That same day in April, President Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur on the grounds that he was “unable to give his whole support to the policies of the U.S. Government.” Although Marshall did not pretend that Truman’s decision had anything to do with MacArthur’s dilatory response to the segregation of black servicemen in the U.S. Army, he was pleased to note that MacArthur’s successor, General Matthew Ridgway, “desegregated in about three weeks. Desegregated the whole thing.”
