons is discussed and usually saved for the joint chiefs but also members of the national security council as well. other occasions the french garrison, failing in indochina, strong pressure on weapons as nece

interestingly, douglas macarthur and admiral chester nimitz would have anything to do with the donovan they prohibited his men from working in their pacific theaters. they didn't see much use for the oss. for the normandy landing, donovan had a huge intelligence operation providing a lot of -- good intelligence on german defenses, intelligence for the air force were bombing targets. and infiltrated by air, parachuted in a number of commandos, oh geez they call them, operational groups, commandos. that helped organize the french resistance in advance of the normandy landing. donovan also had a penchant for going in on landings, too. he went in on the italian landings and the sicilian landings. it also went in on the normandy landing, too. george marshall, the army chief of staff, thought he had donovan banned from going into the normandy landing, because if a very good reason to even donovan's own men thought that being that close to the combat was not the place for the chief of american strategic intelligence service to be, and marshall and eisenhower realized that donovan were capture

>> guest: sir charles was general charles willoughby, who was intelligence chief to general douglas macarthur in the philippines. and clare was always interested in military men and particularly if they had anything to do with spying. and since he was the intelligence chief, she was incredibly drawn to him. he was also rather taciturn--the strong, silent type and tall and striking looking, and she said to me that he was the mo--one man that she might have liked to run away with. but it turned out that willoughby never came back after the end of the war. he elected to go to japan to bring democracy to the japanese with--with macarthur. c-span: how did they meet? >> guest: they met when she went as a correspondent for life to the philippines. c-span: and was she married at the time? >> guest: she was married to harry at the time. this was in the early '40s before she became a congresswoman. c-span: and how much of a relationship did she have with the colonel--or the general? >> guest: well, you see, they were apart for most of the war. she went back to--she met him with harry on her first visit

that, if you go over to the pacific side, you see quotations from the great walter lord carved, douglas macarthur. you get people out of the atlantic. in between, there is a lot of efforts made to include women in the story, the rosy the river story -- rosie the riveter story. norfolk, detroit, a san diego, the airplanes that henry ford built up in dearborn area. it is trying to encompass the entire war experience. host: doug brinkley is our guest, a well-known american historian. we are at the world war ii memorial on the national mall, talking about the memorial as well as world war ii. we want to get your participation as well. we set aside our third line this morning for world war about 16 million people were in uniform during world war ii according to the veterans administrations. from we would you and get your perspective. doug brinkley, before we got started, there were some school kids yelling at us and having a little bit of fun. you made a sort of an aside comment that this memorial has lost so much of its meaning. what did you mean? guest: unfortunately, memorial day has been a day for

at the age of 22, she was recruited by general douglas macarthur, you know macarthur boulevard?he japanese constitution. she worked in secret after conclusion of the war and she was there from nine days, from february 4th until the 12th in 1946. as a young person, she grew up in japan from the age of five, that child of jewish immigrants from russia. she was interested in japanese culture, fluent in japanese, and in 1939, she left japan, left tokyo, to come to mills college at the age of 15. how frightening that must have been. i've heard some of the stories today among some in the about leaving home. but think about leaving home and wondering if you would ever go home again because your country was going to war. she did not speak about her contributions until she was asked by the japanese government to discuss the amendment, both numbers 14 and article 24 that proclaimed the essential quality of the sexes. her work has inspired so many amazing tributes, and including a documentary film and her own memoir. she is a performing arts director for the japan society and the asia soci

that, if you go over to the pacific side, you see quotations from the great walter lord carved, douglas macarthur. you get people out of the atlantic. in between, there is a lot of efforts made to include women in the story, the rosy the river story -- rosie the riveter story. norfolk, detroit, a san diego, the airplanes that henry ford built up in dearborn area. it is trying to encompass the entire war experience. host: doug brinkley is our guest, a well-known american historian. we are at the world war ii memorial on the national mall, talking about the memorial as well as world war ii. we want to get your participation as well. we set aside our third line this morning for world war ii veterans. ab ou about 16 million people were in s administration, about 2 million veterans still survivor from world war ii. we would love to hear from you and get your perspective. doug brinkley, before we got started, there were some school kids yelling at us and having a little bit of fun. you made a sort of an aside comment that this memorial has lost so much of its meaning. what did you mean? guest: unfortun

at the age of 22, she was recruited by general douglas macarthur, macarthur boulevard to create the japanese constitution. she worked in secret after the conclusion of the war, the second world war, and she was there for nine days in 1946. as a young person, she grew up in japan from the age of five. the child of jewish immigrants from russia. she was interested in japanese culture, fluent in japanese. in 1939, she lath -- left tokyo to come to mills further -- college at the age of a 15. how frightening that must have banned about leaving home and wondering if you would ever go home again, because your country was going to war. she did not speak about her contributions until she was asked by the japanese government to discuss the amendments, both article 14 in 24, that proclaims the quality of the sexes. her work has inspired so many amazing tributes, including a documentary film, and her own memoir, the only woman in the room. she is a performing arts director for the japan society in the asia society. throughout her life, she continues to bring connections between asia and the united stat

that, if you go over to the pacific side, you see quotations from the great walter lord carved, douglas macarthurpeople out of the atlantic. in between, there is a lot of efforts made to include women in the story, the rosy the river story -- rosie the riveter story. norfolk, detroit, a san diego, the airplanes that henry ford built up in dearborn area. it is trying to encompass the entire war experience. host: doug brinkley is our guest, a well-known american historian. we are at the world war ii memorial on the national mall, talking about the memorial as well as world war ii. we want to get your participation as well. we set aside our third line this morning for world war ii veterans. about 16 million people were in uniform during world war ii. according to the veterans administration, about 2 million veterans still survivor from world war ii. we would love to hear from you and get your perspective. doug brinkley, before we got started, there were some school kids yelling at us and having a little bit of fun. you made a sort of an aside comment that this memorial has lost so much of its meanin