World Battlefronts: Prayer on an Anniversary

For 364 days Douglas MacArthur had not publicly mentioned the word Bataan.* Privately, to his officers, he had often spoken the word. "Bataan," he once said, "is like a child in a family who dies. It lives in our hearts." Last week, on the anniversary of the death of Bataan, he spoke the word publicly, flamboyantly—and bitterly.

"One year ago today," he said, "the dimming lights of Bataan's forlorn hope fluttered and died. . . ... Our flag lies crumpled, its proud pinions spat upon in the gutter; the wrecks of what were once our men and women groan and sweat in...

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