Article for MacArthur Fans like me

[Trugrit]

His revival is Long Overdue.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/article ... 09450.html

“Indeed, during the battle of the Philippines in World War II, MacArthur told a news correspondent that “the lands touching the Pacific will determine the course of history for the next ten thousand years.” Those lands are certainly front and center in today’s geopolitics. The MacArthur revival could not come at a better moment.”

“Most anticipated, however, is Arthur Herman’s new biography, just released this month, entitled Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior. At 960 pages, it rivals the most comprehensive one-volume treatments of MacArthur to date: William Manchester’s American Caesar and Geoffrey Perret’s Old Soldier’s Never Die.

Later this fall, H.W. Brands’ The General vs. the President: MacArthur and Truman at the Brink of Nuclear War is scheduled to be released and, hopefully, will provide a fairer treatment of the Truman-MacArthur controversy than the conventional history that treats Truman as saint and MacArthur as sinner. The truth, as usual, is more complex.”

Book Links:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/253 ... -the-world

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26767481

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-gen ... 1123565254

“Those searching for the most complete biography of MacArthur and his times must still turn to D. Clayton James’ magisterial three-volume The Years of MacArthur.”
http://www.goodreads.com/series/79765

[Lecivius]

Hold on...


There is a MacArthur fan?

[Anachro]

I love MacArthur. Who wouldn't!? [&:][:D]



[&o][&o][&o][&o]


EDIT

Well, maybe the Japs and North Koreans don't like him. [:D][:D]

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: Anachro

I love MacArthur. Who wouldn't!? [&:][:D]



[&o][&o][&o][&o]


EDIT

Well, maybe the Japs and North Koreans don't like him. [:D][:D]

Nor the Aussies nor the men who fought under him ....

He may have been good at tactics or even long term strategies but he apparently sucked at inspiring men. The one exception was his vow to return to the Philippines that kept resistance alive there.
Maybe it's just my antipathy towards egotists. [:D]

[mind_messing]

MacArthur, for some reason, really seems to be a divisive figure. As someone who hasn't read into it much, why is this the case?

I have always been under the impression that he was moulded along the same lines as Patton: questionable generalship but a good PR team.

[JeffroK]

ORIGINAL: mind_messing

MacArthur, for some reason, really seems to be a divisive figure. As someone who hasn't read into it much, why is this the case?

I have always been under the impression that he was moulded along the same lines as Patton: questionable generalship but a good PR team.

Correct.

He had his moments, just not enough to cover his weaknesses.

[geofflambert]

MacArthur was a gorn fan.

[BBfanboy]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

MacArthur was a gorn fan.

Well now we see his true colors! That explains the lack of empathy with the struggles of his troops!

[Trugrit]

“He may have been good at tactics or even long term strategies but he apparently sucked at inspiring men. The one exception was his vow to return to the Philippines that kept resistance alive there.
Maybe it's just my antipathy towards egotists.”

Total Crap.

MacArthur does not need me to defend him the record speaks for itself.

I’ll just chalk these comments up to your ignorance of MacArthur’s service in both world wars
and Korea. You just need to study WW2 much deeper. I can help you with that.

Start your education with this light read:
The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the winning of World War II.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24869720

I will give you egotist.

Sucked at inspiring men? Total Crap.
https://armyhistory.org/macarthur-and-p ... offensive/

[scout1]

ORIGINAL: Trugrit


“He may have been good at tactics or even long term strategies but he apparently sucked at inspiring men. The one exception was his vow to return to the Philippines that kept resistance alive there.
Maybe it's just my antipathy towards egotists.”

Total Crap.

MacArthur does not need me to defend him the record speaks for itself.

I’ll just chalk these comments up to your ignorance of MacArthur’s service in both world wars
and Korea. You just need to study WW2 much deeper. I can help you with that.

Start your education with this light read:
The Generals: Patton, MacArthur, Marshall, and the winning of World War II.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24869720

I will give you egotist.

Sucked at inspiring men? Total Crap.
https://armyhistory.org/macarthur-and-p ... offensive/

Relax .... we all have our opinions .. and this site is exceptional at being "low key" ....

[Footslogger]

I admire MacArthur myself, but there are those that say he wanted to start a war with China in the Korean War. Actually, MacArthur was right about bombing the Chinese Rail link, but who knows what would have happened is Truman let him do that. I remember when Truman fired him, many Americans booed Truman for doing that. Please watch this video. It makes me laugh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hn9xAaKUbw

[wdolson]

At the end of WW II MacArthur was the best known and most liked general in the US.

He was quite long in the tooth when the war started. He became a general in June 1918, in 1932 he commanded the breaking up of the Bonus Army which was a sit in by veterans demanding their WW I bonuses as the Depression had put many of them out of work. He served as Army Chief of Staff too then retired in 1937 to become a civilian advisor to the Philippine Government.

He was retired the first time as a 4 star general, but reactivated in 1941 as a 2 star. I believe he was the only general in the Army who could tell George Marshall, "I've done your job..." He was one of the most senior, if not the most senior.

Every general who is considered "great" had flaws. Both Patton and MacArthur were publicity hounds. Other generals who were as good but didn't seek the spotlight have largely been forgotten.

MacArthur was focused intently on getting back to the Philippines, but strategically it really wasn't necessary. Once the US had enough carriers, the Central Pacific strategy would have gotten the US to Japan without the PI sideshow. Capturing the PI did close off the SRI to the Japanese and furthered the stranglehold on Japan, but an earlier assault on Okinawa would have probably done the same job with fewer casualties and less commitment of troops.

MacArthur's tenure as the governor of occupied Japan was quite good. He did well getting the Japanese economy rebooted and even though the Japanese surrendered unconditionally and the US had originally intended to eliminate the emperor's job, he was wise enough to see the value in keeping the emperor. That made the occupation much smoother. The successful occupation of Japan was the lowest troop to population ratio in modern history. It's the only one that had a ratio of less than 20 soldiers per 1000 population. Part of it was Japanese culture, but credit can go to MacArthur for playing a good hand well.

MacArthur's reputation began to slide soon after Truman fired him. As I've heard it MacArthur was open to escalating the war with China into a full nuclear war and that's essentially why Truman fired him. Thanks to the 1970s movie Patton is much better known and liked today than MacArthur was.

MacArthur was a complex figure. He did break up a peaceful protest with military force in 1932. When he lived in the Philippines he lived kind of like a 3rd world el presidente. His villa in Manila was quite lavish, but it was badly damaged in 1945 during the recapture of Manila. His record on inspiring troops was a bit mixed. People tended to either like him or hate him and those who didn't like him weren't inspired by him one bit.

He insisted on a strategically unwise campaign to go back to the PI and got his way. His war record is pretty good, Operation Cartwheel was a vastly complex operation, but few people study it today because it was pulled off with no hitches. His campaign up the north side of New Guinea and into the PI was very effective too. After the war he was a very effective military governor, and his record in Korea was mixed. He bailed the UN forces out of a very difficult bind, but he wanted to expand the fight to a major war with an emerging, but very large power who was closely allied with the USSR at that point. Militarily possible, but diplomatically a poor call.

It's no clear cut.

Bill

[jmalter]

Well you can put me in the anti-MacArthur group for reasons not limited to a) firing on the veterans camping at Washington, DC; b) athletic scandals at West Point; c) self-aggrandizement; d) allowing sycophantic staff structure; e) abysmally poor performance in the Phillipines; f) screwing w/ Truman's diplomacy & command authority during the Korean conflict.

But IMO he redeemed himself as pro-consul of Japan after V-J day, calmly guiding that nation as it transformed to a modern democracy. NTM that his amph-assault at Inchon was a master-stroke.

I guess one could say, that he's an historically controversial guy.

[Reg]

ORIGINAL: wdolson

At the end of WWII MacArthur was the best known and most liked general in the US.

But not everywhere else!! IMHO his biggest flaw was his ego and sense of self entitlement which rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way.

Every advance by US troops was touted as an American victory and every by achievement anyone else (including the Filipinos) was an Allied success. Hardly likely to foster cordial relations with cooperating nations.

He was intolerant of views (and realities) contrary to his own desires (take note of his unfair criticisms of his own troops at Buna). His relationship with Blamey is well documented but at least Blamey took the trouble to walk part of the Kokoda Track to evaluate the actual conditions and didn't issue grandiose directives while sipping iced tea on a Bougainvillea covered veranda in Port Moresby.

He certainly was a capable leader but there were probably a number of other officers who could have achieved similar results given the privileged status MacArthur seemed to enjoy.

Definitely a controversial figure though I believe a lot of his legacy is the result of his personal PR machine.

I'm afraid I will have to a agree to disagree with the original poster.

[CaptDave]

It wasn't so much MacArthur's desire to escalate the Korean War that got him fired as it was his pressing his case in public, contradicting and embarrassing his Commander-in-Chief. The final straw was when they had a meeting -- on Wake, I think it was -- and MacArthur refused to get off his airplane before his boss got off his. MacArthur just never understood, or had forgotten, that the President was his boss in the military hierarchy, and as a military man he should have understood that there were certain protocols to be followed (it's still a violation of the UCMJ -- Uniform Code of Military Justice -- to publicly criticize the CIC).

Patton, at least, did understand this underlying principle, as much as it caused him internal conflict (didn't stop him from criticizing Montgomery, another in the same class of monumental ego, but he never reported to Montgomery).

These guys are all interesting psychological studies!

[Leandros]

According to Field Marshall Lord Alanbrooke - British Chief of Staff in WW2 - he was the best strategist of WW2.
He is still loved by the Philippine people.

Fred

[Trugrit]

Jmalter,

I think you need to look at MacArthur’s entire career instead of cherry picking a handful
Of acts which today we all agree are wrong. You need to see him in the context of his age.

For instance in 1914 he was considered a national hero for his service at Vera Cruz.
In one instance he was in a face to face gunfight with 15 Mexican bandits in which he killed
Four of them with his pistol. He was as brave as a lion.

In fact, MacArthur was in more face to face gunfights and killed more men than Wyatt Earp.

Today, most people just see MacArthur as a rumpled middle age old fogy who told an American president to go screw himself.
He was much more than that.

MacArthur was a product of the 19th century. Born in 1880 in Apache territory his vision of duty
Was very different from what is considered proper today when someone can lose their job or have
Their entire career ruined for telling a single off color joke.

The West Point of MacArthur’s era did not train officers to be social justice warriors.

In this day and age they are actually digging up the graves of Confederate soldiers and moving them
To another location as if that will make people “feel better” about the Civil War.

It is very popular today to denigrate military men of achievement.
I’m very upset by what has been done to the reputation of Winston Churchill
who was the “indispensable man of the 20th century”.

As for MacArthur, my father served under him in the Philippines and worshiped the ground
He walked on. My father saw him in person twice on Luzon.

My father’s most vivid memory of MacArthur was in combat.
My father was in the artillery and his unit was expecting an attack by the Japanese.
They were told the Japanese were bringing up tanks to destroy their position and he said
They had their 105mm howitzers leveled and trained point blank across a clearing into the jungle.

He said the situation was very tense when they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching
and a jeep came roaring out of the jungle on their right flank and crossed directly in
front of the gun line. MacArthur was standing up in the jeep looking around.

The jeep crossed the clearing at high speed and disappeared into the jungle on the left flank.
The expected Japanese attack did not occur.

I’m glad my father won’t be alive when they dig up MacArthur’s grave.

I think you would benefit from reading more about this remarkable soldier.
You need to get inside his shoes and walk around some.
Get a feel for the violent world he lived in.

[Leandros]

He wasn't just an extraordinary soldier but had a social (human) streak as well. He showed this when serving with the
occupation forces in Germany after WW1, as the supervisor of West Point and as head of the allied occupation
forces in Japan.

Fred

[Delaware]

I am reading the new Herman book and enjoying it a lot. I have lived long enough to see historical figures' reputation wax and wane with the times. Maybe it is time for a rehabilitation of Mac

[SBD]

Got the Herman book also. Good stuff.