Chickenboy
Posts: 24520
Joined: 6/29/2002 From: San Antonio, TX Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: herwin quote:
ORIGINAL: xj900uk MacArthur was not an idiot - his biographer said so. He was always being let down by 'lesser men'. And he could have held the PI in '42 if he'd received all of the reinforcements that he'd demanded from Washington (and, to be fair, they'd promised him without realising he'd asked for more than were present in the entire Pacific theatre) Actually though the blame as to why all the planes were on Clarke AF runway bombed up and ready to go but no CAP and nobody actually going anywhere on Dec 8th has never been put to rest. I shall have to look up the precise details of what was supposed to have happened and then post them here, although even the details are disputed. He wasn't an idiot. He did have some Greek god-sized character deficiencies, but stupidity wasn't one of them. Apparently he wasn't so great at choosing commanders and staff, but American performance was patchy in all parts of the world--lots of commanders in over their heads. In his case, he had a famous aviator commanding his air assets (Lewis Brereton) who was not on top of events. Ah, I see. So it's back to the fault of his underlings, is it? Well then, whose fault was it that Mac bailed out of Bataan and left Wainwright holding the (emaciated) bag? No, wait...lemmee guess-he only did that on orders from Washington. He had no personal interest in evacuating his family or his own being from the theater, but really was hoping to die with his men? Please. Macarthur wasn't an idiot per se, but was self-serving in all respects and frequently did a poor job at generalship. His imperious attitude served us poorly in SW Pac and in relations with our commonwealth allies, upon whom so much hinged in the early going. Later in his career, his delusions of grandeur and outright insubordination nearly led to use of nuclear weapons against China in Korea and eventually required his dismissal. Mercifully, his imperial and god-sized ego served him well as Governor of Japan post-war. It's strange, but most Japanese remember Macarthur with fondness as a governor... His attacks up P/NG and outmanuevering of the Japanese bastions were laudable goals and performed well enough, but on balance, he's totally overrated. No, not an idiot, but very very deeply flawed and occasionally incompetent.
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