Out of the Kitchen, Into the Convention: MacArthur and 'The Manchurian Candidate' as Cold War Cultural Indicators

• In Event: Scholar to Scholar II
  In Paper Session: The Kitchen Debate 1959-2009: Stability and Change in the Cold War

Abstract

Military officers are not often viewed as indicators of cultural shifts. Yet three of General Douglas MacArthur’s speeches mark significant moments in American cultural history. In 1951, MacArthur capped his triumphal return from Japan with the famous “Old Soldiers Never Die” address to Congress. A few months later, MacArthur gave the keynote address at the 1952 Republican National Convention, perhaps still aspiring to the party’s nomination for President. Instead, Eisenhower and Nixon claimed the top two spots. While MacArthur’s convention speech is largely deemed a failure, it does presage the “Kitchen Debates” of just a few years later. It has been argued that MacArthur’s political aspirations were the inspiration for one of the iconic films of the Cold War, “The Manchurian Candidate.” Nixon and Khrushchev debated the vices and virtues of washing machines as cultural tools, while “The Manchurian Candidate” debated brainwashing as a political tool. Finally, in 1962, MacArthur gave the “Duty, Honor, Country” speech at West Point, effectively closing his public career and ending an era. MacArthur’s speeches bracket the “Kitchen Debate” and signal the profound shift in American life under the influence of Cold War culture, politics, and technology. In this paper, I examine MacArthur’s speeches juxtaposed against “The Manchurian Candidate” to reveal a darker side of the Cold War’s race to technological superiority.

Author

• Tracey Quigley Holden, Indiana University, South Bend