I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day, which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away. I now close my military career and just fade away.

Douglas MacArthur used this line at the close of his farewell address to the U.S. Congress after President Harry S. Truman relieved him of command in Korea. Speaking in Washington, D.C., in April 1951, MacArthur framed his departure as the end of a long life in uniform, invoking a well-known soldiers’ saying (“old soldiers never die; they just fade away”) to cast his exit as dignified rather than embittered. The speech came amid intense public and political controversy over Korean War strategy and civil–military authority, and it helped cement MacArthur’s public image as a heroic, if contentious, military figure.

MacArthur’s phrasing blends nostalgia, self-mythologizing, and resignation. By quoting a barracks refrain, he aligns himself with ordinary soldiers and with a tradition of martial stoicism: the soldier’s identity persists even when public attention and active service end. “Fade away” suggests not defeat but a gradual withdrawal from the stage, implying honor and continuity rather than rupture. In the political context of his dismissal, the line also functions rhetorically to soften conflict—presenting his removal as a natural closing of a career—while simultaneously inviting the audience to remember him as a lasting symbol of military service and sacrifice.