At first, Pickering had dismissed the conjecture as utter nonsense, but then he thought about it and had to admit that MacArthur was indeed capable of doing something like that. It was, he thought, like two children playing King of the Hill, except that Truman and MacArthur were not children, and Truman was, if not a king, than certainly the most powerful man on the planet. A king worried that one of his faithful subjects had his eyes on the throne.
Pickering had realized—maybe especially after he’d met with General Walter Bedell Smith—that Truman was anything but the flaming liberal incompetent the Republican party had painted him to be.
He had then realized—the late-dawning realization making him feel like a fool—that Senator Richardson K. Fowler, who was as much entitled to be called “Mr. Republican” as any politician, was fully aware of this.
That had led him to recall Truman’s visit to tell him he was naming General Walter Bedell Smith to replace Admiral Hillencoetter. When he had told Truman he had always felt he was in water over his head, Truman had told him that not only had “Beetle” Smith said the same thing, but Wild Bill Donovan as well. Pickering had been so surprised—in the case of Donovan, astonished—to hear that that it was only later that he recalled what Truman had said when he’d assumed the presidency on Roosevelt’s death, that “he was going to need all the help he could get.”
That certainly suggested that Truman thought he had been given responsibility he wasn’t at all sure he was qualified to handle.
And the truth was that Truman had proven himself wrong. Almost all the decisions he had made—right from the beginning, when he’d ordered the atomic bombs to be dropped on Japan—had been the right ones.
He of course had been mistaken to give in to the brass and disestablish the Office of Strategic Services. And Fleming Pickering found Truman’s suggestion that it was about time to disband the U.S. Marine Corps to be stupid and outrageous. But Truman had realized he’d made a mistake about the OSS, and quickly formed the CIA, and after the performance of the Marines in the Pusan Perimeter and at Inchon, Truman had changed his mind about the Marines and said so.
Truman’s selection of General Smith to head the CIA had been the right one, even though his old friend Ralph Howe, the one general officer he really trusted, had relentlessly pushed Pickering for the job, and appointing Pickering would have pleased Senator Fowler personally and silenced a lot of Republican criticism.
As the Independence stopped, Pickering saw from his window the Supreme Commander, United Nations Command, standing on the tarmac waiting for the Commander-in-Chief.
MacArthur was wearing his trademark washed-out khakis and battered, gold-encrusted cap.
Jesus, Truman is the Commander-in-Chief! At least El Supremo could have put on a tunic and neck scarf!
Then he saw the others in the MacArthur party. Brigadier General Courtney Whitney was among them; Major General Charles Willoughby was not. That was surprising.
He wondered if Willoughby, who was almost invariably at the Supreme Commander’s side, might somehow have fallen into displeasure.
Is El Supremo punishing Willoughby for something by bringing Whitney here and leaving Willoughby in Japan? I know damned well Willoughby would want to be here.
The two were, in Pickering’s judgment, the most shameless of the Bataan Gang in sucking up to MacArthur, in constant competition for his approval, or even for an invitation to cocktails and dinner.
Both disliked Pickering. He had long before decided this was because of his personal relationship with MacArthur, which was far closer than their own. Pickering declined more invitations to cocktails, or bridge, or dinner with the MacArthurs than both of them received. And MacArthur often addressed Pickering by his first name, an “honor” he rarely accorded Willoughby or Whitney or, for that matter, anyone else.
There was more than that, of course. Pickering had never been subordinate to MacArthur. Worse than that, they knew—and there was no denying this—that he was, in effect, a spy in their midst, making frequent reports on MacArthur’s activities that they never got to see.
In the case of Whitney, Pickering had made a social gaucherie the day he had met MacArthur when he arrived in Australia from the Philippines with members of his staff—soon to be dubbed the “Bataan Gang.” He had not recognized Major Whitney as a Manila lawyer he had known before the war.
The truth was that he simply hadn’t remembered the man. Whitney had