I shall return.

Douglas MacArthur’s “I shall return” is associated with his forced departure from the Philippines in March 1942 during World War II. As Japanese forces advanced and U.S.–Filipino defenses collapsed, President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave Corregidor and evacuate to Australia to continue directing the war effort. Upon arriving in Australia, MacArthur publicly pledged to come back to the Philippines, a promise that became a major piece of Allied wartime messaging and a personal vow tied to Filipino morale. He later fulfilled it when he returned to Leyte in October 1944.

The line functions as both a personal pledge and a strategic statement. On one level it signals steadfastness in the face of retreat: leaving is framed not as abandonment but as a temporary necessity. On another, it is propaganda in the neutral sense of morale-building—assuring Filipinos and Allied audiences that the Philippines remained a priority and that defeat was not final. The simplicity and certainty of the phrasing (“shall,” not “may”) projects authority and inevitability, helping transform a humiliating withdrawal into a narrative of eventual redemption that MacArthur later used to reinforce his leadership image.

1) "I shall return." 2) "We shall return." 3) "I will return."