Courtney Whitney
Courtney A. Whitney (born May 20, 1897 in Takoma Park , Maryland , † March 21, 1969 in Washington, DC ) was an American officer, most recently Major General , and close confidante of Douglas MacArthur .
Life
Whitney was born the son of a US Department of Agriculture officer . After the United States entered World War I , he joined the District of Columbia National Guard as a private and was later transferred to the Aviation Section, US Signal Corps . In 1918 he was accepted into the officer corps as 2nd lieutenant . He graduated from Signal Corps Aviation School and served on airfields in the United States and the Philippines . In 1923 he graduated from Columbia National Law School with a law degree and was admitted to the bar in 1925. From 1926 to 1927 he worked in the information department in the chief of the Army Air Corps ' office before retiring from the Army to practice as a lawyer in Manila for the next 13 years . Here he established relationships with high-ranking Filipino personalities and Douglas MacArthur.
MacArthur made sure that in 1940 Whitney received a position as major in the reserve in the legal department of the Army Air Corps. In April 1943 he became head of the Philippine Regional Section of the Allied Intelligence Bureau . As such, he directed propaganda and guerrilla activities in the Philippine archipelago before the reconquest of the Philippines from autumn 1944.
After the capitulation of Japan in 1945, Whitney served in occupied Japan as head of the Government Section of the occupation authority GHQ . In early 1946, he informed MacArthur that before the Far Eastern Commission first met, the GHQ had the power to determine the new Japanese constitution . He was then assigned this task. Under the direction of his deputy Charles Louis Kades , a draft was drawn up within a week that formed the basis of the new constitution. Whitney was also responsible for the reform of the Japanese administration up to the government and for the political cleansing of the period. He took part at MacArthur's side as his military secretary in the Korean War and, after President Truman's dismissal in 1951, accompanied him back to the United States, where he gave him legal advice on his statements during the subsequent congressional investigation. He retired from the army in the same year. He remained closely connected to the general until his death in 1964 and published the biography MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History about him in 1956 .
Whitney died in 1969 at the age of 71 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He is played by Dick O'Neill in the 1977 film MacArthur: Hero of the Pacific .
Fonts
- The Case of General Yamashita: A Memorandum (1949)
- MacArthur: His Rendezvous with History (1956)
literature
- Stanley Sandler: The Korean War: An Encyclopedia. Routledge, 2014, p. 353 f.
- Clayton D. Laurie: Whitney, Courtney , in: Spencer Tucker (Ed.): US Leadership in Wartime: Clashes, Controversy, and Compromise , Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO, 2009, pp. 744 f.
Web links
- Courtney Whitney on arlingtoncemetery.net
- Historical Figures on ndl.go.jp
- The Case of General Yamashita on battleofmanila.org
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Whitney, Courtney |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Whitney, Courtney A. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American general |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 20, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Takoma Park , Maryland |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 21, 1969 |
| Place of death | Washington, DC |