Thread: Douglas MacArthur - A brilliant commander or a pathetic faker?

Ever since I study US history, I have learned of the name of Douglas MacArthur - the brilliant commander who had led us to victory in the Pacific... But as I have read more on the subject, I discovered that there is a dark history of this man in which not many Americans know about...

This is a thread in which ask for your opinions of MacArthur, is he the hero who had defeated the Japanese or is he a con artist who was able to gain fame only because of his political connections?

I'm going to post what I know, and what my opinions are first.

The following are some of the errors that MacArthur made that I studied:

1. During his time as the Field Marshal in the Philippines, he had boosted to Washington that his defence were up to speed, with 10 well equipped divisions, as well as a number of forifications. It turns out he has no more than 5 understrength divisions in which were ill-equiped and improper trained for combat.

2. MacArthur had managed to convince a number of key players in Washington that Japanese would not attempt to invade Philippines as it is worthless for Japan. But it turns out that Philippines was one of the primarily objectivce of the Japanese, as it serve as the springboard for them to invade South Pacific, as Philippines lay right in the middle of everything (ex. Malaysia, Dutch East Indians, Austrialia...).

3. Error 1 and 2 had led Washington to make a strategic mistake. Philippines was first considered indefenceable, and was planned to be abandoned altogether. However, thanks to MacArthur's analyazation, Philippines was now going to be held till the Allies counterattack. Marshall was going to ship a few American Divisions over to Philippines, but MacArthur refused and maintained that his defence are adaqute.

4. After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, the entire Pacific was put on alert. MacArthur's air chief (forgot his name, don't have the book with me) had got all his bombers fueled, armed, ready to go, and went to MacArthur for approval to bomb the Japanese airfield in Taiwan (in which was the plan that MacArthur himself drafted). He went to MacArthur 3 times, but didn't even get the permission to see him, MacArthur's chief of staff had turned him around. The result was sad, almost all of the US planes were destroyed on the ground by the Japanese "first strike".

5. During the Japanese invasion of Philippines, MacArthur had not properly reinforce his front units. The main Japanese landing occurs in Bataan, but Mac thought the Japanese would come from the East. Not only he had kept most of his tanks (one tank BN, he only release 3, I think) in his pocket, he had denied all supplies to Bataan, for some reasons that we still don't know today. The troops in Bataan under general Mainwright (I think that is his name) were starved, out of ammo, out of medical supplies, were even ordered by Mac not to confisiate ANY supplies from the civilian population, including the JAPANESE OWNED WAREHOUSEs that would have fed the army for at least a month. Most of the soldiers in the Bataan, whom, along with Mainwright, had surrendered to the Japanese, and had parpiculate in the infamous Bataan Death Match, were cursing MacArthur. (A song was made about that)

6. Philippines was the single worst military disaster in the US history. 124 planes destroyed on the ground, 77,000 troops captured by the enemy, the largest surrender of the Americans in history. And for all that, MacArthur, instead of being dismissed like the commanders in Pearl Harbour, he was awarded the "Congressional Medal of Honor" recommended by George Marshall for his "brilliant and couragerous" command in Philippines. (A few soldiers whom survived the Bataan death match had requested Mac to be striped of his MoH)

7. During his entire campaign in the Pacific, Mac rarely visit the front line. Most of his tactical victories were constributed by his subordinates. But the general had taken a few photos around his home in Austrialia and fake it as they were taken in the front line. This is just pathetic. One account from "The Pacific War, by John Costello" had claimed that MacArthur refused to visit the frontline because he was embrassed that he had let the troops down.

Okay, I'm going to stop here, I do know have enough knowledge on the matter during the Island Hopping. What I know was that when Nimitz and Tower porposed the plan, MacArthur had argued against it, and wanted his army troops to take a larger part in the operation. He had also stubbornly argue not to bypass Philippines, in order to fulfill his promise earlier, thus setback the Allies strategy in the Pacific.

Overall, I believe that MacArthur was in fact, a brilliant tactical commander. He had in fact led some of the greatest victory in the battlefield. But his strategic failures, mixing with his short sightness and his ego, had led US into the worst military disaster. He was awarded the highest honor for it.

Open to all opinions, please post your comments!

tttcomrader
Ex-SGT US Army
03 NOV 05