LITMIR.BIZ

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relief agencies—the Public Works Administration (PWA) and the Works Progress Administration (WPA)—an opportunity. None of these had a bureaucratic infrastructure or list of potential projects to employ relief workers. The “Corps of Engineers was going to have to expand and take on a great deal of this work,” he explained, “because we were the only ones … that had programs and projects on the drawing board.” Given time, the New Deal agencies could figure this out, and when they did, they might eventually replace the corps as the federal government’s construction agency. Clay decided to approach Harry Hopkins, head of WPA, about involving the corps in its projects. “We would like to lend to you, in each of your regions, a capable, competent Engineer officer who would bring with him a capable and competent chief clerk who knows how to disperse and set up public funds, just to get you going.”

      Hopkins was suspicious: To whom would these people report? Did the corps aim to steal the role just given to the WPA?

      “No,” Clay explained. “These people would be reporting directly to [you]. They would be [your] people.”²⁸

      In the end, Hopkins warmed to the idea. In particular, he liked Clay. As the corps became involved in the WPA, the Public Works Administration began to look to the army for talent to take on its projects. Eventually, it found Eisenhower, who jumped at the idea of joining the relief agency, calling it a “marvelous” opportunity. But MacArthur killed it. He had come to depend upon Eisenhower, and, so long as MacArthur had a voice, Eisenhower would work for no one else. Yet MacArthur recognized Clay’s insight that the more the military helped the New Deal, the safer its appropriations. He allowed Eisenhower the task of overseeing Civilian Conservation Corps camps from time to time.²⁹

      As the New Deal unfolded, Clay became increasingly enmeshed in its politics. Because of his father, he had both Democratic Party connections and a sense of how Congress functioned, and so he often testified on behalf of the Corps of Engineers before congressional committees. Eventually, he took charge of specific relief projects. Between lobbying and testifying he became the main liaison between the military, Congress, and the National Emergency Council, (a kind of clearinghouse for New Deal domestic policy). On the council he became close to many of the big names in Roosevelt’s administration: Chester Davis, General Hugh Johnson, Harold Ickes, Donald Richberg, and Frances Perkins.³⁰

      In the meantime, Roosevelt and MacArthur also managed a working relationship. To MacArthur’s surprise, Roosevelt asked his thoughts on the many social programs emerging from the New Deal. Eventually, MacArthur asked, “Why is it, Mr. President, that you frequently inquire my opinion regarding the social reforms under consideration, matters about which I am certainly no authority, but pay little attention to my views on the military?”

      “Douglas,” Roosevelt replied, “I don’t bring these questions up for your advice but for your reactions.”³¹

      By the time the Supreme Court invalidated large parts of the New Deal in the spring of 1935, MacArthur and Eisenhower’s destiny lay elsewhere. The Philippine Independence Act (often called the Tydings-McDuffie Act of 1934) instructed Filipinos to draft their own constitution, “republican in form,” containing “a bill of rights” and “submitted to the people of the Philippine Islands for their ratification or rejection.”³² Once drafted, and after a ten-year “commonwealth period,” the new constitution would go into full effect and the Philippines would become fully independent. Many Filipinos went to work immediately and established their own constitution at the end of 1935.

      Congress wanted to give the Philippines independence, but worried for the islands’ safety as Japan aggressively expanded its empire into China. “Can we suppose that Japan, suffering from a lack of raw materials and from excessive over-population will not be interested in the fate of these islands eventually?” asked an observer in 1935.³³ The “commonwealth period” aimed to provide cover while the Filipinos developed a capable selfdefense. When Manuel Quezon became the first president of the commonwealth government, he turned to Douglas MacArthur for advice. “General,” he asked, “in your professional opinion, can the Philippine Islands defend themselves in an independent status?”

      “I know they can,” MacArthur replied.

      “If the matter can be arranged with the President of the United States,” he continued, “will you accept the post as Military Adviser, taking charge of all defensive preparation in the Islands?”

      MacArthur answered “in the enthusiastic affirmative.”³⁴

      No sooner had MacArthur agreed to move to Manila than he made Eisenhower part of his team. “You and I have worked together a long time,” he explained. “I don’t want to bring in someone new.”³⁵

      The Philippine assignment held several advantages for American soldiers. Most important, in a time of depression they could draw two salaries: one from the Philippine commonwealth, the other their regular American pay. In fact, MacArthur’s combined salary from the United States and the Philippines made him the highest-paid military leader in the world (at about $4,000 a year).³⁶ The assignment also allowed MacArthur to hold the rank of field marshal (a unique opportunity since the American military did not offer this option).

      MacArthur landed in Manila, hoping to build an elaborate army of thirty divisions (the American army at that time consisted of three). Eisenhower’s job quickly became finding the means to build MacArthur’s army from the limited resources available to a poor nation in the midst of a global depression. It proved impossible. “The General is more and more indulging in a habit of damning everybody,” Eisenhower confided, “who disagrees with him over any detail, in extravagant, sometimes almost hysterical fashion.” He “now … seems to consider that the combined use of his rank, a stream of malapropos, and a refusal to permit the presentation of opposing opinion will, by silencing his subordinates, establish also the validity of his contentions.” However, as Eisenhower observed, the Philippines lacked everything from ammunition to training facilities. “He makes nasty cracks about ‘technicians’ and ‘small-minded people’ when we try and show that we are simply arguing from the standpoint of the amount of money available. I’m coming to believe,” he concluded, “that the 30 Div. Plan is adopted, not because he believes there is any honest possibility of attaining it, but to justify [his] early appointment [as] Field Marshal.”³⁷

      Complicating matters, pleas for more resources fell on deaf ears in Washington. Even simple requests, such as obtaining obsolete rifles from the U.S. Army, stalled in a bureaucratic limbo. Eisenhower pressed MacArthur to return to the United States to lobby for weaponry and anything else that would help train the Filipino army. But MacArthur resisted.³⁸ Instead, through much of 1936 he instructed his staff to plan for a grand Philippine army whereupon Eisenhower would explain that the Philippines could not afford it. “I argue these points with more heat and persistency” observed Eisenhower, “consequently I come in for the more severe criticism,” usually in the form of “regular shouting tirades” from MacArthur.³⁹

      With Quezon in tow, MacArthur finally traveled to the United States to plead the cause of Philippine preparedness in early 1937. The trip went badly. Roosevelt had grown cool toward MacArthur after he left Washington and avoided MacArthur’s requests to meet. He refused to see Quezon at all. Eventually, MacArthur convinced Roosevelt to hold a short interview with Quezon only to be horrified as Quezon harangued the president for five hours, demanding immediate independence. Roosevelt refused. Worse, MacArthur failed to get any promises on matériel for the Philippines.⁴⁰

      Yet when he returned to Manila, MacArthur announced success. First, he explained that the Army Corps of Engineers had given him several engineers to assess the archipelago’s suitability for hydroelectric dams. As it turned out, Clay belonged to the group. It “looked like an ideal opportunity,” he explained.⁴¹ By this point a fixture in the Washington social scene, the Washington Post covered Clay’s plans to depart on its “social page.”⁴²

      Second, MacArthur announced that, while no additional funds would come from Washington, he had obtained a different windfall. Quezon had just promised him “oil money” (revenue generated from a tax on coconut

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