MacArthur, Douglas

A group of 4 autograph letters signed ("Douglas"), 1 autograph notecard signed ("Douglas"), and 6 autograph notecards unsigned, all  to Herta Heuser of Coblenz, Germany, totaling 36 pages, ca. 24 March 1919 to 29 January 1920, mostly written from West Point on USMA Superintendent's Office letterhead or USMA notecards, 9 retaining their original envelopes; together with related material: a menu signed by MacArthur, 2 calling cards of Heuser, 3 photographs, and 2 postcards.

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This recently discovered correspondence reveals a hitherto unknown chapter in the private life of Douglas MacArthur: his love affair with a German nurse he met during World War I. MacArthur was among the relatively few American officers whose careers received a significant boost from the first World War. When he returned to the United States he was appointed the Superintendent at the United States Military Academy at West Point by Army Chief of Staff Peyton March.

One of the first things that the unmarried 39-year-old MacArthur did on his return to the States was to write to Herta Heuser, a German Red Cross worker that he met at Sinzig on the Rhine while recuperating from the effects of gassing. From the salutation ("Herta—Dear Lady") to the maudlin conclusion ("Keep well that which you have of mine. It stays with you a contented prisoner and longs to help you in this your terrible hour. God be with you till we meet again."), MacArthur shows all the signs of a man deeply smitten.

"I am trying to get this note to you through General Craig, the Chief of Staff of the Army of Occupation at Coblenz. It may never reach your hands but I am taking the chance. Due to censorship I am unable to tell you many things that I know you will understand I feel. I can only say that all I have said in the past I repeat—a thousand times oftener and a thousand times stronger." The theme that censorship prevents him from writing freely appears throughout the correspondence: "I understand you have a censorship. ... I am leaving unsaid the main part of this note on that account."

MacArthur was unwilling to court anyone that his formidable mother did not approve of, but his letter makes clear that Herta had easily passed that test: "On arrival I found Mother looking splendidly and apparently very happy to have me back. I told her how much I owed to you and she said to send you all her love and thanks. She said that God would certainly watch over you and bless you for the beautiful qualities of soul you had shown. After this war is over she hopes you will come to visit her as I visited you in our beautiful home on the Rhine."

MacArthur's letters and notes mention his own career ("I then go to take command of our big military college at West Point. It is a splendid command usually reserved for higher ranking officers than myself and I regard the assignment as an honor indeed."), but they always return to declarations of  affection for his "Red Cross nurse."

Eventually, though, practical considerations came to the fore: "The difficulties of our respective positions are so great as to be impossible to overcome. I have realized this lately and believe we had best face it frankly. My Army command makes me a servant of the Republic and I feel that I am no longer a free agent. My respect, my admiration, my reverence for you will be with me always, and there will ever be a niche in my heart marked with your name. But together we can only look backwards, not forwards."

The reasons why this relationship failed—and why MacArthur kept it forever a secret—are now lost. In 1922 MacArthur was married to the socialite Louise Cromwell Brooks; the marriage ended in divorce in 1928. MacArthur lived alone, with his mother, for another nine years, until his 1937 marriage to Jean Marie Faircloth.