Talk:Leslie Groves

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[edit] Presence at famous MacArthur speech?

In Douglas MacArthur's famous Duty, Honor, Country speech at West Point in 1962, MacArthur begins the speech with:

"General Westmoreland, General Groves, distinguished guests, and gentlemen of the Corps."

William Westmoreland was Superintendent of West Point, but does "General Groves" refer to Leslie Groves? He would have been retired by then, but might have been invited as a distinguished alumnus of West Point. As far as I can tell from Groves' bio, he never served directly with MacArthur, so it seems improbable that they had a personal relationship. Does anyone have any info on this? --rogerd 19:10, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Groves was deeply involved in West Point's alumni affairs, according to Arlington Cemetery - MacArthur certainly knew that Japan surrendered because of Grove's project, and that due to its success war plans for an island-hopping conquest of Japan itself (and the casualty calculations) could be discarded. Metarhyme 12:56, 14 March 2006 (UTC)

Yes, Leslie Groves was not only present(he appears in some pictures alongside MacArthur at this event), he was the president of the Association of Graduates in 1962, and presented the Sylvanus Thayer Award to MacArthur, which was the occasion for the speech. As to a personal relationship, I don't know, but Groves served in the Office of the Chief of Engineers in the early 1930's, while MacArthur was Army Chief of Staff, so both men were in Washington, D.C. at the same time. Given the small size of the Army in those days, and the fact that MacArthur began his career in the engineers, it seems logical they had at least a passing acquaintance. Beau Martin dubeaux@yahoo.com

If you know of any images of the event which are public domain, it would be nice to include them in MacArthur's article or perhaps the West Point, Grove's or Westmoreland's. If you have the url of a PD source, it would be appreciated. --rogerd 13:42, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

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