MacArthur: anything good to say about him?

ivanotter

While we are busy bashing some of the generals with great joy and gusto, let us look at MacArthur:

Anything good to say?

After having been housed by the Ausies after having been kicked off the Philipines, he basically told them that he did not want them in his army.

The money he received?

However, was he the best guv of Japan? did he read it correclty and do the right thing in terms of getting Japan back in the world?

THAT I am not sure about, but I have always read it as his biggest achievement.

Comments?


Ivan
 

phx1138

He managed to screw up just about everything else I can think of, but IMO, he was the single best choice as American Shogun postwar. Was he essential? No. Nor do I believe the myth he prevented trouble: Japanese saw Americans as demons, but in Japan, a demon is enormously powerful & hard to understand, but not necessarily malevolent, so when Japan surrendered & the U.S. took over, for the U.S. to be generous, even friendly, wasn't peculiar, nor was it odd for Japanese to be docile. (Does that say something about the fundamental contradictions in the Japanese psyche?:eek:)
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
A megalomaniac and reactionary warmonger. That he rose to the rank he did is a damned shame for both the United States and the soldiers serving under somebody so incompetently narcissistic.

The only "good" thing he did was helping everybody to realize that sunglasses can always make you look badass, even when smoking a ridiculously affected corncob pipe.
 

Dayton Kitchens

Banned
One of the finest generals the U.S. ever produced. For whatever reasons showed great economy during his push across the Pacific (didn't lose soldiers unnecessarily).
 

YLi

Douglas MacArthur is one of my favorite historical figures precisely because he managed to rise to a high rank despite possessing no military skills whatsoever. He did however, have bravado, charisma and Hunter S. Thompson levels of insanity. To be that crazy for so long, you have to be damn good at what you did.
 

Blair

Pardoning the Japanese Royal Family was a smart move, whether another occupation officer would have done the same is hard to determine.
 

Dayton Kitchens

Banned
Why the malice toward MacArthur?

Much seems to be made of his wanting to eliminate the Communist Chinese govt. and use nuclear weapons to do.

that was hardly an outrageous position at the time.

1) China had no nuclear weapons
2) The Soviets had no means of delivering their handful of nuclear weapons.

3) It made sense to use the most powerful weapons at the U.S. disposal in order to eliminate a despotic regime and save American lives.

4) Eisenhower helped end the Korean War in no small part because he threatened to unleash nuclear weapons on the Chinese. Why was Eisenhower considered a great president and MacArthur much maligned?

5) Looking back, elminating the Chinese communist regime would've SAVED TENS OF MILLIONS of lives over the next few decades. In China and Korea. And probably have hastened the end of the Cold War by decades.

All in all, MacArthur has little to be ashamed of.
 

M79

MacArthur was not the man we should have had in charge of the Pacific. He had the military skill of Voroshilov, the political grace of Patton, the humility of Montgomery, and the ambition of a Heydrich. The man was a politician, pure and simple, and I'm not sure that an operation in the Phillipines was even necessary at that point in the war once the Allies had control of Saipan. His decision to spare the Imperial family was wise but also prudent as it made their transition to democracy and post-war rebuilding easier. Outside of that I can not think of many positive qualities for the man.
 

Garrison

Donor
Dayton Kitchens said:
Why the malice toward MacArthur?

Much seems to be made of his wanting to eliminate the Communist Chinese govt. and use nuclear weapons to do.

that was hardly an outrageous position at the time.

1) China had no nuclear weapons
2) The Soviets had no means of delivering their handful of nuclear weapons.

3) It made sense to use the most powerful weapons at the U.S. disposal in order to eliminate a despotic regime and save American lives.

4) Eisenhower helped end the Korean War in no small part because he threatened to unleash nuclear weapons on the Chinese. Why was Eisenhower considered a great president and MacArthur much maligned?

5) Looking back, elminating the Chinese communist regime would've SAVED TENS OF MILLIONS of lives over the next few decades. In China and Korea. And probably have hastened the end of the Cold War by decades.

All in all, MacArthur has little to be ashamed of.
Click to expand...

It was MacArthur's ineptitude that helped draw the Chinese into the war and made sure the UN forces were completely unprepared. He also felt he was entitled to ignore orders from his Commnader in Chief and go running to the media. He did well in Japan because being a warlord suited him down to the ground.
 

Rex Mundi

Banned
Dayton Kitchens said:
Why the malice toward MacArthur?

Much seems to be made of his wanting to eliminate the Communist Chinese govt. and use nuclear weapons to do.

that was hardly an outrageous position at the time.

1) China had no nuclear weapons
2) The Soviets had no means of delivering their handful of nuclear weapons.

3) It made sense to use the most powerful weapons at the U.S. disposal in order to eliminate a despotic regime and save American lives.

4) Eisenhower helped end the Korean War in no small part because he threatened to unleash nuclear weapons on the Chinese. Why was Eisenhower considered a great president and MacArthur much maligned?

5) Looking back, elminating the Chinese communist regime would've SAVED TENS OF MILLIONS of lives over the next few decades. In China and Korea. And probably have hastened the end of the Cold War by decades.

All in all, MacArthur has little to be ashamed of.
Click to expand...

Genocide is the shit when the other side can't hit you back, mirite?
 

Polish Eagle

Garrison said:
It was MacArthur's ineptitude that helped draw the Chinese into the war and made sure the UN forces were completely unprepared. He also felt he was entitled to ignore orders from his Commnader in Chief and go running to the media. He did well in Japan because being a warlord suited him down to the ground.
Click to expand...

Yes, his was the army that took hundreds (thousands?) of Chinese POWs while he insisted that there was no indication whatsoever that Mao was going to intervene.
 

DAv

What were his flaws during the Pacific campaign exactly? I heard the reports of him basically poking China and overstretching until intervention became inevitable, but what were his flaws during World War Two as a Commander?
 
volantredx

volantredx

Rex Mundi said:
Genocide is the shit when the other side can't hit you back, mirite?
Click to expand...

To be fair to MacArthur he likely didn't understand the true scope of what he was suggesting. To him nukes were the new big toy, the fallout and pure human cost of them was poorly understood at the time. To General MacAurthur they just ended one war without the costly invasion of the enemy homeland. It makes sense that a man in his position at the time he was in it to think they would be a good plan.
 

Dayton Kitchens

Banned
Once again Eisenhower not only threatened to use nuclear weapons against the Chinese....but Eisenhower based the ENTIRE U.S. defense policy to hammering anyone with massive nuclear strikes rather than bother with the time and effort to fight a conventional war.

and I'm not certain what the beefs are about MacArthur's goals or means in the Pacific either.
 
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