General of the Army
Douglas MacArthur (January 26, 1880 – April 5,
1964) was an American
general, United
Nations general, and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a
Chief of Staff of the
United States Army during the 1930s and later played a
prominent role in the
Pacific theater of
World War II. He was a highly decorated
US soldier of the war, receiving the
Medal of Honor for his early service in the
Philippines and on the Bataan Peninsula.
He was designated to
command the proposed invasion of
Japan
in November 1945. When that was no longer
necessary, he officially accepted the nation's surrender on
September 2, 1945.
MacArthur oversaw the
occupation of
Japan from 1945 to 1951. Although criticized for protecting
Emperor Hirohito and the imperial
family from prosecution for war crimes, MacArthur is credited with
implementing far-reaching
democratic
reforms in that country.
He led the United Nations Command forces
defending South
Korea
against the North Korean
invasion from 1950 to 1951. On April 11,
1951, MacArthur was removed from command by President
Harry S. Truman for publicly disagreeing with
Truman's Korean War Policy.
MacArthur fought in three major wars (
World
War I,
World War II,
Korean War) and was one of only five men ever to
rise to the
rank of
General of the
Army.
Early life and education
Douglas MacArthur, the youngest of three sons, was born in Little
Rock, Arkansas, in 1880, while his parents were stationed there.
His
parents were Lieutenant General
Arthur MacArthur, Jr. (at the
time a captain), a recipient of
the Medal of Honor, and Mary Pinkney
Hardy MacArthur (nicknamed "Pinky") of Norfolk, Virginia
. Douglas MacArthur was the grandson of
jurist and politician
Arthur
MacArthur, Sr., a Scottish immigrant. (The remainder of
MacArthur's ancestry was English.) He was
baptized at Christ Episcopal Church in Little Rock
on May 16, 1880.In his memoir,
Reminiscences, MacArthur
wrote that his first memory was the sound of the bugle, and that he
had learned to "ride and shoot even before I could read or
write—indeed, almost before I could walk and talk."
MacArthur's father was posted to San Antonio,
Texas
, in 1893. There, Douglas attended West Texas
Military Academy (now known as
T.M.I.: The Episcopal
School of Texas), where he became an excellent student.
After two
rejections, MacArthur entered the United States
Military Academy
at West Point in 1898. His mother also moved
there to a hotel suite overlooking the grounds of the Academy. (The
story is that his mother would use a telescope to look over into
his room to ensure that he was studying.) An outstanding
cadet, he graduated first in his 93-man class in 1903.
For his prowess in sports, military training, and academics he was
awarded the coveted title of "First Captain Of The Corps Of
Cadets." Upon graduation, MacArthur was commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the
U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.
After leaving West Point, MacArthur served his first tour of duty
in the Philippines. Later, MacArthur served as an
aide-de-camp to his father, and visited
Japan during the
Russo-Japanese
war. In 1906, he was
aide-de-camp to President
Theodore Roosevelt. Leaving the
White House in 1907, MacArthur performed engineering duties in
Kansas, Milwaukee, and Washington D.C. until his assignment to the
General Staff (1913-1917).
Vera Cruz Expedition
MacArthur distinguished himself by several acts of personal bravery
in the
Vera Cruz
Expedition of 1914, including a railroad chase back to American
lines. For these he was recommended for the
Medal of Honor, although this was denied on
the grounds that his actions had exceeded the scope of his
orders.
These duties were performed while he was serving on the Army
General Staff. MacArthur was later in charge of dealing with the
National Guard Bureau within the War Department. In early 1917,
prior to U.S. entry into World War I, MacArthur was elevated two
grades in rank from
major to
full
colonel. Upon his
promotion to full colonel, he transferred his basic branch from the
Corps of Engineers to the Infantry.
World War I
During
World War I MacArthur served in France
as chief of staff of the 42nd Division.
Upon his promotion to
Brigadier General, he
became the commander of the 84th Infantry Brigade. A few weeks
before the war ended, he became division commander. During the war,
MacArthur received two Distinguished Service Crosses, seven Silver
Stars, a Distinguished Service Medal, and two Purple Hearts.
Douglas MacArthur made it his policy to "lead... men from the
front." Because of this policy, and the fact that he usually
refused to wear the mandatory gas mask while the rest of his men
would, he had respiratory problems the rest of his life. He also
refused to carry a gun, preferring instead to his only weapon a
riding crop. Still, he was the
second most decorated American officer of the war (after Colonel
"Wild Bill" Donovan), and
General
Charles T. Menoher once said that he was the
"greatest fighting man" in the army.
MacArthur and Donovan had crossed paths under less than ideal
circumstances during the
Hundred
Days Offensive.
Donovan's battalion had been decimated in
battle at the Ourcq
.
MacArthur arrived after the battle's close, as the wounded Donovan
was being taken out by stretcher, and demanded an explanation of
the battalion's heavy casualties. Donovan correctly explained that
they had received no artillery support; whereupon MacArthur sought
out and castigated the artillery commander responsible for the
area: Captain
Harry S. Truman, the man who would one day relieve
MacArthur of command for insubordination.
Post–World War I
In 1919 MacArthur became
superintendent
of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which had become out of
date in many respects and was much in need of reform. MacArthur
ordered drastic changes in the tactical, athletic and disciplinary
systems; he modernized the curriculum, adding liberal arts,
government and economics courses. He also took the first major step
to formalizing the as yet unwritten
Cadet Honor Code when, in 1922, he formed
the Cadet Honor Committee to review all honor allegations.
In October 1922, MacArthur left West Point for the Philippines.
Historian Clayton writes of the rumors circulating at the time,
that after MacArthur and Louise Cromwell Brooks (later to become
MacArthur's first wife) became romantically involved, General John
J. Pershing who was very fond of Brooks, exiled MacArthur to the
Philippines. From 1922 to 1930, MacArthur served two tours of duty
in the Philippines, the second as commander of the Philippine
Department (1928–1930); he also served two tours as commander of
corps areas in the states. In 1925, he was promoted to
major general, the youngest
officer of that rank at the time, and served on the
court martial that convicted Brigadier General
Billy Mitchell. He headed the U.S.
Olympic Committee for the
1928
Summer Olympics.
Marriages
General MacArthur was married twice. His first marriage, on
February 14, 1922, was to
socialite
Louise Cromwell Brooks, the
divorced wife of Walter Brooks Jr, and the stepdaughter of
Edward T. Stotesbury, a wealthy Philadelphia
banker. She obtained a
divorce from MacArthur in 1929 on the
grounds that he had failed to support her.
MacArthur
was married to Jean Marie Faircloth
of Murfreesboro, Tennessee
, on April 30, 1937. Their only child,
Arthur, was born in Manila on February 21, 1938. Arthur graduated
from
Columbia University in
1961. "Arthur" was a family name - being the name of MacArthur's
grandfather, father and eldest brother. Since his brother
Arthur MacArthur III was deceased at
this point and had failed to give that name to his own son (naming
him instead
Douglas MacArthur
II), MacArthur "laid claim" to the name for his son, thus
Arthur MacArthur IV.
Bonus Army
One of MacArthur's most controversial acts came in 1932, when
President
Hoover ordered him to
disperse the "
Bonus Army" of veterans who
had converged on the capital in protest of government policy.
MacArthur was criticized for using excessive force to disperse the
protesters, an act during which US troops killed several veterans.
According to MacArthur, the demonstration had been taken over by
communists and
pacifists with, he claimed, only "one man in 10
being veterans."
However, the Veteran's Administration files quoted by David
Halberstam in "The Coldest Winter", state that 93% of the Bonus
Army were veterans, of whom 67% had served overseas during the
World War. Similarly,
PBS'
The American
Experience has further supported this position by showing that
the Bonus Army was composed overwhelmingly of First World War
veterans whose pacifist politics were typical of the era -
pacifism was not an uncommon belief among the
general public of the 1930s. It has also been reported that
MacArthur never received the orders telling him not to stop the
marchers and that the orders were hidden from him by other officers
who wanted the Army troops to storm the Bonus Army camps.
Chief of Staff
MacArthur finished his tour as Chief of Staff in October 1935.
MacArthur's main programs included the development of new
mobilization plans, the activation of a centralized air command
(the General Headquarters Air Force), and a four-army
reorganization which improved administrative efficiency. He
supported the
New Deal by enthusiastically
operating the
Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC). He brought along many talented
mid-career officers, including
George
C. Marshall, and
Dwight D. Eisenhower. However, MacArthur's
support for a strong military and his public criticism of pacifism
and
isolationism made him unpopular
with the
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Following
his retirement in December 1937, he reverted to his permanent grade
of major general, and accepted an offer in the Philippines.
Field Marshal of the Philippine Army
When the
Commonwealth of
the Philippines achieved semi-independent status in 1935,
President of the
Philippines Manuel L. Quezon, a personal friend since his father
had been Governor General, asked MacArthur to supervise the
creation of a Philippine Army. MacArthur elected not to retire but
to remain on the active list as a major general, and with President
Roosevelt's approval he accepted the assignment.
Among MacArthur's assistants as Military Adviser to the
Commonwealth of the Philippines was Dwight D. Eisenhower. (Some
years later, Eisenhower was asked if he knew MacArthur. He replied,
"Know him? I studied dramatics under him for seven years!"
MacArthur retorted that Eisenhower was the "Best clerk I ever
had".)
When MacArthur resigned from the U.S. Army in 1937, his rank again
became that of a general, and he was made
Field Marshal of the Philippine
Army by President Quezon. (MacArthur is the senior officer on
the rolls of the Philippine Army today—he is also the only American
military officer ever to hold the rank of field marshal).
In July 1941 Roosevelt recalled him to active duty in the U.S. Army
as a major general and named him commander of
United States Armed Forces in the Far East promoting
him to a lieutenant general the following day. In December, he
became a four star general yet again when the Japanese attacked
across a wide front in the Pacific.
Following the outbreak of war with Japan, MacArthur was offered and
accepted a payment of $500,000 (an enormous sum at the time) from
President Quezon of the Philippines as payment for his pre-war
service. Besides MacArthur, staff members of MacArthur also
received payments. Eisenhower after being appointed Supreme
Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, was also offered money by
Quezon, but Eisenhower refused the offer.
World War II
On the
day of the attack on
Pearl Harbor
(December 8, 1941, in Manila
), MacArthur
was Allied commander in the Philippines. He had over eight
hours warning of a possible Japanese attack on the Philippines, and
express orders from Army Chief of Staff General
George C. Marshall to commence operations.
MacArthur's failure to take defensive or offensive action resulted
in Japanese air superiority over the Philippines—MacArthur's
inaction during the critical hours has been given as the reason for
"an enormity of loss no less than that in Hawaii". A misplaced
reliance by MacArthur on his air commander of only two months,
General
Lewis H. Brereton, has been offered as an
explanation for his inaction by his defenders. Despite clear
warnings of Japanese aggression, Brereton had not transitioned his
air defenses to a war footing, and like the air commanders at
Hickam Field at Pearl Harbor, failed to disperse aircraft properly
in camouflaged revetments to limit damage from incoming air raids.
Brereton's difficulties were magnified by the fact that the Far
East Air Force (FEAF) was mostly a motley collection of obsolescent
U.S. and Philippine Air Force planes. The FEAF was, however, in
possession of 72 operational front line
P-40 Warhawk fighters. MacArthur's lack of
aggressiveness led to most U.S. aircraft being caught on the ground
and destroyed.
Later, MacArthur would publicly defend his air commander while
privately concluding he was incompetent; he transferred Brereton
out of the Philippines as soon as possible.
Brereton claimed he
had requested permission to launch 35 B-17 Flying Fortresses (his entire
heavy bombing force) to attack Japanese shipping in nearby Taiwan
. Some
historians have seen this proposed use of B-17s as a departure from
their intended use, to scout for incoming attacking forces or to
attack Japan proper. Others note that
Hoyt Vandenberg's plan for the defense of
the Philippines by air, with its beginnings in 1939 and an update
in August 1941, included the use of heavy bombers as a "striking
force" to counter Japanese forces in Asia. Brereton's subsequent
defense of his request for offensive action contained the
implication that a Taiwan attack would have preserved the majority
of the B-17 force.
Though the bombers were scrambled in
response to an early alert, they returned to refuel just as
Japanese aircraft attacked Clark Field
, and 17 were destroyed on the ground.
MacArthur and his Chief of Staff, General Sutherland, later
disputed Brereton's account of the Japanese attack on the
Philippines.
One of
the prewar Philippines defense plans assumed the Japanese could not
be prevented from landings in Luzon and called for U.S. and
Filipino forces to abandon Manila and retreat with their supplies
to the Bataan
peninsula. MacArthur, aware of large-scale pre-war air
defense plans by Vandenberg and an even more extensive proposal by
Clayton Bissell calling for as many
as 780 pursuit (fighter) aircraft to be based in the Philippines,
decided to slow the Japanese advance with an initial defense
against the Japanese landings. In the event, the Japanese could not
be stopped, and the Allied troops barely escaped destruction
retreating back to
Bataan. Through
MacArthur's errors and because of the rush to retreat to Bataan,
food to be transferred from Manila to Bataan fell into Japanese
hands. Early in April 1942 the Allied forces on Bataan would
surrender due to Japanese superiority in aircraft and
materiel.
MacArthur's headquarters during the Philippines campaign of
1941-2 was on the island fortress of Corregidor
. His fortress was clearly marked and was the
target of Japanese air attacks, until Manuel Quezon cautioned
MacArthur "not to subject himself to danger."
In March 1942, as
Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, MacArthur
was ordered by President Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne
, Australia, after Quezon
had already left. After first discussing with his staff the
idea that he resign his commission and fight on as a private
soldier in the Philippine resistance, with his wife, four-year-old
son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate military
commanders, MacArthur left the Philippines in
PT 41 (commanded by Lieutenant
John D. Bulkeley).
After he left, command of the defense of Bataan was handed over to
Major General
Jonathan
M. Wainwright.
MacArthur was unwilling to leave control to Wainwright, and tried
to run the battle from three thousand miles away. He ordered his
men not to retreat, but General
Edward
P. King disobeyed orders by
surrendering when he saw that the situation was hopeless. This
surrender led to the
Bataan Death
March, in which over 5,000 Filipinos and 1,000 Americans
died.
MacArthur
reached Mindanao
on March 13, and boarded a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber three days
later; on March 17, he arrived at Batchelor Airfield
in Australia's Northern Territory
, about 60 miles (100 km) south of Darwin
, before flying to Alice Springs
, where he took the Ghan
railway through the Australian outback to Adelaide
. His famous speech, in which he said, "I came
out of Bataan and I shall return", was first made at Terowie
(a small railway township in South
Australia
) on March
20. Upon his arrival in Adelaide, MacArthur abbreviated this
to the now-famous, "I came through and I shall return" that made
headlines. Washington asked MacArthur to amend his promise to, "We
shall return". He ignored the request. Also, during this period,
President Quezon decorated MacArthur with the
Distinguished Conduct Star.
For his leadership in the defense of the Philippines, MacArthur was
awarded the
Medal of Honor (April 1,
1942) - a decoration for which he had twice previously been
nominated. His citation read:
- For conspicuous leadership in preparing the Philippine
Islands to resist conquest, for gallantry and intrepidity above and
beyond the call of duty in action against invading Japanese forces,
and for the heroic conduct of defensive and offensive operations on
the Bataan Peninsula. He mobilized, trained, and led an
army which has received world acclaim for its gallant defense
against a tremendous superiority of enemy forces in men and
arms. His utter disregard of personal danger under heavy
fire and aerial bombardment, his calm judgment in each crisis,
inspired his troops, galvanized the spirit of resistance of the
Filipino people, and confirmed the faith of the American people in
their Armed Forces.
Arthur and Douglas MacArthur were the first father and son to be
awarded the Medal of Honor. (They remained the only pair until 2001
when
Theodore Roosevelt was
awarded one posthumously for his service during the
Spanish American War.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. had earned
one posthumously for his service during World War II).

MacArthur's Medal of Honor plaque
affixed to MacArthur barracks, USMA
was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the
Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA).
Australian Prime Minister
John Curtin
put MacArthur in command of the Australian military, which —
following the isolation of the Philippines — was numerically larger
than MacArthur's American forces, but to the Australians' chagrin
most were deployed thousands of miles away, in North Africa,
defending Great Britain in that struggle with the Axis
powers
[7863].
The Allied force under MacArthur's command
included a small number of personnel from the Netherlands
East Indies
and other countries. One of MacArthur's
first tasks was to reassure Australians, who feared a Japanese
invasion.
The fighting at this time was predominantly
in and around New
Guinea
and the Dutch East Indies
. On July 20, 1942, SWPA headquarters was
moved to Brisbane
, Queensland
, taking over the AMP Insurance Society building
(now MacArthur Central). In August 1942, after requesting a
replacement for Brereton, MacArthur was finally given a new and
fiercely aggressive air commander,
Gen. George C.
Kenney. Kenney and MacArthur
immediately forged a close relationship. Allied airpower, which had
up to this point been timid and inconclusive, was transformed by
Kenney into a new and fearsome offensive weapon. Kenney would later
develop low-level skip bombing techniques that his aviators would
use to repulse a planned Japanese naval invasion of New Guinea in
1943, with thousands of Japanese casualties and dozens of ships
sunk.
Australian successes at the
Battle
of Milne Bay and the
Kokoda
Track campaign came in late 1942, the first victories by Allied
land forces anywhere against the Japanese. When it was reported the
32nd U.S.
Infantry Division, a
poorly trained and ill-equipped National Guard unit, had proved
ineffective in the Allied offensive against Buna and
Gona
, the major Japanese beachheads in northeastern New Guinea, MacArthur
told U.S. I Corps commander,
Robert L. Eichelberger, to assume direct
control of the division:
- Bob, I'm putting you in command at Buna. Relieve
Harding ... I want you to
remove all officers who won't fight. Relieve regimental and battalion
commanders; if necessary, put sergeants in charge of battalions and
corporals in charge of companies
... Bob, I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive
... And that goes for your chief of staff, too.
Allied land forces commander, General
Thomas Blamey, did not want the
41st U.S. Infantry, another
inexperienced unit. National Guard division, to reinforce the Gona
assault, and requested 21st Australian Infantry Brigade be sent
instead, as "he knew they would fight". This was done but a
regiment of the 41st later went to Gona.
In March
1943, the Joint Chiefs of
Staff approved MacArthur's plan, Operation Cartwheel, which aimed to
capture the major Japanese base at Rabaul
by taking
strategic points to use as forward bases. During 1944 this
was modified so as to bypass Rabaul and other heavily-defended
Japanese bases, allowing the Japanese forces there to "wither on
the vine." Initially, the majority of MacArthur's land forces were
Australian, but increasing numbers of U.S. troops arrived in the
theater, including
Marines, the
Sixth Army (Alamo Force), and later
the
Eighth Army.
MacArthur's advancement of land forces westward along the 1,500
mile (2,400 km) northern coast of New Guinea was sequenced
specifically for terrain selected on the basis of its ability to be
made into landing strips for tactical support aircraft. By
advancing in leaps always within the range of his fighter-bombers
(typically
P-38 Lightnings), he could
maintain air superiority over his land operations. This provided
critical
close air support and
also denied the enemy sea and airborne resupply, effectively
cutting the Japanese forces off as they were under attack.
MacArthur's strategy of maneuver, offensive air-strikes, and force
avoidance would eventually pay off: unlike the ground forces in the
Central Pacific theater, infantry troops in operations under
MacArthur's command consistently suffered fewer casualties.

"I have returned" — General MacArthur
returns to the Philippines.
Allied
forces under MacArthur's command, covered by aircraft from Halsey's carrier, landed at Leyte
Island
on October 20, 1944 — fulfilling MacArthur's vow to
return to the
Philippines. The carriers were busy for months providing
air support until the rainy season ended (something which critics
claim MacArthur doubtless should have foreseen, after living on the
islands for a decade). Only then could MacArthur's engineers build
airstrips on shore. He consolidated his hold on the archipelago
after heavy fighting in the
Battle of
Luzon and
Battle of
Manila.
Despite a massive Japanese naval
counterattack in the Battle of Leyte Gulf
, Japanese forces were unable to stop the invasion
or do more than slow the reconquest of the islands.
MacArthur made full use of amphibious and combined operations,
while utilizing paratroop, motorized infantry, and even indigenous
guerrilla forces for special operations and to multiply his force
advantage. With the reconquest of the islands, MacArthur moved his
headquarters to Manila, where he announced his plan for the
invasion of Japan (
Operation
Downfall), to commence November 1, 1945. The invasion was
pre-empted by Japan's capitulation.
On
September 2, MacArthur accepted the formal Japanese surrender
aboard Missouri
, thus ending World War II.
Post–World War II Japan
MacArthur was ordered on August 29 to exercise authority through
the Japanese government machinery, including Emperor
Hirohito. Some believe MacArthur may have made his
greatest contribution to history in the next five and a half years,
as
Supreme
Commander of the Allied Powers in Japan (SCAP). Sometimes
referred to as the
Gaijin Shogun, he held unprecedented power for several
years, and enjoyed (or created for himself) considerable autonomy
from US presidential influence.
MacArthur and his GHQ staff helped a devastated Japan rebuild
itself, institute a democratic government, and chart a course that
made Japan one of the world's leading industrial powers. The U.S.
was firmly in control of Japan to oversee its reconstruction, and
MacArthur was effectively the interim leader of Japan from 1945
until 1948. In 1946, MacArthur's staff drafted a new
constitution that renounced war and
reduced the
emperor to a
figurehead; this constitution remains in use in Japan to this day.
He also pushed the Japanese Diet into adopting a decentralization
plan to break apart the large Japanese companies (
zaibatsu) and foster the first Japanese labor
unions.
In an address to Congress on April 19, 1951, MacArthur said:
These reconstruction plans alarmed many in the U.S. Defense and
State Departments, believing they conflicted with the prospect of
Japan (and its industrial capacity) as a bulwark against the spread
of communism in Asia. Some of MacArthur's reforms, such as his
labor laws, were rescinded in 1948 when his unilateral control of
Japan was ended by the increased involvement of the State
Department. MacArthur handed over power to the newly-formed
Japanese government in 1949 and remained in Japan until relieved by
President Truman on April 11, 1951. Truman replaced SCAP leader
MacArthur with General
Matthew
Ridgway of the U.S. Army. By 1952, Japan was a sovereign nation
under the democratic constitution MacArthur had pushed for, which
had been in effect since 1947.
Involvement in war crime trials
However, some historians criticize his work to exonerate Emperor
Hirohito and all members of the imperial
family implicated in the war (including Princes
Chichibu,
Asaka,
Takeda,
Higashikuni and
Fushimi) from criminal prosecutions. As
soon as November 26, 1945, MacArthur confirmed to admiral
Mitsumasa Yonai that the emperor's
abdication would not be necessary. MacArthur exonerated Hirohito
and ignored the advice of many members of the imperial family and
Japanese intellectuals who publicly asked for the abdication of the
Emperor and the implementation of a regency. For example,
Prince Mikasa (Takahito), Hirohito's youngest
brother, even stood up in a meeting of the Privy Council, in
February 1946, and urged his brother to take responsibility for
defeat while the well-known poet
Tatsuji
Miyoshi wrote an essay in the magazine
ShinchĂ´ titled
"The Emperor should abdicate quickly."
According to Bix, "months before the
Tokyo tribunal commenced, MacArthur's highest
subordinates were working to attribute ultimate responsibility for
Pearl Harbor to
Hideki Tojo" Citing the
debates between Truman, Eisenhower and MacArthur, Bix argues that
"immediately on landing in Japan, Bonner Fellers went to work to
protect Hirohito from the role he had played during and at the end
of the war" and "allowed the major war criminal suspects to
coordinate their stories so that the Emperor would be spared from
indictment."
According to John Dower, "This successful campaign to absolve the
Emperor of war responsibility knew no bounds. Hirohito was not
merely presented as being innocent of any formal acts that might
make him culpable to indictment as a war criminal. He was turned
into an almost saintly figure who did not even bear moral
responsibility for the war." "With the full support of MacArthur's
headquarters, the prosecution functioned, in effect, as a defense
team for the emperor."
As
Supreme
Commander of the Allied Powers, MacArthur also gave
immunity to
Shiro Ishii and all members of the
bacteriological research units in exchange for germ
warfare data based on
human
experimentation. On May 6, 1947, he wrote to Washington that
"additional data, possibly some statements from Ishii probably can
be obtained by informing Japanese involved that information will be
retained in intelligence channels and will not be employed as "War
Crimes" evidence." The deal was concluded in 1948.
In late 1945, Allied military commissions in various cities of the
Orient tried 4,000 Japanese officers for
war
crimes. About 3,000 were given prison terms and 920 executed;
the charges included the
Rape of
Nanking, the
Bataan Death
March, and
the sack of Manila.
The trial in Manila of General
Tomoyuki Yamashita, Japanese commander in
the Philippines from 1944, was under MacArthur's direction and has
been particularly criticized. General Yamashita was hanged for the
massacre of Manila which he had not
ordered and of which he was probably unaware. The massacre of
Manila was ordered by Vice Admiral Sanji Iwabuchi who was nominally
subordinate to General Yamashita. Iwabuchi had killed himself as
the battle for Manila was ending.
Korean War
In 1945,
as part of the surrender of Japan, the United States agreed with
the Soviet
Union
to divide the Korean
peninsula into two occupation zones at the 38th parallel north. This resulted in the
creation of two states: the western-aligned Republic of Korea (ROK)
(usually referred to as South Korea
), and the Soviet-aligned and Communist Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK) (usually referred to as North Korea
). After the surprise attack by the DPRK on
June 25, 1950 started the Korean War, the
United Nations Security
Council authorized a
United
Nations (UN) force to help South Korea. MacArthur, as US
theater commander, became commander of the UN forces.
In September, despite
lingering concerns from superiors, MacArthur's army and marine
troops made a daring and successful combined amphibious landing at Incheon
, deep behind North Korean lines. Launched
with naval and close air support, the daring landing outflanked the
North Koreans, forcing them to retreat northward in disarray.
UN forces
pursued the DPRK forces, eventually approaching the Yalu River border with China
. MacArthur boasted: "The war is over. The
Chinese are not coming... The Third Division will be back in Fort
Benning for Christmas dinner."
With the DPRK forces largely destroyed, troops of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
(PLA) quietly crossed the Yalu River.
Chinese foreign
minister Zhou Enlai issued warnings via
India
's foreign minister, Krishna Menon, that an advance to the Yalu
would force China into the war. When questioned about this
threat by President Truman and Secretary of State
Dean Acheson, MacArthur dismissed it
completely. MacArthur's staff ignored battlefield evidence that PLA
troops had entered North Korea in strength. The Chinese moved
through the snowy hills, struck hard, and routed the UN forces,
forcing them on a long retreat. Calling the Chinese attack the
beginning of "an entirely new war," MacArthur repeatedly requested
authorization to strike Chinese bases in
Manchuria, inside China. Truman was concerned that
such actions would draw the Soviet Union into the conflict and risk
nuclear war.
Dismissal

President Harry S.
Truman's draft order terminating MacArthur as Supreme
Commander, Allied Powers, Commander in Chief, Far East; and
Commanding General, U.S.
In April 1951, MacArthur's habitual disregard of his superiors led
to a crisis. He sent a letter to
Representative
Joe Martin
(R-Massachusetts), the
House
Minority Leader, disagreeing with President Truman's policy of
limiting the Korean war to avoid a larger war with China. He also
sent an ultimatum to the Chinese Army which destroyed
President Truman's cease-fire efforts.
This, and similar letters and statements, were seen by Truman as a
violation of the American constitutional principle that military
commanders are subordinate to
civilian leadership, and as
an attempt to usurp the President's authority to make foreign
policy. MacArthur had ignored this principle out of necessity while
Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers (SCAP) in Japan. MacArthur
at this time had not been back to the United States for eleven
years.
By this time President Truman decided MacArthur was insubordinate,
and relieved him of command on April 11, 1951, leading to a storm
of controversy. MacArthur was succeeded by General
Matthew Ridgway, and eventually by General
Mark Wayne Clark, who signed the
armistice which
declared a ceasefire to the Korean War.
General Ridgway reported directly to MacArthur before replacing
him. Ridgway commented on MacArthur's strengths:
But Ridgway also understood his weaknesses:
Return to America
MacArthur returned to Washington, D.C. (his first time in the
continental U.S. in 11 years), where he made his last public
appearance in a farewell address to the
U.S. Congress, interrupted by
thirty ovations. In his closing speech, he recalled: "Old soldiers
never die; they just fade away... And like the old soldier of that
ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away — an old
soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see
that duty. Good-bye."
In 1945, MacArthur gave his
Gold
Castles engineers' insignia to his chief engineer,
Jack Sverdrup. This insignia continues to
be worn by the Army's
Chief of
Engineers as a tradition.
On his return from Korea, after his relief by Truman, MacArthur
encountered massive public adulation, which aroused expectations
that he would run for the presidency as a
Republican in the
1952 election. However, a
U.S. Senate Committee investigation of his
removal (which largely vindicated the actions taken by President
Truman), chaired by
Democrat Richard Russell, contributed to
a marked cooling of the public mood, and hopes for a MacArthur
presidential run died away. MacArthur, in
Reminiscences,
repeatedly stated he had no political aspirations.
1952 to death
In the 1952 Republican presidential nomination contest, MacArthur
was not a candidate and instead endorsed Senator
Robert Taft of Ohio; rumors were rife Taft
offered the vice presidential nomination to MacArthur. Taft did
persuade MacArthur to be the keynote speaker at the
1952 Republican National
Convention. The speech was not well received. Taft lost the
nomination to Eisenhower; MacArthur was silent during the campaign,
which Eisenhower won by a landslide. Once elected, Eisenhower
consulted with MacArthur and adopted his suggestion of threatening
the use of nuclear weapons to end the war.
In 1956, Congressman
Joseph
William Martin, Jr. introduced a proposal to elevate MacArthur
to
six star
rank. This caused problems for President Eisenhower, and the
issue died in the Senate.
MacArthur became head of Remington Rand Corporation and spent the
remainder of his life in New York
.

MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk

MacArthur's grave at the MacArthur
Memorial
MacArthur
and his second wife, Jean Marie
Faircloth MacArthur, spent the last years of their life
together in the penthouse of the Waldorf Towers (a part of the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
), a gift from Conrad
Hilton, the owner of the hotel.
The Waldorf became the setting for an annual birthday party on
January 26, thrown by the general's former deputy chief engineer,
Major General
Leif J. Sverdrup. At the 1960 celebration for
MacArthur's 80th, many of his friends were startled by the
general's obviously deteriorating health; the next day he collapsed
and was rushed into surgery at
St. Luke's Hospital to
control a severely swollen
prostate.
After his recovery, MacArthur methodically began to carry out the
closing act of his life.
He visited the White House
for a final reunion with Eisenhower. In 1961, he made a
"sentimental journey" to the Philippines, where he was decorated by
President
Carlos P. Garcia with the
Philippine Legion of Honor, rank
of Chief Commander. MacArthur also accepted a $900,000 advance from
Henry Luce for the rights to his memoirs,
and began writing the volume that would eventually be published as
Reminiscences.
President
John F. Kennedy solicited
MacArthur's counsel in 1961. The first of two meetings was shortly
after the
Bay of Pigs Invasion.
MacArthur
was extremely critical of the
Pentagon
and its military advice to Kennedy.
MacArthur
also cautioned the young President to avoid a U.S. military
build-up in Vietnam
, pointing out domestic problems should be given a
much greater priority. Shortly before his death, he gave
similar advice to the new President,
Lyndon Johnson.
In 1962, West Point honored the increasingly frail MacArthur with
the
Sylvanus Thayer Award, an
award for outstanding service to the nation; the year before, the
award had gone to Eisenhower. MacArthur's speech to the cadets in
accepting the award had as its theme
Duty, Honor, Country:
The shadows are lengthening for me.
The twilight is here.
My days of old have vanished, tone and
tint.
They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things
that were.
Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by
tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of
yesterday.
I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the
witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums
beating the long roll.
In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle
of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the
battlefield.
But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to
West Point.
Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor,
Country.
Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you
to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will
be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps.
I bid you farewell."
MacArthur spent the last years of his life finishing his memoirs;
he died on April 5, 1964, of
biliary
cirrhosis, before their publication in book form - they had
begun to appear in serialized form in
Life
Magazine in the months just prior to his death. After he died,
his wife Jean continued to live in the Waldorf Towers penthouse
until her own death.
The couple are entombed together in downtown
Norfolk,
Virginia
; their burial site is in the rotunda of a museum
(formerly the Norfolk City Hall) dedicated to his memory, and there
is a shopping mall (MacArthur Center
) named for him across the street from the
memorial. General MacArthur chose to be buried in Norfolk
because of his mother's ancestral ties to the city.
MacArthur wanted his family to remember him for more than being a
soldier. He said, "By profession I am a soldier and take pride in
that fact. But I am prouder—infinitely prouder—to be a father. A
soldier destroys in order to build; the father only builds, never
destroys. The one has the potentiality of death; the other embodies
creation and life. And while the hordes of death are mighty, the
battalions of life are mightier still. It is my hope that my son,
when I am gone, will remember me not from the battle but in the
home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, 'Our Father who
art in heaven."
MacArthur's nephew,
Douglas
MacArthur II (a son of his brother Arthur) served as a diplomat
for several years, including the post of Ambassador to Japan and
several other countries.
Controversies
MacArthur is viewed as a controversial figure. His self-serving
resolve, counter to the wishes of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff in World War II,
to invade rather than bypass and cut off the Philippines, has been
criticized as leading to the unnecessary deaths of thousands of
Americans and Filipinos as well as the avoidable destruction of
historic Manila. His choice of Leyte as the initial invasion island
has been analyzed as grossly flawed; it was clearly unsuitable as a
base for further operations. His personal control of battlefield
movements on Luzon showed Yamashita the more nimble opponent.
MacArthur's orders for the liberation of the entire Philippine
Archipelago before Luzon had been secured severely split his
forces. After retaking Manila, MacArthur's decision to have his
wife help him set up residence in the city was widely criticized.
In occupied Japan, his protection of some major leaders of the
Hirohito regime has been questioned. MacArthur's command decisions
during the Korean War remain highly controversial.
MacArthur's reputation for self-promotion has earned him many
detractors. His official bulletins, according to veteran war
correspondent Davis Walker, were seen as "dreadfully distorted", "a
total farce", and characterized as "Alice-in-Wonderland information
handed out at high level." Such communiqués issued from MacArthur's
headquarters were often aimed at Americans back home to the
detriment of the morale of those of his own troops who witnessed
the disjunction between lofty prose and hard reality.
Oscar Griswold, Commanding General of
XIV Corps tasked with the
capture of Manila, wrote of MacArthur that he was
"publicity-crazy".
A British
liaison officer at
MacArthur's headquarters, Lt Col Gerald Wilkinson, described him in
1943:
- He is shrewd, selfish, proud, remote, highly strung and vastly
vain. He has imagination, self-confidence, physical courage and
charm, but no humour about himself, no regard for truth, and is
unaware of these defects. He mistakes his emotions and ambitions
for principles. With moral depth, he would be a great man; as it is
he is a near miss which may be worse than a mile.... His main
ambition would be to end the war as Pan-American hero in the form
of generalissimo of all Pacific theatres.... He hates Roosevelt and
dislikes Winston's control of Roosevelt's strategy. He is not
basically anti-British, just pro-MacArthur.
Counter to the US
grand strategy of
Germany first, MacArthur's public
pressure campaign to improve Washington's logistical support for
the Pacific War was somewhat successful and, combined with the
influence of his sometime rival Admiral
Ernest King, was largely responsible for the
increased diversion of resources to the Pacific by 1943.
Honors
Legacy
Quotes
MacArthur is credited with many quotable phrases including:
- "In war, there is no substitute for victory."
- "The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he
must suffer and bear the deepest wounds and scars of war."
Places named after MacArthur
MacArthur was enormously popular with the American public, even
after his defeat in the Philippines, and across the United States
streets, public works, children and even a dance step were named
after him.
Awards named after MacArthur
Several actors have portrayed MacArthur on screen.
Dayton Lummis played him in the 1955 picture
The
Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell.
Gregory Peck followed suit in a 1977 film
MacArthur.
See also
Notes
- MacArthur had no middle name, though some Internet sources
variously ascribe him a middle initial of "A", "B", "C", "D", "M",
or "S". An archivist at the MacArthur Memorial asserts that
MacArthur did wear a monogrammed handkerchief with a middle initial
of "A", possibly chosen to indicate his father.
- Douglas MacArthur - A highly decorated US soldier
of WW2
- Home of Heroes. Medal of Honor. Douglas MacArthur Medal of Honor Citation
- West Point
- Clayton, James D., :The Years of MacArthur: Volume 1 1880 -
1970, P.271
- Manchester, p. 178
- Washington Post article review of book George
Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in War and Peace By Mark
Perry retrieved on March 22, 2008
- Halberstam, David. The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean
War, ISBN 1401300529. p.372.
- Manchester, American Caesar. Postwar, he would deny
having orders to attack.
- Bartsch, December 9, 1941, p. 423
- Manchester, American Caesar; Blair, Silent
Victory.
- Bartsch, December 8, 1941, pp.121–125.
- — Geoffrey Perret's biography, Old Soldiers Never Die,
lays out the case for negligence on the part of mid-level
officers.
- Gaily, Harry A. The War in the Pacific: From Pearl Harbor
to Tokyo Bay 1995, Presido Press, Novato CA
- Medal of Honor Recipient - World War II
- It was nevertheless better trained and rated than the 32d.
- Battleship Missouri Memorial: "Missouri’s Captain Remembers the Surrender,"
oral history transcript excerpt.
- Gaijin Shogun: General Douglas MacArthur, Stepfather of
Postwar Japan. Sektor Company: 2000. ISBN 0-9678175-2-8.
- ,
- Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 2003, p. 109
- "http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0510-24.htm An Ethical
Blank Cheque: British and US mythology about the second world war
ignores our own crimes and legitimises Anglo-American war making-
the Guardian, May 10, 2005, by Richard Drayton
- According to one point of view, MacArthur suffered from
paranoia, self-destructive impulses, and political aspirations, and
he had visions of running against Truman in the 1952 elections.
Surrounding himself with sycophants and publicity spinners,
MacArthur effectively cut himself off from Washington and ignored
suggestions and even orders from superiors, as he felt that none
were superior to him. Weintraub asks: "Having long considered
himself a reigning sovereign rather than a mere field commander -
wasn't he also viceroy of Japan? - he gave little heed to
restrictions formulated a hemisphere away."
- Text and audio
- Franzwa & Ely, Leif Sverdrup, pp. 361-362
- Perret, pp. 581-583
- Perret, p. 583
- Perret, p. 581
- MacArthur's Sylvanus Thayer Award acceptance speech at
West Point, 1962
- Perret, p. 585
- The
MacArthur Memorial, Norfolk, VA
- Department of the Army, Headquarters: General Orders, No. 13. April 6, 1964.
- Costello, John The Pacific War Atlantic
Communications. 1981 p. 225 ISBN 0-89256-206-4
- Royal Military College of Canada
- photo here Websites accessed 28 December 2008.
References
External links
- The MacArthur Memorial — The MacArthur Memorial
at Norfolk,
Virginia

- The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
- D. M. Horner, 'MacArthur, Douglas (1880 - 1964)', Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Volume 15, Melbourne University Press, 2000,
pp 150–152.
- MacArthur
Museum Brisbane — The MacArthur Museum at Brisbane
, Queensland
, Australia
- Obituary, NY Times, April 6, 1964 Commander of
Armies That Turned Back Japan Led a Brigade in World War
I
- Papers of Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
- MacArthur At Home in the Philippines — Excerpted from
the Book "The Manila Hotel" by Beth Day Romulo Manila
, Philippines
- MacArthur — a site about MacArthur from
PBS.
- The Last Salute: Civil and Military Funeral,
1921–1969, CHAPTER XXIV, General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur,
State Funeral, 5–April 11, 1964 by B. C. Mossman and
M. W. Stark
- Streaming Audio & Downloadable MP3 of
MacArthur's Farewell Address to Congress
- WW2DB: Douglas MacArthur
- US National
Archive Video of the Pacific Surrender VIEW
ONLINE
- Retrieved on 2008-07-25