MacArthur at War: World War II in the Pacific by Mr. Walter Borneman

[Applause] thank you Tom very much my pleasure to be here I did not have the pleasure of knowing doctor cleaver but I daresay from what I've learned of him that he would have been just as home with me hiking the mountains of Colorado as as I would have been here going through the Alleghenies with him or or touring battlefields so I appreciate the invitation the topic is indeed MacArthur at war and it is the four years of MacArthur during World War 2 1941 to 1945 and I think we'll find tonight that it's about his positive evolution as a commander we're certainly going to look at some of the warts I've tried to do a warts-and-all study of him during during those four years but I think that in the process of looking at those four years we really find that he evolved as a commander he evolved as a leader and I think that's that's much to his credit we're also going to talk about some of the myths of MacArthur and kind of put some of those to rest now it's obvious that there is no middle ground with Douglas MacArthur and I have to tell you that even I've been surprised having lived with the ghosts of this man for about three and four years that as I've traveled around the country and talk to people heard questions taken sometimes phone calls from either people who are absolutely sure that that how could I possibly say this about this great American hero on the other hand I've taken phone calls who think I've been way too easy on him so it's 75 years since World War two it's 50 years almost more since MacArthur died and the polarization that exists in this country is still pretty fascinating to me so we're going to try to to look at some of that this evening you know what I think central theme about what I've written about is how does Douglas MacArthur go from being relatively unknown it's true he's been army chief of staff but how does he go from being relatively unknown on December 7th 1941 to really just six months later being this great American hero we'll talk about that a little bit now indeed there is no middle ground with MacArthur people either revere him or they despise him the adjectives used to describe him whether by his admirers or his detractors were never bland and I think they remain superlatives of either adulation or disdain and in many respects I think they're really emblematic of the contradictions of his career now you know having said all that it may seem a mission impossible to do what I've tried to do and present this balanced view look at the good in Douglas MacArthur and look at some of his more frustrating characteristics well let's start with a thumbnail history get us all on the same page well is my clicker working so so much for the same page mr. IT guy back there can you help me all right is that going to work the next time who knows ha ha ha oh we have a couple of minutes on Doug so it's alright alright that's fit that that's fair enough these things always work so well during rehearsal right 60-second biography of MacArthur to get us on the same page I think first and foremost the thing to remember about Douglas MacArthur is he's very much a 19th century man ok he's anchored in the 19th century his father leads a great Civil War charge of Missionary Ridge in 1863 the siege of Chattanooga Douglass graduates goes on to West Point graduates in the class of 1903 first in his class of course he goes on and serves a couple of tours in the Philippines he's chief of staff and then a regimental commander during that with during World War one with the famed rainbow division in the trenches of France no one say whatever you want to say about MacArthur and some of the things that happen later no one questions MacArthur's bravery under fire he leads from the front during World War one he goes on to become superintendent of West Point after the war does another tour in the Philippines here's something you may not know 1928 Amsterdam Olympics MacArthur is the president of the Olympic Committee that goes to Amsterdam and what does he tell the American team Americans did not come here to lose and Americans in the 28 Summer Games do in fact go home with the most amount of of metals well he goes to the Philippines again after that at the young age of 50 in 1930 he is appointed chief of staff of the army by Herbert Hoover airplanes the quarry keeps kind of on record is saying airplanes yeah you know they're kind of a but I don't know that we need a lot of them then he learns to the Navy has got bombers okay well if the Navy's going to have bombers maybe the army needs some bombers to Roosevelt keeps him on as a fifth year as chief of staff quite frankly I think he keeps them on so that he can provide a little bit of political cover on the right during the budgetary conferences on with Congress in terms of Roosevelt slowly but surely even in the depths of the depression starting to ratchet up American defense spending and looking ahead to the looming crisis becomes becomes more and more looming as the 30s go by in Europe then of course he goes to the Philippines he's appointed Philippine Field Marshal kind of a hollow position but he's charged with coming up with a defense force to defend the islands and at that point yeah here's a trivia question who's his chief of staff and you know the story is later on when Eisenhower goes to as a four-star general to Great Britain supposedly the story is a very prim and proper British matron came up to him and said General Eisenhower General Eisenhower do you happen to know General MacArthur well supposedly Ike pumped up a little bit and said know him madam I studied dramatics under him for four years in the Philippines how true that story it's just that's one of those things that makes a good story and what happens then is that Roosevelt recalls him to active duty in the summer of 1941 the US and their allies have gone ahead and imposed an embargo on steel and oil to Japan and Roosevelt recalls MacArthur to active duty as the commander of all American forces in the Far East well let's do next slide please let's do a little quick geography and those in the back don't be too concerned about looking at the the names on the map look at those big lines I go around the country and people say oh yeah McArthur he was in command of the entire Pacific not true look at the map a moment I assume my pointer may not work either I think it just did look at those lines and the lines are basically the theater commands in the Pacific and MacArthur's Command is really Australia and that line that surrounds it the 160th meridian of longitude and it was originally the hundred and sixtieth meridian and then a something called Guadalcanal came up and so that there wouldn't be a conflict of command the line dividing line between the South Pacific on the right or the east and the South West Pacific Australia in that area on the west was actually moved one degree of longitude approximately uttered approximately sixty five or six miles at that longitude west so that Guadalcanal could in fact be in the South Pacific area that South Pacific area was eventually under the command of Bill Halsey initially an admiral by the name of Robert Gormley commands it Nimitz who's in charge of everything else on that map in terms of the pacific ocean areas goes down to New Caledonia and finds a pretty defeatist attitude so he replaces Gormley with Bill Halsey this is the fall of 1942 and all along what macarthur has been in command of of that southwest Pacific area well let's have the next slide please and go in with a little bit more detail let's talk about what happens in terms of what I would characterize as MacArthur's three defeats and then three victories and you know again history shorthand sometimes it makes me pull out my hair just just a tiny bit but history shorthand with the first two feet is MacArthur and Clark Field it's the morning of December 8th in the Philippines Hawaii time it's still December 7th and the phone rings by the bedside and you know a lot of people write macarthur answered the phone according to Jean MacArthur's oral history jean answered the phone may sound like a small point but I try to get those details right Jean answer the phone and pass the phone to the general well in the course of that day December 8th of 19 1941 there are Japanese bombers and attacks that come into Luzon mostly from Formosa up there at the top of the screen and history shorthand that sometimes infuriates me is Oba Carr Thur got caught with his planes on the ground at Clarke field it's really a little bit more complicated story than that there's a very big fog that blows in over Formosa it grounds a lot of planes the first few squadrons take off and hit northern Luzon an area called Biagio and some other outposts there so folks really think oh that's the extent of the attack there's a young lieutenant colonel who's actually flushed to b-17 bombers put them in in the air they land to refuel the fighters come back down to refuel and then the main Japanese assault that's been held on Formosa for a period of three to four hours that's when they strike so it's a little bit more complicated a story but I think in terms of cataloguing MacArthur's defeats you certainly have to put the surprised and how he reacted in the first few hours after Clark Field on on the list the second macarthur defeat is really what happens next in terms of the can macarthur had the plan that he could defend with the philippine defense forces that he was in the process of organizing and training he had the plan that he could defend the entire archipelago everywhere throughout the philippines no matter where the Japanese might land well that was really counter to really twenty years of war plans and gaming that had gone on under plan Orange where the US was only going to defend the area around Manila Corregidor molest Manila Bay and really try to hold out you know they all saw about fighting the last war well this is of course really what happened with Admiral Dewey and spanish-american war and everything and I think that there was a lot of mentality with Plan Orange that okay we're going to go ahead and sale a relief force we're going to cross the Pacific never mind by the way that the Japanese are in control of the Caroline's and Marianas in route in between Hawaii and the Philippines but that was the plan MacArthur in the fall of 1941 really convinced the War Department that he could defend the entire archipelago later we're going to talk a little bit about the fact that MacArthur was always sure that George Marshall and everyone in Washington were out to get him here's an example in the fall of 1941 that MacArthur says he could defend the Philippines all of them Marshall says fine that's great go ahead and do it and actually is in the process of putting more and more materials into the Philippines okay god ask you a question is there anyone here who hasn't seen tora tora tora about 850 times okay the be the b-17s that come in and hawaii and and land on the golf course those b-17s are supposed to go and route to the philippines and reinforce MacArthur's Air Force MacArthur's got 35 there's 12 more on the way the point is is that a lot was being done at Marshall's excuse me at MacArthur's saying that he could defend the entire islands in terms of getting men and materiel into the Philippines so the second defeat for which I think MacArthur really has to bear the brunt of the blame is the fact that in terms of trying to defend all the Philippines all these supplies of material during a fall of 41 are scattered all over the islands he's absolutely blindsided by the speed with which the bring war to bear on the islands he's anticipated war he's whole Tommy Hart the Admiral and command of the u.s. AG attic feet yeah I think that war is coming but it's going to come in the spring again a little bit of 19th century MacArthur operating on his timeframe okay war in the spring but it comes very very quickly and within two to three weeks that the Japanese have landed all over the archipelago and basically MacArthur is saying what are we going to do well now he decides to retreat to the can and in terms of retreating to the can where are all his supplies they're scattered all over the islands so he makes a belated effort to get men and materiel in to and supplies particularly into the can and by that time the Japanese control the air they're bombing truck convoys they're strafing trains there's no way he can get folks with enough supplies to be able to mount the defense on to tan Carol Kay Johnson whose names somewhere in this building who was u.s. army chief of staff was been a young lieutenant on Bataan and he said basically you know it was it was a problem with this plan to defend the beaches everywhere but what really really did us in on the can is that we starved to death we just didn't have the supplies and we weren't able to hold out that defeat on the tan and MacArthur failing to react to the speed of the Japanese attack I think is something that that MacArthur really really needs to bear responsibility for the third defeat and then we're going to talk about victories the third defeat go down to the island of New Guinea and look at Port Moresby you don't usually hear about this but I say that MacArthur's third defeat is his failure to take buna in the summer of 1942 the Japanese are east of there at Guadalcanal we're going to read a lot about buna the could go to Kokoda trail he's going to tell Bob Eichelberger at some point take buna Bob or don't come back alive that's the fall of 1942 buna and that area on the northern coast of New Guinea was undefended in the summer of 1942 now MacArthur was stretched thin there's no doubt about that and MacArthur didn't react very very well to Milne Bay which is just to the east of Port Moresby he reinforced milt film Bay and basically that was the first time that a Japanese landing and invasion had been repulsed this is October excuse me this is August and September of 1942 but my point about buna and this is something that's still going on in terms of only company level or battalion level strength okay five hundred to a thousand men so it's not a huge campaign if he'd been able to put a few companies or reinforced battalion on to buna in the summer of 1942 this whole next evolution of the Kokoda trail and that part of the New Guinea campaign I suggest you wouldn't have occurred and basically would have given MacArthur and all of the effort in in the southwest Pacific really kind of a six months headstart because having failed to hold buna the Japanese landed buna they advanced across the Kokoda trail and they come within really spitting different distance if you will of taking Port Moresby well those are three defeats let me catalog three victories for it because I think what happens and this is the operative word combined operations there's no question that MacArthur is sort of blindsided being a 19th century army guy used to fixed lines and fortifications he's really blindsided by the speed with which the Japanese assault against him and it's also question of combined operations the whole point of the southwest Pacific with its tuff mountains on New Guinea its expanses of see if many many different islands as MacArthur learned that when he could decided he really couldn't defend the entire Philippine archipelago it's really a matter of geography that requires that you put land air and sea together and by 1943 he's beginning to do that by 1944 he's become a master of doing that now I hesitate to call him the father of combined operations but pretty close okay pretty close the three things that he does right relying on combined operations are in March in 1944 he moves north from New Guinea and invades the Admiralty islands it sort of completes the encirclement over over ball the second thing is that he makes this grand leap across the north coast of New Guinea to Hollandia is he pure genius or does he have help the answer is that he has helped from ultra he's reading Japanese codes and it's helping him know where the concentrations of troops are so he's able to leap over a number of troops that we walk and go on and make this surprise landing at Hollandia and of course I think the the third issue in terms of MacArthur's victories certainly have to be his return to the Philippines great operations at Leyte and of course later in January of 1945 the operations against his on so I simply suggest that part of that is I think this great outpouring of America's industrial strength is its marshaling of troops it's working quite frankly in 1942 with a lot of Australian troops and allies but by 1944 and sometimes I like to say that the 1943 is kind of a year of preparation well there's some regard doing things in New Guinea during that year of preparation but 1944 is really the year then that combined operations all come together and he starts to do some major things let's go ahead and chain slides please so I hesitate to call these guys the Four Horsemen of the southwest Pacific but they really are there at least the Four Horsemen of combined operations there's Dan Barbie who is in charge of amphibious operations he was known as Uncle Dan the amphibious man and the amazing thing about Barbie of course is that when he first does a couple invasions first initial invasions for MacArthur he's got like about 12 landing craft and a couple of destroyers okay two years later going into lady he's got a fleet of 600 ships and thousands of landing craft so that shows this tremendous outpouring of of America's industrial strength of course we have MacArthur we have George Kenny George Kenny who was his air boss he finds him in August of 1942 recruits him and I think it's really Kenny who says to MacArthur you need to control the air you can't do anything if you don't have control of the air George Kenny to his credit egotistical George Kenny was one of the very very few people who thought nothing of going up to MacArthur's suite in the hotel and Brisbane knocking on the door at all hours and gene would open it and say Oh George come in the general will be glad to see you okay that's the kind you we talk about relationships that MacArthur had and sometimes it wasn't very positive but if you delivered nothing sold yourself to MacArthur as well as success and George Kenny certainly from the Battle of the Bismark sea in March of 43 onward had success and of course then Walter Kreuger we told the story of Bob Eichelberger his other initial corps commander and take Bruna Bob well Walter Kreuger came on and lid Alamo force against the Admiralty's and later is going to command 6th army in the return to the Philippines while ichael Eichelberger ends up with with 8th army also going into the Philippines so that's a little bit in terms of combined operations and MacArthur's evolution as a commander you know we talked about the use of ultra we talked about airpower we talked about combined operations let me mention just a little bit in terms of his evolution as a leader it's a little bit more subjective because I don't use commander and leader in the same breath I think that leader has a lot more subjective qualities to it we talked about the fact that he's certainly a brave man he proved that in the trenches of World War 1 but he only visits the can once why I think it's because deep down he really knew that he made a mistake and he simply couldn't face the starving troops who were there and of course what that gave rise to is all kinds of parodies and songs and and everything else you've heard the lines to the Battle Hymn of the Republic dugout Doug MacArthur liza shaken on the rock safe from all the bombers and from all the sudden shock dugout Doug is eating of the best food on the tan and his troops go starving on well it wasn't really quite that way that's somewhat inaccurate MacArthur routinely stood impassively out in the field was hands in his back pocket he ate the same food as the troops he lost 25 pounds from his already lean frame but that didn't matter to the troops on began and all of the things that MacArthur does after the fall of 1943 all of the landings all of the going the shore with the true oops I really think is him trying to get rid of that dugout Doug image now how does MacArthur go from being relatively unknown to this great American hero let me just read you a couple of quotes here's a quick sampling of the press he received early in 1942 well let's change the slide here Washington Post like a January 1942 quoting a senator from Utah quote never has a commander of his troops met such a situation with greater or cooler courage never with more resourcefulness of brilliant action philadelphia record almost the same date he is one of the greatest fighting generals of this or any other war this is the kind of history which your children will tell your grandchildren and the Baltimore Sun he is something in the nature of a military genius with the capacity of foresee contingents and make the best use of resources at his disposition you know at some level that all of that kind of defies common sense within a period of a few short months he's gone from being the commander of troops who have been caught with their planes on the ground hasty withdrawal to a dead end Peninsula inadequately stocked for a prolonged siege to the largest surrender on Bataan in American history and yet suddenly he's become this great esteemed hero how is that this photo is MacArthur arriving in Brisbane after Roosevelt has ordered him off of Corregidor and he's done the PT boat ride the Australian press said wow he really looks like he's here ready for business by the way that man standing to the right in the photograph to Carthoris left George Brett commander of forces if he doesn't look too happy it's because MacArthur's not too happy with him and he kind of gave him the cold shoulder because he thought Brett should have been doing mortar to reinforce Corregidor and really the tan which almost a mission impossible getting given the situation well I think there's three reasons that help explain how MacArthur goes from from this relatively unknown to this Great America merican hero in a span of six months time the first is that MacArthur staff really tightly controlled and managed his public relations early on a lot of his press releases are in the singular I I did this they're sort of there's a parody that I've written about in the book about one of the radio stations saying in the news tonight from the southwest Pacific is MacArthur MacArthur MacArthur and oh thanks for joining us tonight where the news has been MacArthur MacArthur okay that's early in the war too MacArthur's credit he really does start to use the plural we and by the time he's done through the war he really is almost putting too many commanders into his communique and giving credit to everyone not only Americans but also Australians as well well the point of him controlling his own press of course there's some humorous dockerills that were written at that time one of them I give to you it says and possibly a rumor now someday it will be fact but the Lord will hear a deep voice say move over God it's Mac so bet your shoes that all the news that this great Judgment Day will go to press in nothing less than Doug's communique so he really did manage his own press the second reason I think for his rapid rise to hero status is in the spring of 1942 the Philippines are really the only place that a lot of action that the American public knows about is being reported on thanks mostly to MacArthur's communicates by the way but you know the Navy of course there's the Doolittle Raid the Navy's fighting German u-boats in the North Atlantic Admiral King is the absolute polar opposite of MacArthur okay don't say a word about where my ships are don't come interview me I'm not going to give give interviews so the American public really only has MacArthur's progress bad as it was on the can is withdrawal to the Philippines to really read about and of course his arrival here I think I said Brisbane this is actually a Melbourne but his his arrival in Australia is heralded is this great thing that when he says I shall return the world believes it it's it's great propaganda and it's a great thing to really rally not only Australians but also Americans and I think the third reason that he becomes this great hero is America desperately needs a hero we're shocked by Pearl Harbor we don't know what lies ahead in Europe we don't know what lies ahead whether Australia is going to fall or what and MacArthur by way of saying I shall return by being this great hero even if a lot of that material was provided by his own press releases that he himself along with his press corps wrote I think he became the hero that the American public in their psyche in that can you esprit I'm 1942 desperately needed so three things control your own press be the only game in town fill in the need for a hero those may still be important public relations words today well let's examine and we can change the slide let's examine a few of the myths of MacArthur we won't spend too much time on this this is with with Tom Kincaid we've already talked about the fact that Mark MacArthur has a good team put together again just because we have a myth of MacArthur as this kind of solitary figure puffing on a corncob pipe and dreaming up great things to his credit even though I don't think that myth is true to his credit he was a great organizer of bringing men like Kenny and Kincaid together and using their talents and knowing when to delegate and when to follow up and certainly to Barbie and King cade and later on Krugerrand Eichelberger that is a meanie wasn't always involved with them or maybe nudging them but he gave them room as commanders to go ahead and execute things the other thing about McArthur as sort of a strategist that I think is very very important to keep in mind most of the war plans that happen in the Europe and Pacific Theater are not at the field level generated they're being orchestrated and put together articulated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but really put together by a wide-ranging teamwork in Washington at the Joint Chiefs and and war plans level so MacArthur just because he's not dreaming up well I think I'll go into lady now he's really executing plans that come out of the Joint Chiefs to his credit he is someone who at that level in World War two is a very good soldier he's following orders he's implementing the decisions that are coming out of the Joint Chiefs and unlike later on in in Korea and things he is being a good soldier and he's carrying out his orders another photo another myth let's talk this is Dan Barbie and MacArthur let's talk a little bit about island-hopping there's this myth that MacArthur was the guy who came up with the concept of island hopping well-liked was so and basically what that means is that we're passing over strongholds now I could argue that maybe the Japanese even did island hopping of their own when they passed over MacArthur and 80,000 troops in the town and went on South to Mindanao and the rest of the East Indies so the island hopping campaigns in the South Pacific Kincaid does it in the Aleutians in 1943 Halsey employs that in in the Solomons MacArthur again to his credit employees it very well by leaping to the Admiralty's by leaping over to Qalandia but he's certainly not the father of island hobby okay um next slide we'll talk about John Jarvis Tolson in a second but the myth is that MacArthur incurred fewer casualties than any other battlefield commander it was a myth stoked by his communique saying what he had done with the fewest possible number of casualties in his own theater while criticizing what Nimitz and others were doing in their own theaters that just doesn't hold water there were approximately a hundred thousand battlefield casualties among Army Navy and Air in the Pacific in World War two out of that number forty thousand because as Americans only we're talking about out of that number forty thousand were boots on the ground in MacArthur's theater so his casualty rates when he finally takes buna at the end of 1942 when he goes into Leyte in particular are every bit as grim as Nimitz's casualty rates at terror law and the Gilberts for example or later on on on Okinawa and iwo jima so he's not accomplishing more with less that said and we talked about the take buna Bob and also on Luzon after he goes back to Luzon in January of 1945 he's pushing Kruger and basically saying you know what your casualty rates are low push on push on well I want to get to Manila and at that point MacArthur being MacArthur actually establishes his South West Pacific commander headquarters out in front of Krueger's headquarters for 4/6 army so you know a little bit of psychological warfare saying Kruger come on let's move along well Kruger to his credit doesn't take the bait he's can learn about a counter-attack on it on its on its left flank but the point of the point of that is is that McArthur could go to his commanders from time to time and make it seem like he didn't value lives I show you this picture from September of 1943 it's John Jarvis Tolton a lieutenant commander who's about to parachute with a 503rd Parachute Regiment on the nads AB and and made kind of an end run around lay in New Guinea okay look at the look at the look on MacArthur's face we mentioned at dinner my friend Jim Sobel the archivist at MacArthur Library in Norfolk he's done a great book on on photographs and I encourage you to look at that book or look at any photograph of MacArthur with troops and look at the look on MacArthur's face he really cares about the men he's sending in the battle I think he has a great deal of empathy for them now it's true on some of his Beach walks when he shows up in his press khakis and his khaki gloves and and talks to Australian troops who haven't had a meal in a week and a shower in three and says good afternoon gentlemen maybe there's a disconnect there that's just MacArthur and MacArthur's personality but I suggest you that he really did care about the troops under his command next slide please this is the one that drives me crazy about MacArthur the most this is Walter Kreuger on the right George Marshall US army chief of staff here's what MacArthur said it is memoirs no one will ever know how much could have been done to aid the Philippines if there had been a determined will to win well as we already talked about there was a determined will to win and from the pre Philippine campaigns to the final campaigns in Borneo MacArthur received considerably more material than he ever acknowledged at one point in fact in 1944 George Marshall in this is January of 44 George Marshall sends him a telegram and says MacArthur you've got ships that haven't been unloaded 80 ships in Mill Bay you're backing up the entire Pacific lines of supply please get these ships unloaded get them back in the pipeline and use these troops so here's my my story about that it's 1943 the Cairo Turan conferences George Marshall is in Cairo with the Joint Chiefs and Roosevelt and Churchill he could have returned to Washington westward okay instead he chose to take the long way home and go east so he could visit palsy in the South Pacific and MacArthur in the southwest Pacific he's flying out of Cairo dusty Rhodes is at the controls of a c-54 the the planes copilot is just sicker than a dog on the floor the guy in the copilot seat is MacArthur's chief of staff dick Sutherland and the planes flying across Pakistan again to an area gets a little cloudy suddenly there's Peaks towering on on either side Lightning flashing you know Rhodes decides you better check his map oh the maps in French yell the elevations are in meters okay pull back on the yoke a little bit do a 180 and get out of there well I tell you that story imagine if Sutherland MacArthur's chief of staff particularly if George Marshall and Wedemeyer who's going to command in China Burma India we're all on that plane imagine if if that plane had gone down Marshall takes a risk not only in terms of distance but he's going to fly across Japanese controlled territory in order to land in in Australia and meet with MacArthur people who want to kind of build up the Marshall MacArthur rift will say well MacArthur wasn't even there to meet him MacArthur was on good or no Island which is exactly in this photograph where Marshall went and I don't want to use the word tracked him down because that seems to add to that myth but Marshall was delighted to go to goodno Island and meet with him he got a lot better idea what was going on on the front lines and if MacArthur had flown back to Brisbane and met him at the Lennon hotel there so MacArthur afterwards would always say I'm going to read you a couple of quotes in a minute but they were planning the Admiralty's invasion at that point in fact at that very moment they were going into the operations on Cape Glouster and the western side of New Britain so MacArthur and all of his Four Horsemen if you were will had a lot going on and Mako Marshall was all too glad to go to the front and visit MacArthur there so MacArthur in perpetuating this storyline about having been abandoned by Washington just let me read you what he wrote probably no commander in American history has been so poorly supported at times it looked as though it was intended that I should be defeated well you know the only thing more disingenuous than that was MacArthur's assertion that he had absolutely quote/unquote no contacts in the United States despite almost daily messages messages that I have read between Marshall and MacArthur and and the War Department there's a daily string of Correspondence MacArthur claimed quote his opinions are rarely sought and my advice on important matters given little consideration my isolation is complete ladies and gentlemen I tell you that it is simply not true and when you talk about the things that are is are infuriating in terms of Douglas MacArthur that inability to recognize fact and sort of be persecuted if you and go to great lengths far more than just the responsibility of a theater commander to lobby for more men in material he wasn't abandoned he wasn't had he didn't have resources withheld from him and I tell you the story of George Marshall going the long way home after Cairo and Turan as evidence of that next slide please last myth okay those of you I know we're here with the army but those of you who've read my book on the Admirals might say that I had a little bit to do with the myth of Army Navy Route rivalry maybe it was that one chapter that's entitled fighting the Japanese and MacArthur from the Navy point of view the Navy guys seem to think that was fine but I would suggest to you that at the level of Halsey and Nimitz and MacArthur there really was considerable support and work together I would suggest you that at the lower ranks there was considerable support and works together there are certain people on both sides and by those sides I mean Harvey and Pavey not American and Japanese who sort of had a burr under their saddle if you will Kinney and Sutherland anti Navy on MacArthur's side come to mind and the chief of staff of Halsey make may come to mind on on the on the other side but I also think that at the Joint Chiefs level there was there was considerable support for MacArthur and I'm going to leave you with this myth by suggesting something you can chew on a little bit that I think one of MacArthur's greatest supporters even though he would never have admitted it was Admiral Ernest J King Admiral King is the overlooked strategist in my opinion of World War two someone who said we have to fight a to ocean war and we have to pour resources into the Pacific at least 30% of the overall for output and Nimitz when you're going out to Pearl Harbor in December of 1941 you've got three missions first to secure the Hawaiian Islands second secure the Australia to West Coast lines of communication and supply and support and three by March and April of 1940 to begin to think about how the best defense may in fact be a strong offense and where are we going to punch back and that punch of course came at Guadalcanal so let me just read you a paragraph about King and MacArthur both men were supreme egotists each certain his way was the right way both were avid readers of military history biography and strategy and took from that an exceptionally high opinion of their own military acumen both rubbed a good many subordinates the wrong way with a grading manner a practice sense of entitlement and strict expectations yet each also had his inner circle of devoted followers both were said to have a soft underside particularly toward their children but first and foremost both men or determined fighters had King not aggressively pushed for offensive operations and done his best to increase resources throughout the Pacific Theater MacArthur might have spent the war simply ensuring the Japanese did not invade Australia MacArthur was to push the limits of his own operational orders but King's aggressive stance gave him the cover to do so MacArthur would never have admitted that King was not thinking of aiding MacArthur when he crafted his strategy but it had that effect last quick story a couple of years ago somebody said aw McArthur at war we can go ahead and change the slide MacGyver at war I can't wait to hear your MacArthur story well unlike the Admirals where I did have a story for each of these men that sort of in a few 30-second herbes kind of encapsulated their personality and and got a chuckle at the end I really couldn't come up with that with MacArthur not after all this time because I think he's a really complex personality so let me tell you the story and it's not funny there's no punch line but I think it's something to ponder in terms of MacArthur it's the second day of the PT boat escape from the Philippines he's on an island hunkered down it's hot it's blazing hot he's 62 years old that's an old man for the time his wife and young four-year-old son are there he's not sure what's going to happen he's left 80,000 troops in patan he doesn't know what awaits him in Australia this is not the way he expected to leave the Philippines not going out like his father did with a charge of Missionary Ridge MacArthur is at low ebb and I think that for whatever criticism is heaped on MacArthur his credit critics would be well advised to ponder that particular moment Douglas MacArthur was being tested by fire and he emerged from it with his best qualities as well as his exasperating weaknesses accentuated so where then does thug of MacArthur stand 3/4 of a century from the four-year period of both his greatest defeats and triumphs MacArthur acknowledged an American commentator early in 1944 provided his countrymen with a badly needed Idol at a time when the military altar was almost bare of them and the American public continued to embrace him even as other heroes joined him on the altar Aston March of 1945 to name the greatest American general Army General of the war 43 percent chose MacArthur Eisenhower came in second at 31% was third to 17% MacArthur always carried with them an indomitable will to win it was ingrained in his genes it was his most laudable quality there is as he would say no substitute for victory a concept that indeed was much clearer in World War two then it would become just five short years later in Korea he fit the times perfectly this was the role of a lifetime and he played it brilliantly he was indeed MacArthur at war Thanks let's take some questions all right ladies and gentlemen we have a few moments for some questions we'll get started right here in front you have said that to MacArthur you mentioned MacArthur and Nimitz who were the two principal commanders in the Pacific and leadership how did they coordinate and did they effectively coordinate leadership together you studied both and written about both well leadership in the sense of planning operations and things and things you mean well both of them were actually receiving directives from from the Joint Chiefs so in terms of what was going to go on across the Central Pacific or across the South Pacific that was pretty well determined at a broad strategy by that by the joint 5 accurate Chiefs I think at some point then definitely nimitz met with MacArthur and as frequently was the case it certainly was the case with Halsey too once these two men actually got together sat down in the same room without all the pontificating and wandering about Oh what's he doing behind my back they actually got on quite well now by the one exception to that might be that by the spring of 1945 finally MacArthur gets what he what he's wanted he realizes that the Navy is never ever going to give him command of aircraft carrier or anything else but Roosevelt almost with his dying breath and Truman decide that they are going to go ahead and give MacArthur command of army troops and Sutherland flies to Guan Nimitz's headquarters and and says oh ok we're taking over and them it's very much to his credit stood his ground dug in and said no that's not what the Joint Chiefs meant they meant you will slowly transition when I finish the Okinawa campaign so there were there were moments of friction but I still say it at the broad level and that picture we showed him shaking hands was actually in Yokohama at the end they worked well together next question what if any distraction was there in the 1944 presidential election when there were some whiffs of rumor or whatever that MacArthur might be drafted and how did that affect his relationship with Roosevelt there were much more than whiffs okay I mean MacArthur said that all I'm not a candidate all the while he was saying okay let's send everybody back and go ahead and see what we can do it's really unprecedented in American history the only other time occurred when George McClellan ran against Lincoln in 1860 for the McClellan while he was on active duty wasn't in command of an army field so it's it's really amazing that MacArthur let that go on as long as it did and I can't quote you the votes that he got in the Wisconsin primary but he didn't do too well he ended up kind of with with egg on his face but the interesting thing to me about that which I do document in the book there are some letters I found where there's these veiled suggestions as far back as 1928 well if MacArthur does this or MacArthur does that he'll position himself to run for president at some point so I would just suggest you that MacArthur always wanted to be President that was always the plan you've seen the Gregory Peck movie MacArthur and that last scene where there's the Republican convention of 1952 hats and horns on and they cut away and talk about the great general and of course the name is Eisenhower and in the camera pans to MacArthur sitting there in his army a bathrobe but I am pretty well documented and convinced MacArthur always wanted to be President microphones coming behind you mr. fornum and I have two very important questions that I would like to ask number one what was his relationship to Admiral tube joint chief of staff or lay he and mr. MacArthur's relationship and this is another one in relationship was Bradley appointed to be a five-star rank simply as a mean to make him on the same ranking level when MacArthur got to Korea you know that or anything the Admiral Leahy question is then lady and the MacArthur's were very well acquainted because Leahy had gone to Annapolis I think a year behind Arthur MacArthur who was Douglass's older brother who died in 1923 and is long off the scene but the fact that MacArthur and Leahy have have known each other and the families have known each other I think it means that way he's one of those people that's not too particularly impressed with with MacArthur the second question is I think more a matter of going ahead and just giving giving Bradley the five stars which I would argue the Navy should have done on its side by giving five stars to Spruance yes I one of the when people were talking negative about MacArthur they often bring up Sutherland I would you comment a little bit on the relationship between those two and how they interacted sure your Sutherland was MacArthur's chief of staff he'd come out of a regiment in China this is when there was still American troops in China in the treaty ports in the 1930s MacArthur had recruited him to Manila he was his chief of staff after Eisenhower left and came back to the States for various assignments he's somebody a lot like George Kenny who MacArthur bonded with clicked with gave a tremendous amount of authority to and in the end I think that for a variety of reasons Sutherland particularly as he's flying around for example to the Turan Cairo conferences actually he didn't get the Turan only the big big three did that but and the Joint Chiefs but the Cairo conferences the fact that he is actually representing MacArthur on the world stage I think Sutherland at some point looked to people like Dwight Eisenhower who had four stars and was commanding in Europe and said wait a minute how is this I used to rank this guy how has this passed me by and I think that Sutherland sort of to quote Macbeth had a case of vaulting ambition and sort of forgot that whatever power he had he got that power from from Douglas MacArthur and the short story in the end is is that they really get crosswise over Southern's relationship with a woman not that McArthur approved directly but he had specifically said don't bring this woman to the front and Sutherland defied him not once not twice but three times and by the time they go into Japan in 1945 they're really kind of at odds although MacArthur recognizes he's got value and who's there standing next to him on the deck of the Missouri telling the Japanese where to sign it's Sutherland sir can you a comment on MacArthur's complicated relationship with general Wainwright it is complicated it is definitely complicated I think that MacArthur of course Wainwright is is left in command on Bataan and ands on when Roosevelt orders him MacArthur out and I think that it's complicated because MacArthur would have wanted I'm pretty sure to fight to the end and Wainwright is kind of in a tough position because as you know firm from your work it's really King General King who surrenders in the field first and long and the short of it and I'm glad to discuss with this with you longer but the long and the short of it is that MacArthur never forgives Wainwright he thinks Wainwright either should have prevented King from doing that should never have allowed what really is in fact somewhat of a garbled chain of command when all of the other islands begin to surrender and MacArthur as only MacArthur could be is the one who says Wainwright doesn't deserve a Medal of Honor for that I wonder if you could comment on Alan Brooks opinion of Douglas MacArthur in his post European war tour of the Pacific Theater and and of course Alan Brooks served for most of the war as chief of the Imperial General Staff of the British Army and was no mean strategist by his own right was very critical of Dwight Eisenhower and George Catlett Marshall in his in his diary as well as Winston Churchill but when the war was over he concluded that of all the generals who had major commands in the war in all armies Douglas MacArthur was the superior of them all would you comment well I'll be glad to to comment on that I don't know whether that was a dig at Monty or not I don't know I don't know Allen Allen Brooke all I will say is this Allen Brooke served on the on as part of the combined Chiefs of Staff and he knew very well where overall strategy and policy direction was formulated it wasn't formulated in the field at MacArthur's level so I'm not even sure that I used that quote I've seen it of course in Brookes Diaries but I'm not sure I really have used it in the book because I guess the short answer is that said I don't place a lot of stock by it like I say maybe it was a dig at Monty I don't know ladies and gentlemen we have time for one more question all right mr. barnman I have a question and this is what was definitely MacArthur's relationship to the legendary bull Halsey what was their working relationship and how did they get along it's I think Halsey and and McArthur got along fine again in terms of Army Navy rivalry maybe there's some some rough edges in the beginning but I guess I'd ask you the question why and the question why they got along is exactly what I said about a couple of other personalities like Kenny MacArthur respected Halsey as a fighter Halsey respected MacArthur as a fighter and they got things done now that didn't keep them from fighting over harbors or prerogatives here or there but Halsey was one of those people like Kenny who wasn't afraid to stand up to McArthur and tell him he was wrong

Channel: The USAHEC

Views: 29,868

Keywords: USAHEC, U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Walter Borneman, Douglas MacArthur

Id: JhVg5ao3P14

Length: 63min 9sec (3789 seconds)

Published: Thu May 11 2017