Duty, Honor, Country: A History of the Third American Republic

tF3kQdo.jpg

Douglas MacArthur 34rd President of the United States (Republican)

The untimely death of President Curtis deepened the already grave Bonus Crisis; many predicted a Communist revolt unless drastic measures were taken, among them was Douglas MacArthur. So on August 1st War Plan White activated and the newly inaugurated President Stimson was overthrown. Meanwhile marshal law was declared nationwide and key members of the Bonus Army were arrested. While MacArthur was many things, a tyrant was not one of them so a team of lawyers quickly drafted a new Constitution. Under a threat of continued military rule the Third Constitution of the United States was ratified by the necessary 36 states in only 5 months. The belated election of '33 saw the Republicans sweep the house and elect MacArthur (who many saw as the savior of the country) officially to the presidency.
 
With the supposed threat of a Communist rebellion temporary subsided MacArthur got to work fixing the country. Under his initiative the National Service And Reconstruction Act was passed which created a conscription based national service The first act of what detractors called MacArthur private little army was to began construction of a badly needed national highway system. The rail system was modernized and it's capacity increased. Thousands of volunteers were shipped off to Panama to enlarge it to better accommodate shipping. MacArthur threw in his support for the Glass Act which regulated the actions between banks and securities firms, it also unified all the banks in the US under one unified banking system with the supervision of the Federal Reserve.



tAowl7t.jpg

Malin Craig, 1st Supreme Commander of United States Armed Services 1933-1941

Despite the popular belief to the contrary MacArthur did not have much input in the Third Constitution; he implemented perhaps the most unique and controversial section of the Third Constitution:
Third Constitution said:
  • The Position of Supreme Commander shall be created and it shall be the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces
  • He shall be elected by a committee of the combined Chief of Staffs and Commandants of the Armed Forces and shall serve a life term
  • The Supreme Commander shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
  • Congress shall have the power to create necessary departments that aid in the execution of his office.
As it can be expected there was lot of push back from the decoupling of the position of Commander in Chief and the Presidency. When MacArthur was asked by a reporter on what prevents the Supreme Commander from implementing a tyranny MacArthur is quoted as saying: "The last officer in the army who ever wanted to be a tyrant was Joe Hooker". Despite concerns of Bonapartism the Third Constitution was eventually ratified and the position of Supreme Commander was created. The first man to fill the position would be Malin Craig.





More on his actions in his new role in later posts.

 
Top