Published: 1 March 2009
Air & Space Power Journal - Spring 2009

MacArthur by Richard B. Frank. Palgrave Macmillan (http://www.palgrave-usa.com), 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010, 2007, 224 pages, $21.95 (hardcover).

Douglas MacArthur has been one of the more iconic and controversial figures in American military history. In this biography, Richard Frank gives a commendably balanced account of this illustrious general.

MacArthur was born with brains, looks, breeding, a remarkable constitution that kept him strong of body and mind for eight decades, and a belief in his own destiny. From his father, Arthur MacArthur, a Civil War hero who rose to three-star rank, he also inherited a paranoia that made him suspicious of superiors—military and civilian—who he believed envied his abilities and tried to thwart his advancement.

Graduating first in the West Point class of 1903, MacArthur also served as first captain—a rare achievement. In World War I he was an outstanding combat leader with remarkable courage, winning two Distinguished Service Crosses, seven Silver Stars, and a recommendation for the Medal of Honor. (“Jealous enemies” at headquarters denied him this last award.) Following the war, he became superintendent of West Point, where he initiated much-needed reforms that attempted to drag the academy into the twentieth century. In 1930 he was elevated to four-star rank and named Army chief of staff. During his tenure, he advocated airpower and education.

Although leaving his post as chief in 1934, Mac­Arthur remained on active duty as a major general to serve as the military adviser to the Philippine government. Handsomely paid for this additional post, he also carried the somewhat embarrassing rank of field marshal in the Philippine army. When war broke out, he was named commander of US forces in the Philippines as a full general. In this position, he suffered his first and most crushing military defeat. When the Japanese attacked the islands the day following their raid on Pearl Harbor, MacArthur and his forces found themselves ill prepared. Belatedly, he ordered a retreat into the Bataan Peninsula and then to the island fortress of Corregidor. Although this slowed down the Japanese advance, the result was inevitable. Before Corregidor fell, Pres. Franklin Roosevelt personally ordered him to escape to Australia. For the next three years, MacArthur pushed back the Japanese and liberated the Philippines. His “island hopping” campaign was hailed as strategic genius because it covered a great deal of territory in a short time with a generally low casualty toll.

In August 1945, as supreme commander allied powers, MacArthur took the Japanese surrender on board the battleship USS Missouri. Frank considers the next five years, when MacArthur ruled as virtual proconsul of Japan, his finest hour. Displaying tact, sensitivity, broad-mindedness, and vision, he prevented starvation and thus won over Emperor Hirohito and his people, imposed a democratic constitution on Japan, insisted on equal rights for women, reformed the educational system, improved the Japanese medical system, and made strides in restarting the economy that had been virtually destroyed by air attacks during the war.

In 1950 he still held his office in Tokyo when the North Koreans invaded across the 38th parallel. With South Korean and American ground forces initially heavily outnumbered and thrown back to the southern tip of the Korean Peninsula, MacArthur then conceived and pushed through—over the initial objections of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—the Inchon amphibious attack far behind enemy lines. Inchon was the most brilliant military stroke of the general’s already long and distinguished career. The shattered North Korean army never again posed a threat.

Then the Chinese communists intervened with unexpected mass attacks, again sending MacArthur’s forces hurtling south. At this point, the general began to lose his legendary poise, warning of the annihilation of his forces and the need for evacuation, while simultaneously calling for an expanded war that would take the fight to China itself. His momentary panic, as well as his tendency to speak of his disagreements with Washington too openly and to interpret his orders too liberally, finally resulted in Pres. Harry Truman’s relieving him from command in April 1951.

Clearly, Douglas MacArthur was a man of enormous talent and capabilities, but controversy surrounded him because of other, less desirable, traits. His paranoia has already been mentioned, but in addition, he had a massive ego that often clouded his ability to admit mistakes or share the limelight. He was prone to rely on cronies—some sycophants—who told him what he wanted to hear. He also had a tendency to ignore directives from Washington. As Frank points out, this trait began early in his career and grew as the years passed. In truth, it is not totally accurate to call MacArthur “insubordinate” simply because his superiors had tolerated for decades what MacArthur characterized as merely a liberal interpretation of their basic orders. Moreover, his continued success made it difficult for Washington to clamp down on him after the fact. After Inchon, he became virtually unassailable—until Truman decided that enough was enough.

Frank makes an important contribution by highlighting and illustrating the one characteristic that made MacArthur so successful for so long: his adaptability. Despite critics who decry his conservatism, MacArthur was in fact remarkably open to new ideas, regardless of their source. He saw the increasing importance of airpower between the world wars, and he quickly changed strategies for the defense of the Philippines in late 1941—although it was too little, too late. He did not originate the idea of island hopping, but he did have the power—and courage—to implement it. MacArthur grew increasingly enthusiastic regarding the role of airpower, predicating his entire Southwest Pacific strategy specifically on the need for air bases. Only at the end in Korea, when he proved unable to adapt to the exigencies of limited war, did his famed flexibility desert him.

Overall, MacArthur is an excellent study—one that would serve as a fine leadership text for any staff or war college. The sources are mostly secondary, but the interpretations and analyses are unusual.

Col Phillip S. Meilinger, USAF, Retired
West Chicago, Illinois

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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