Robert L. Eichelberger - Retirement and Death

Retirement and Death

After nearly 40 years of service, Eichelberger retired with the rank of lieutenant general on 31 December 1948. In 1950, he moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where he lived with his wife Em for the rest of his life. He suffered from a number of health problems, including hypertension and diabetes, and had his gall bladder removed. He wrote a series of articles for the Saturday Evening Post on his campaigns in the Southwest Pacific, which he wrote with ghostwriter Milton MacKaye. They subsequently expanded the articles into a book, Our Jungle Road to Tokyo. The book sold reasonably well, and Harry Truman and Omar Bradley requested autographed copies. In 1951 he traveled to Hollywood, where he served as technical consultant on Francis Goes to West Point (1952) and The Day the Band Played (1952), but he was not altogether happy with the results. He turned his hand to writing articles about the Far East for Newsweek, but gave this away in 1954. He then worked on the lecture circuit, giving speeches about his experiences, but gave this up too in 1955. He campaigned for Richard Nixon in 1960.

The United States Congress, in recognition of his service, promoted Eichelberger, along with a number of other officers who had commanded armies or similar higher formations, to general in 1954. He was distressed that Harding and Fuller were still hurt and angry with him over being relieved of their commands, something he felt was really MacArthur's fault. In turn Eichelberger never forgave Krueger or Sutherland for real or imagined slights. When Sutherland tried to talk, Eichelberger refused to speak to him. Eventually, Eichelberger decided to write a tell-all book that "would destroy the MacArthur myth forever". For this purpose, he gave his papers to Duke University. Jay Luuvas, a historian there, published his letters in 1972 as Dear Miss Em: General Eichelberger's War in the Pacific 1942–1945. However, Eichelberger maintained his warm wartime relationship with Herring. Herring and his wife Mary stayed with the Eichelbergers in Asheville in 1953, and they exchanged regular letters. Eichelberger underwent exploratory prostate surgery in Asheville on 25 September 1961. Complications set in and he died from pneumonia the following day. He was buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery.