Caesar Americanus: An American Civil War - Into Fire

By John-Allen Price

Douglas MacArthur is dead, assassinated by his right-hand man in his moment of triumph. As the United States descends into a devastating civil war, England falls to fascism and the forces of darkness gather.

America's last hope is General George S. Patton, but he is outnumbered and outgunned. As Patton prepares to stand alone against the tyrannical government of Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and J. Edgar Hoover, cities fall and millions die. It is a war for America's soul - a war Patton has only one year to win.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Legacy Books Press
• Release date: Dec 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781927537336

John-Allen Price

John-Allen Price is an independent historian from Lewiston, New York. He is the author of several historical fiction novels, each meticulously researched. He is also the author of the new introduction of The Art of War: Restored Edition, marking his debut as a history writer, and The War that Changed the World, his first non-fiction book.

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Caesar Americanus

An American Civil War

Part II

Into Fire

John-Allen Price

Legacy Books Press Fiction

Published by Legacy Books Press

RPO Princess, Box 21031

445 Princess Street

Kingston, Ontario, K7L 5P5

Canada

www.legacybookspress.com

© 2015 John-Allen Price, all rights reserved.

The moral rights of the author under the Berne Convention have been asserted.

The uploading, and/or distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.

First published in 2015 by Legacy Books Press

1

ISBN: 978-1-927537-33-6

Publisher's note: This book is a work of fiction. All historical figures, organizations, publications and places used have been fictionalized, and any resemblances to real people, places, organizations, publications and events are coincidental.

This book is not responsible for the Provos bombing the reader's house.

Act IV

Civil War

"There is nothing so subject to the inconstancy of fortune

as war."

- Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616)

Chapter XXI

We are mad, not only individually, but nationally. We check manslaughter and isolated murders, but what of war and the much vaunted crime of slaughtering whole peoples?

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (c.4B.C. - A.D.65)

THE NEW YORK TIMES

New York, Wednesday, November 25, 1936

Page 1: Column 4 Final Edition

FUNERAL TRAIN TRAVELS ACROSS HISTORY TO CAPITAL

by Robert Penn Warren

Special to the N.Y. Times

Washington D.C.- Like the funeral train for every fallen leader since Abraham Lincoln, the Texas and Pacific Railroad train carrying the body of Governor General Douglas MacArthur journeyed with sad majesty across the southern U.S., and through a chain of cities that reads like an ominous roll call of Civil War battlefields: Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian, Birmingham, Chattanooga, Knoxville and most recently Lynchburg, Virginia.

TRAIN ROUTE A MOSAIC OF BATTLEFIELDS

It was at Vicksburg, on the Mississippi River, where the Confederacy suffered one of its worst defeats, still bitterly remembered by its inhabitants. At Chattanooga, site of a protracted series of battles, it was a young Arthur MacArthur who rallied his Wisconsin regiment and lead the charge up Missionary Ridge, which won him the Congressional Medal of Honor. And Lynchburg, site of one of the Civil War's last battles, is within a stone's throw of the Appomattox County Court House where that earlier tragedy finally ended.

By tomorrow afternoon the train will be rolling past the Manassas battlefield, just outside of Washington and the site of not one but two Confederate victories, which in their turn helped fuel the illusion the South might win the war it so foolishly wanted. And by Sunday, after his body has lain in state for two short days, MacArthur will be buried next to his parents in Arlington, itself the family home of Robert Edward Lee.

SHALL THE PAST RISE AGAIN?

History has been both repeated and rewritten in the last four days, repeated in the numbing shock, sense of loss and fear of the future which naturally arises whenever a national leader meets a premature and violent end. And rewritten in the fact that MacArthur is returning to Washington, once dead, most leaders finally have no use of the place and leave it, and most especially in those bringing him back.

Never before in U.S. history have those responsible for the death of so beloved a leader taken the responsibility of overseeing his funeral, or held in such high regard. Normally, such fellows are held over for trial, if they've been allowed to surrender at all. Not allowed to walk free, and most especially hold control of the national stage, where they've tried to be exemplars of public morality and stability amidst the bedlam their immoral act has created.

SOMETHING ANCIENT THIS WAY COMES

The savage spectacle of the last four days has given rise to a palpable feeling this nation has never before experienced, a feeling of ancien regime. Has the European disease of this age, what all-too-many people favorably call the wave of future, brought to this country something not new but ancient?

Southerners, especially for those of us whom history is a living, breathing, reptilian thing which dwells in the caverns we make of our memories, can sense this better than others. What I fear most is that the rest of the population, with its perceptions so numbed, will not comprehend what's happening until it has overwhelmed us all.

Friday. November 27th, 1936 4PM local time

House/Senate Conference Room, The Capitol

Pennsylvania Ave., Washington D.C.

Well, General, how'd your meetin' go with Marshall and them other Generals?

Huey Long's question momentarily caught Eisenhower off-guard. He started to turn and look for someone else who had entered the conference room just after him. Then he remembered there were now stars on his shoulders, so long desired, yet they felt like lead weights ever since they were so ceremonially awarded to him.

Civil, he answered, taking a seat at the conference table across from the Senator. But nowhere near as friendly as it once was.

I hope you weren't expectin' it to be so, Long replied. I can't tell you how many times I've experienced that kind of reception right here in the Senate. Hell, there was once a time Senator McKellar said of me, 'I don't believe he could get the Lord's Prayer endorsed by this body.'

No I didn't. It's just... I wonder if it will ever go back to the way it was before this? When we were all...brothers.

We happy few, we band of brothers. For he today who sheds his blood with me, shall be my brother. Long's quotation brought a surprised look, and an appreciative nod, from Eisenhower. It might take longer, but the Army's just like the Senate. Hell, old Ken McKellar's now quite happy to work with me.

General, so glad you could make it here, said William Bankhead, entering the room in the lead of a large delegation of other Congressmen and Senators. How did your meetin' go? Will the other Generals accept our coalition?

That, we were just gettin' to, said Long. General?

From what I can gauge, they're still in shock, Eisenhower advised, while the rest of the seats around the table were being filled. Except Billy Mitchell, he was too angry to stay in the same room with me. Marshall not only ordered him out of Fort Meade, but reassigned him to Langley Airfield.

Sounds like your friends wanna keep the situation under control just as much as we do. That's good.

I wouldn't trust them, said Nye, taking a seat beside Long. How can you be sure they're not plotting against us, and keeping it from you?

I've been on the inside of a coup d'etat before, Eisenhower said sharply. Remember? There's no increase in radio traffic, no sudden disappearances or leaves taken. No hint of secret meetings, or officers being used as couriers. But don't take my word for it, Senator... When he gets here, ask Hoover if he's uncovered anything.

I'm afraid old J. Edgar won't be attendin' today, Bankhead advised. He's gotten obsessed about findin' this Wild Bill Donovan. Right now he's in New York, tryin' to get this Tom Dewey to help him. Huey, let's get this here meetin' to order, and finalize plans for MacArthur's funeral.

Saturday. November 28th, 1936 7PM local time

Cabinet Briefing Room, 24 Sussex Drive

National Capital District, Ottawa, Canada

Thank you for bringing your staff, General. I'll inform the Prime Minister you've arrived.

The private secretary's cutting remark produced immediate looks of resentment on the faces of Air Vice Marshal George Croil and Vice Admiral Percy Nelles. It also produced a tremor of disgust in Major General Ernest Charles Ashton, which the secretary would've seen had he not so quickly wheeled around and left the Cabinet Room through the private entrance.

Did you hear that man? said Ashton, to the other cabinet members, already seated at the table. And that it should come from one of the most intimate members of this government.

I know, General, was the National Defence Minister's tired reply. Ian Alistair Mackenzie at least rose from his seat and greeted the three military chiefs. The rest of the Ministers and Secretaries were content to merely nod or smile their reserved welcomes. Nearly every Defence Minister before me has dealt with that attitude, and I've been dealing with it for the last year.

And we're about to see the vultures of unpreparedness come home to roost, added Oscar Skelton, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. We've warned William every time he's been P.M. about the folly of ignoring defence, and relying on other nations' navies to do it for us. Nor is he going to like what I have to tell him about the British Government's response to this...American Crisis.

Gentlemen, all rise for William Lyon Mackenzie King, His Majesty's Prime Minister of the Dominion of Canada.

The private secretary reappeared at the same side door he had just used, and stepped aside as he made the announcement which brought everyone at the table to attention. Prime Minister Mackenzie King came on his heels and, apart from a few nods of recognition, took his seat at the head of the table without further ceremony.

Gentlemen, I find little encouragement in the picture you've all painted, he said, dropping a heavy set of leather-bound folders in front of him. Then he retrieved the top folder and opened it. Let's start with you, Ian. I accept we've been neglectful, but this report is quite...bleak...

It's nonetheless accurate, said Mackenzie, the exhaustion in his voice replaced with darkness. "To defend this country you have an Air Force in name only, a Navy in name only and an Army which isn't even called that. The Permanent Force has four thousand men of all ranks, two dozen heavy machineguns, two dozen light machineguns and two dozen three-inch mortars.

We possess no tanks, no armored cars, no field artillery, no anti-tank guns, no anti-aircraft guns, no field communications sets, no field hospitals, not even field kitchens. We'd be hard-pressed to put so much as a single regiment in the field and keep it there. Our Air Force is equipped with twenty-five service aircraft, twenty reserve aircraft and not one is a modern fighter or bomber. The Navy has no cruisers, no destroyers and no submarines in service. Only the coastal batteries at Halifax and Esquimalt, and a few minesweepers. Should there be an invasion, our forces would last about as long as a paper bag in a bear fight.

That's not true, Mackenzie King blustered. What about those destroyers, and the Siskin fighters?

"The Saguenay and Skeena are both laid up for repairs, said Admiral Nelles, trying to keep his voice calm. Have been for months...thank God Walter Hose has returned to duty. We may just get them back in service soon."

"Of the nine Siskin fighters we bought eight years ago, only three are flyable, Air Vice Marshal Croil added, rather less able to keep his emotion under control. And none of them are armed. Neither are the Atlas co-operation aircraft, for there's not a single machinegun or bomb in our armoury."

I'm shocked at you people, said Justice Minister Ernest Lapointe, his accusation rippling like a thunderclap from his end of the table. "What's all this foreboding and menace based on? A supposition that America is about to begin a second civil war? Where is your evidence? Everything we see and hear from America shows a nation shocked and in mourning. The leaders who killed MacArthur have made no further moves against the military. In fact, they're cooperating with each other."

Our information comes from the agents the British Government placed here over the past year, Mackenzie answered. Most now realize their government has no further interest in them, its motives have changed, and they're sending their information to General McNaughton at the Research Council - who's doing a magnificent job coordinating the network.

But can we trust them, Ian? asked Mackenzie King, more from desperation than any other concern. Aren't most of them amateurs?

I thought so, said General Ashton. Until they accurately predicted MacArthur's coup d'etat against the Provisional Government...and in the last few days they've reported many of MacArthur's allies are covertly uniting to destroy the Provos. They've tried healing, and were rewarded with betrayal and assassination. This time, there will be war.

How can you be sure of this? Lapointe demanded, maintaining his opposition. The Provisionals enjoy wide support in the Army and they have America's own version of the Mounties on their side, the FBI. Why haven't they uncovered this plot you seem to know so much about?

The Provos only enjoy support amongst the National Guard, said Mackenzie. "America's version of the Organized Militia. And even then only from certain units in the East and Mid-West. As for the FBI, it's looking in the wrong areas. The U.S. Army and Navy have learned fast, they've become experts in planning coups. This time there are no senior officers going on national tours, and arranging clandestine meetings. No secret radio traffic or mysterious telegrams. Not even military couriers are being used, let alone military aircraft.

Instead, they're using civilians. Civil aviators, and even aviatrixes, flying modified racing aeroplanes. Apparently they're being coordinated through this Jimmy Doolittle, who's now an Air Corps Colonel. While it means this coup won't be as tightly controlled as the last one, it will employ a lot more brute force.

And what should we do? Mackenzie King requested, lifting his eyes from the reports in front of him and glancing at his cabinet officers.

Well the last thing I hope any of us do is attempt to warn the Provisionals, said Ashton, his accusing glare settling on Lapointe. And for the first time the burly, slow-moving Minister averted his eyes and started to fidget nervously. Mr. Prime Minister, we must call up the Militia and the Reserves. See to whatever aid the British will send us, and prepare the Provincial Governments and police forces for a massive influx of American refugees. War is coming, just like the one in Spain, only this one will use even more advanced weapons. Not just tanks and warplanes, but strategic bombers, aircraft carriers and battleships. We thought we lived in a fire-proof house, far from inflammable materials. We're about to be proven wrong...may God help us in the fire that's to come.

Sunday. November 29th, 1936 1PM local time

CBS Network Studios

485 Madison Ave., New York City

This is H.V. Kaltenborn, speaking for CBS Radio News. We are suspending our normal program schedule at this time to bring you the funeral of Military Governor General Douglas MacArthur. We now go live to Station WJSV and our White House correspondent.

"This is Bob Trout, reporting for CBS News in front of the Capitol Building, Washington D.C. On this clear fall afternoon, America's armed services, and America itself, prepares to bury its first-ever military leader.

"With clockwork precision, the military units assigned to the funeral cortege rolled up Maryland Avenue from Fort McNair just over a minute ago, with the traditional horse-drawn caisson in the lead. In the next few minutes, the honor guard will carry the General's flag-draped coffin from the Capitol's rotunda out to the cortege, who will transport him to the Episcopal Cathedral on Wisconsin Avenue.

"Though he has lain in state barely two days, the crowds which have filed past Douglas MacArthur have broken all previous records of attendance for a state funeral. Many of those no doubt now line the routes the cortege will take to the cathedral, then across the Potomac to Arlington National Cemetery.

"It will be at the Cemetery's amphitheater, before a nationwide radio audience and the newsreel cameras, that the final eulogies will be delivered. First by MacArthur's former aide, and newly-promoted Major General, Dwight David Eisenhower. And to be followed moments later by Lieutenant General George Smith Patton, speaking live from Dallas, Texas.

As with the funeral, and the events surrounding the death of Governor General MacArthur, the nature of these broadcasts are unprecedented. CBS, Mutual and NBC's Blue and Red networks have been working around-the-clock to bring you the broadcasts, live-as-they-happen. For they may well predict the future course our nation will take on this Day of Mourning. This day, when everyone in the country is holding their breath...

Sunday. November 29th, 1936 4PM local time

Great Hall Stage, Hall of State

Texas Centennial Fair Grounds

3939 Grand Avenue, Dallas, Texas

Are your cameras in place? Patton asked. We'll be filling this place in the next hour.

The moment he entered the building's central, four-story high Great Hall, Patton could hear his voice echo, and smiled appreciatively. He surveyed the row of cameras in front of the stage, giving close attention to the four largest among them. They were cumbersome, box-like affairs mounted on heavy tripods, and with thick power cables snaking to them. Compared to the two-man teams operating the newsreel cameras, they had a small army of technicians working on them, loading and threading what seemed to be an endless series of film rolls.

General, I'm Harold Rosson, said one of the older technicians. I think I'm supposed to say 'Claudette sent me.'

I knew she'd make good her promise, Patton replied, shaking Rosson's hand. And she's very brave to be where she is. Are these your color cameras?

"Our technicolor cameras, latest models. Just finished using them on The Garden of Allah."

Miss Colbert said they required a lot of light... Will you get it, and will the background I selected give you any problems?

Well it's certainly Texas-sized, Rosson noted, glancing up at the darkened stage, where the backdrop was just barely visible. And don't worry about the lighting. We tested it an hour ago and it's perfect.

General, you got just over an hour before air time, said Lieutenant Leonard. Shouldn't you be going over your speech? Instead of worrying about how this will look? After all, this is a radio broadcast, not a movie.

It's both, said Patton, moving toward the stage, and studying the microphone encrusted podium. Radio is the immediate audience, those cameras are the permanent audience. That little woman is absolutely right, this presentation has to appeal to both.

But what about your speech? I know you've gone through several versions already.

I have grasped the subject, the words have followed. Patton turned to his aide and gave him a confident, predatory, smile. C'mon, let's see if you can rearrange these damn microphones so they don't hide my face.

Sunday. November 29th, 1936 6PM local time

The Amphitheater, Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington, Virginia

Preceded by waves of fighters and bombers, the funeral cortege moved smoothly across the Arlington Memorial Bridge, leaving Washington and most of the crowds behind it. Turning left at the family mansion of Robert E. Lee, it wound deeper into the cemetery until it reached a natural depression which had been turned into a colonnaded amphitheater, just west of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Even with the approaching darkness and cool temperatures the crowds were still heavy, and moved forward as MacArthur's coffin was transferred from the caisson to the bier awaiting it on the amphitheater's stage. Next to it stood a podium crowded with microphones and, while the funeral party spread among the lower tiers of seats, Huey Long was the first to speak from it.

My friends, you have come to hear us speak, he began, sizing up the assembly and instantly realizing their mood was turning angry. Give us your audience! And listen to General Eisenhower, who joined our cause of his free will and will now give voice to it. You know him as an honorable man, that he acted honorably in the past for the common good of our nation. He did so again last week, in an act which may have appeared brutal, but filled our hearts with sorrow...General Eisenhower!

Long stepped back from the podium the moment he caught sight of Eisenhower and his aide, Captain James Ord, climbing onto the stage. Together with the Bankheads, O'Connor, Shipstead and other Senators and Congressmen he broke into enthusiastic applause. An enthusiasm which did not transfer well to the surrounding crowd.

This is Major General Dwight Eisenhower, he started, squinting in the harsh glare of the newsreel camera lights. Speaking to you from Arlington National Cemetery, the hallowed ground for this nation's war veterans since the Civil War. Tonight we are here to lay to rest my friend and commander, General Douglas MacArthur...

The first mention of MacArthur's name since services at Washington's Episcopal Cathedral - and then it was before a carefully selected audience - brought a rise of angry shouts, which echoed in the amphitheater and could be heard on the radio as an ominous rumble.

My countrymen, hear me for my cause! Eisenhower continued, briefly raising his voice to quell the anger. "Believe me for mine honor, for I know honor is what you respect. Hear me, and judge me by your wisdom. Awake your senses, so that you may be a better judge...

"If there be in this assembly, any friend of MacArthur's, to him I say that my love of MacArthur was no less than his. And if that friend were to ask why Eisenhower rose against him, this is my answer. It's not that I loved MacArthur less, but that I loved my country more.

"Would you rather him alive, and live in a dictatorship, than MacArthur dead and the rest to live as free men? As MacArthur loved me, and called me his son, I cry for him. As he was valiant, I honored him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

"Tears are due for his love, for his success, honor and valor. And death for his ambition. Who here is so base that he would live in a tyranny? If there is then let him speak for I have offended him. Who among this audience does not love his country? If there is then let him speak for I have also offended him...

"I hear no one, then no one have I offended. I have done, we have done, no more to MacArthur than you would do to me. The case for his death is on record in every newspaper and magazine in this country. His glory, his valor, have not been belittled. Nor have his offenses for which, we stress, he suffered death.

I took part in the death of the best friend, the best commander I will ever know. For the good of our Republic I did this. I have the same weapon for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

Eisenhower undid the first two buttons of his tunic and reached inside, unsnapping the strap to his shoulder holster, the audible click could be heard on the radio. So too were the gasps from those near the podium when he produced the same Colt .45 he had used in Dallas. After displaying it for the amphitheater's crowd, he laid it noisily on the podium's top.

And now, by our permission Lieutenant General Patton will address this same audience from Dallas, Texas. He took no hand in MacArthur's death, and does wish to speak to his memory and his glories. I entreat you not to ignore him, grace his speech as you have graced mine with your attention. We close this day of national mourning with the best man to eulogize a fallen hero.

We're on the air in twenty seconds. Lights! Cameras! Rosson shouted, as the stage's work lights were augmented by the powerful floods which illuminated every inch of the largest American flag Patton could find for his backdrop.

Speed! yelled the four color camera operators, almost in unison.

Sound! Rosson's next order produced the audible clacking of clapboards, and then the hall fell silent, except for the off-stage voices of the network announcers.

This...is Dallas, Edward R. Murrow reporting. We are now live at the Great Hall, Texas Centennial Fair Grounds, with Lieutenant General George S. Patton addressing a select crowd of soldiers and state officials.

Friends, soldiers, countrymen, Patton began, once he got the stage manager's cue. "Lend me this time, lend me your ears... For I have come to bury my friend, not praise him. As the evil that men do lives after them, their good is often interred in their graves. So let it be with MacArthur.

"General Eisenhower has told you MacArthur was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and he has answered grievously for it. Eisenhower and his companions have permitted me to speak at MacArthur's funeral. He was my friend, my brother-in-arms, who was loyal and just with me.

"But Eisenhower and his companions say he was ambitious, and they are all honorable men. MacArthur fought for this country in the Great War, risked his life with those of his soldiers in the trenches. Does this in my friend seem ambitious? And when his soldiers fell, he wept. Is this ambition? That should be made of sterner stuff.

"Yet Eisenhower and his companions say he was ambitious. And sure, they are honorable men. I do not speak to disprove what they say. But I am here to speak of what I know, what you all know... All of you saw the newsreels of the rallies MacArthur attended before Texas. And in each, the crowd offered him the golden crown of the White House. Did this country not thrice offer him that office? And did he not thrice refuse? Was this ambition?

But yesterday the word of MacArthur might've stood against the world. Now he lies ready for burial, and are the humblest among us too lofty to do him reverence? You all did love him once, and not without cause. What cause withholds you then to mourn for him? I fear judgment has fled this country, and men have lost their reason. Bear with me, for my heart is with my friend. And it breaks with the weight of his death.

Ike, where's George Marshall and his staff? Captain Ord whispered into his commander's ear. All I see in the front seats is that actress.

Leaning forward slightly, as if he were paying closer attention to Patton's speech, Eisenhower narrowed his eyes and tried to see past the glare of the lights for the newsreel cameras. Tiny and worn-looking, Claudette Colbert had been seated in the front row with Marshall, Chaffee, Wainwright and Stillwell. Now, with the exception of a few staff aides, she sat alone.

Looks like J. Edgar was right, Eisenhower said out of the side of his mouth. Let's hope his escape plan is in place. Find out where the generators are for these lights, and turn'em all off in five minutes.

I found this document among MacArthur's personal belongings, Patton continued, pulling an envelope from his tunic pocket and displaying it for his audience. It's less a will, and more a bequest, but I'll call it that. And if I were disposed I could stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and riot. But I would do Eisenhower wrong, and his companions wrong. Who, as you all know, are all honorable men. And I would rather wrong the dead, wrong myself and you, than wrong such men. But if you were to hear his testament, you would see how my friend loved this country.

The murmur started simultaneously at several points in the hall, and in seconds grew to a chorus the podium microphones picked up. However, unlike earlier incidents at the Arlington Amphitheater, what was shouted was distinct enough to be understood. And even though he expected it, Patton was still surprised by the response his maneuver created.

Ike, d'you know anythin' about this will? Long said quietly, leaning into Eisenhower's ear. I think that sonofabitch means to read it. Maybe you oughta have your friend pull the plug on this here broadcast?

There's no time for Harry Butcher, said Eisenhower, now keeping an eye continually on his wristwatch. I have someone else about to pull the plug on something more vital to us. Be ready to move, pass it to the others.

Long still wore an uncomprehending look, and had yet to carry out Eisenhower's order, when the banks of powerful floodlights flickered out. Because the amphitheater was in a natural depression, the darkness that fell over it was nearly total.

Some people screamed and began stumbling around, and too many others asked for order and gave commands at the same time for any to be understood. Except those on the stage, whom Eisenhower was able to lead down the back, past the confused guards who still took orders from him, and up to a line of sedans parked on one of the more secluded roads in the cemetery.

Let me not stir you to a mortal storm by reading this, said Patton, continuing nonetheless to display the document. For I fear it will wrong the honorable men, whose dire plans fulfilled their own dark ambitions. You know me all as a plain and blunt man. That I love my friend, is known well to those who gave me permission to speak for him. I have neither the wit, the words nor the power of speech to stir men's blood. But the words of my friend will...if you bid me to speak them, they will put a tongue in every wound my friend suffered, and answer every insult his memory has taken. Do you wish to hear?

Patton held the will over his head and the crowd, which had grown relatively quiet in the interim, broke out with applause and a renewed cry of read it! Unfolding it with great ceremony, Patton laid the will over his speech and raised his hand to quiet the audience.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now, he warned. "From his personal fortune, MacArthur bequeaths an amount to raise a monument to all those Americans who fell in the Great War, to be built at the tip of East Potomac Park, at the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers. The rest of his fortune will be used to establish the MacArthur Scholarships at the University of Wisconsin.

"From War Department and Navy Department budgets, MacArthur bequeaths the funds necessary to pay the other half of the Soldier's Bonus, whose refusal by Congress to pay it four years ago lead to the Bonus Riot in Washington, which MacArthur was ordered to put down. And for which he was grievously criticized by press and politician alike.

This is how MacArthur loved this country and the soldiers who served under him. He even loved those who professed to hate him. This was the leader who we had to be saved from? This was my friend! When comes such another? Shall we ever see his like again? For this Republic, I fear not. So long as the noble among us are assassinated by lean and hungry men who thirst for power.

Sunday. November 29th, 1936 7PM local time

Fairfax County Airport

Seminary Road, Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia

Where the hell are we going? Long demanded, when he finally realized the car he was in had raced deep into the Virginia countryside. I thought you said we were going to the airport?

We are going to an airport, said Eisenhower, turning to face those crowded in the back seat. Just not to National Airport, at least for us. Hoover's escape plan was for half of us to head for National, where a TWA airliner is waiting. The other half is to head out here, just across the Arlington County line.

The two Ford sedans at last started to slow when they approached the intersection of two historic turnpikes, the Columbia and the Alexandria-Leesburg line. But when they turned they did not switch from one major road to another, instead they screeched onto a smaller country lane and followed it to the entrance of a rural airport.

There, parked among the usual collection of Beech, Stearman and Waco biplanes stood a Stinson Model A trimotor. The black and red-trimmed monoplane was easily the largest aircraft on the field, though it was nearly invisible as it blended into the gathering darkness.

Until, one by one, its radial engines belched fire and roared to life. The sedans drew up to it just as its landing lights snapped on, and paused only long enough to drop off their passengers before speeding away. Aboard the sleek, humpbacked aircraft the evacuees found just enough leather-upholstered seats to go around, and a pilot already doing his pre-takeoff checks.

Charles, time for you to show our friends what you showed me in Dallas, said Eisenhower, before stepping out of the cockpit and turning to the others. Now you're going to find out why they call this plane a skyrocket. There's not an Army or Navy fighter that can catch it.

The Fords were still in sight when the Stinson rolled away from the flightline and headed for the airport's single runway. The grass strip didn't allow the trimotor to accelerate as smartly as a paved surface. But in less than a thousand feet its tail rose off the ground and Lindbergh hauled back its control wheel, executing the kind of steep takeoff only racing planes and fighters were supposed to do.

Sunday. November 29th, 1936 6PM local time

Great Hall stage, Hall of State

Texas Centennial Fair Grounds

3939 Grand Avenue, Dallas, Texas

Now let it work,