Script File
Marshall and MacArthur
Based on an actual event; Thurgood Marshall and General Douglas MacArthur have a dialog on race and the military in a empty courtroom in Korea during the Korean War
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Robert F. Redmond, Jr.WriterLetters from Thurgood; The 2d Ranger Company in Korea
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Project Type:Short Script
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Number of Pages:13
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Country of Origin:United States
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Language:English
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First-time Screenwriter:Yes
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Student Project:No
Robert F. Redmond, Jr. has practiced law for over thirty years. He developed an interest in documentary screenwriting in his 50s based on his practice. He is particularly interested in promoting, through documentary film, overlooked aspects of American History
“Marshall and MacArthur” is a short film that captures a real event in American history. In the fall of 1950, under the command of General Douglas MacArthur, the United States Army had successfully driven the North Korean Army up the entire Korean peninsula, from Pusan in the south to the Yalu River in the north. The North Korean Army was on the brink of collapse and MacArthur drove in for the kill. He put, Major General Edward Almond in command of the X Corps as the leader in the final assault on the North Korean Army. Almond was an unskilled general. He was also a rabid racist. Almond overextended his troops and in November 1950, the Chinese Army crossed into North Korea and destroyed Almond’s X Corps. Only the 1st Marine Division was able to escape intact through the sub zero mountains surrounding the Chosin River.
Almond needed a scapegoat so he blamed his rout on black soldiers in the United States Army’s 7th Infantry Division. He claimed that the cowardice of black soldiers left the white units defenseless and surrounded. There was no truth to Almond’s claim but he needed evidence so he ordered the court-martial of over 50 black soldiers. These courts-martial were held in the field, at night, with little or no due process. Some black soldiers were convicted within hours of being charged. Several received the death penalty for cowardice.
News of the courts-martial reached the NAACP and Thurgood Marshall, the NAACP’s lawyer. Marshall obtained permission from the Truman administration to investigate the courts-martial proceedings, in person, in Korea. He went to Korea for over a week in February 1951.
Marshall recounted, later, that he met with and had a conversation with General Douglas MacArthur. He recalls that MacArthur was a staunch racist who obstructed President Truman’s plans to integrate the United States Army.
This film envisions what the conversation may have been. It is intended to be shot in black and white with directorial features consistent with 1950s era filmmaking