Mark W. Clark

"One problem the museum has always had in the eyes of some cadets is its worship of General Mark Clark. One whole room of the museum is dedicated to the propagation of Clarks exploits through two wars. The room itself is dark, an inner sanctum lit with tabernacle lights, and smoking with a kind of mystical incense which seems to compliment the godly aura of the man himself... Statues of Clark, pictures of Clark, letters from Clark, letters to Clark, speeches by Clark, and a seemingly endless amount of Clark memorabilia helps make the museum a monument to his career. If any pictures were available of Clark walking on water or changing wine into water, they would be dutifully placed in the museum by people who suffer guilt feelings that The Citadel has never produced an international figure of its own."

"To Renie, my five-star wife — who for thirty years has inspired me to do my utmost in the service of my country. To her love, courage, sacrifices, understanding, and guidance I attribute whatever success I may have achieved."

"The ROK Army military school system was patterned exactly after ours, as was their naval training system. The ROKs during the war developed a Korean West Point and a Korean Annapolis. They created their own war college to give their officers more education as they showed the capacity for higher command. All the senior instructors and most of the junior instructors have been through our schools as well as their own. They taught by our American methods, with our American weapons and from translated versions of our American military texts and manuals."

"No war is ever fought exactly like any other before it, and history is full of stories of commanders who came to grief trying to follow an old pattern of victory once too often. Whatever is new in tactics, equipment, or method must be taught at the squad level before a soldier gets into combat."

"My doubts were based on my conviction that the Communist enemy is a voracious beast. The more he is given, the hungrier he becomes. And as long as we of the free nations continue to lead from fear, to react from fright, he will be a well-fed enemy."

"But the foundation of ROK military power was the South Korean infantryman, courageous, tireless, hungry for the knowledge that would give him more power as a fighting man, disciplined and willing to die in the service of the cause for which his country fought and bled. You didnt have to tell a South Korean that communism was evil. It was an evil that had blighted his country and he saw it all around him, wherever he went."

"Korea was my first experience of fighting a shooting war and a conference table war at the same time. But I had two years of head-knocking with the Russians to teach me what it is that the Communists respect: FORCE."

"World War II was an era in which America came of age as a world power. We had and we still have many lessons to learn. It was not surprising, perhaps, that we celebrated a victory when in reality we had not won the war. We had stopped too soon. We had been too eager to go home. We welcomed the peace, but after more years of effort and expenditure, we found that we had won no peace."

"I consider the South Koreans one of our greatest allies, a people who know communism and hate it and are not afraid to die fighting it."

"Having seen the Red Army and Russian diplomacy in action, my own belief is that there is nothing the Soviets would not do to achieve world domination. But I am convinced that also that they respect force; perhaps they respect nothing in the world except force. And when confronted with strength and determination, they stop, look, and listen."

"Clark was a good field commander and a brilliant combat commander, as he demonstrated at Salerno, although like most people, he had his faults. Clark performed well in World War II: along with Dwight Eisenhower he helped establish United States Forces in Europe; he was the first American general to command a field army in combat, and was the first to fight in continental Europe; and under his leadership his forces were the first to liberate an Axis-occupied capital. Though stripped of troops and equipment, he led his forces through an unbearable winter in the mountains and successfully defeated a large portion of the German Army. Without Mark W. Clark and the fighting in Italy, the war would have been fought much differently, and victory would have been more prolonged and costly."

"In carrying out the instructions of my Government, I gained the unenviable distinction of being the first United States Army commander in history to sign an armistice without victory."