The presentations we saw on Wednesday on Joe Louis, a boxer, and Douglas MacArthur, a general, were very interesting. The presentation on MacArthur commented that he was not a well perceived man. When one thinks of a war hero he/she thinks of prestige, honor, and great sacrifice for country. He seems to have been only looking out for himself especially when he left his troops for Corregidor.
The story of Joe Louis was one that I had not heard previously. Of course after Cinderella Man most know about Jimmy Braddock and his ability to bring up morale during the depression era. What I found disheartening is that the US government used his fighting for their own propaganda, then still practiced types of racism, such as sitting on the back of the bus and eating in a separate area. It was encouraging that he took on, what he called the real war, the war against racism in the US.
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I agree that the US government's use of Joe Lewis for moral propaganda was wrong. Even after Joe donated money to the relief funds for both the navy and the army, he still had to oblige by the racial customs of the time. Although the government's intent to raise war time moral was a good idea in theory, the way the used Joe Lewis was not ethical.
I think it might be a little slanted and biased to say MacArthur was not liked. He may have been looked down on by the President and other military,but that is a small section of the US population. Surely he had supporters when protesting Truman, and surely he had supporters when people tried to get him to run for president, and surely he had supporters when he made his final farewell speech.
As for Joe Louis I think he accepted that he could change things more so by boxing than by sitting at the front of the bus and making a stand. As a boxer he knew he had to pick and choose his battles and fighting civil rights at that time was not a top priority.
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