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48 hours with Douglas MacArthur Date published: 11/6/2009 By Edie Gross I HAVE A BONE TO pick with Douglas MacArthur. The late general kept me up well past my bedtime last week after Actually, now that I think about it, my irritation may have been misplaced. My apologies to the general. The young historian Me: So why'd you choose MacArthur? Her: Because he was a great man. Me: Well, tell me something about him. Her: He was a man. Me: Uh, yeah, well that's probably a good thing. Girls named "Douglas" tend not to turn out so well. But what kind of a man was he? Her: A great man. Me: OK, yeah, well you sort of covered that. But why was he great? Her: Because he did great things. Me: What things? Her: Great things. Me: But what kind of great things? Her: The kind of things that are great. Me: Permission to declare the witness "hostile," your honor. I sensed that the project lacked a bit in the way of specifics and suggested that the young historian spend a few days acquainting herself with MacArthur's actions during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. That's when I learned the project was due in two days. Hence, the late nights, spent plowing through biographical information and trying to distill 50 years of military history down to a half-dozen five-sentence paragraphs. It'd be easy to get mad at her for waiting until the last minute if I hadn't done the same thing myself once. OK, maybe twice. I vividly remember sitting with my mother at the dining-room table late one evening in 1984 when I, too, had waited until the night before it was due to start a school report. I think it was on the Panama Canal, which, as I recall, was also a great man, though perhaps not as great as MacArthur. I'm sure you can imagine the conversation: Mom: So what can you tell me about the Panama Canal? Me: It's a great canal. Mom: What's so great about it? Me: It does great things. Mom: What kind of things?
1. Be respectful. No personal attacks.
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