Encyclopedia
Douglas MacArthur was an
American general and
Medal of Honor recipient, who was Supreme Commander of
Allied forces in the
Southwest Pacific Area during
World War II. He lost the
Philippines, led the defense of
Australia, and the recapture of
New Guinea, the
Philippines and
Borneo. He was poised to command the invasion of Japan in November 1945 but was instead instructed to accept their surrender on September 2, 1945. MacArthur oversaw the occupation of
Japan from 1945 to 1951 and is credited for making far-ranging democratic changes in that country. He led
UN forces defending
South Korea in 1950-51 against North Korea's attempt to unify Korea. MacArthur was relieved of command by President
Harry S Truman in April 1951 for public disagreements with Truman's policies.
MacArthur fought in three major wars and rose to the rank of General of the Army. MacArthur remains one of the most controversial figures in American history. While greatly admired by many for what they consider his strategic and tactical brilliance, MacArthur was also considered by many to have had questionable military judgment, and is criticized by many for his actions in command, and especially his challenge to US President Truman in 1951.
Early life and education
MacArthur was born in
Little Rock, Arkansas to Lieutenant General
Arthur MacArthur Jr., a recipient of the
Medal of Honor during the
American Civil War, who was the son of jurist and politician
Arthur MacArthur, Sr., and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur of
Norfolk, Virginia.
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'.
As a child he moved around from fort to fort. As a youth he spent time in Washington with his paternal grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur, a member of the high-profile Washington political scene that influenced Douglas.
MacArthur's father was posted to
San Antonio, Texas in 1893. There, Douglas attended West Texas Military Academy , where he became an excellent student. MacArthur entered the
United States Military Academy at West Point in 1898. An outstanding cadet, he was graduated first in his 93-man class in 1903, with only two other students in the history of West Point surpassing his achievements . MacArthur became a
Second Lieutenant in the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
He served as an aide to his father, the appointed Governor General when the Philippines was a U.S. possession. From 1904 to 1914 MacArthur was assigned to engineering duties in the
Philippines, Wisconsin, Kansas, Michigan, Texas, and Panama. During that time he attended the Engineer School of Application , receiving a degree in 1908, and worked in the Office of the Chief of Engineers. From 1913-1917, MacArthur served on the general staff of the War Department, with detached-duty assignments on an intelligence mission to Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914.
He was appointed by and served President
Theodore Roosevelt. Under the command of General
Frederick Funston MacArthur engaged in a long-range reconnaissance mission behind Mexican lines. Although cited for
bravery and recommended for a Medal of Honor, his actions had clearly violated Funston's orders.
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 my men from the front'. Because of this policy, and the fact that he usually refused to wear a gas mask while the rest of his men would, he had respiratory problems the rest of his life. Still, he was the most decorated officer of the war and General Menoher once said that he was the "greatest fighting man" in the army.
Inter-war years
As did many of the officers after the War, MacArthur had a difficult time finding a full-time position in the Army. This devastated him. He was not demoted from his war-time rank, as many were. He used all of his father's connections as well as his own to secure any position. One offer included becoming military attache to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. He kept his star after the war primarily because of the support of General Peyton March, the new chief of staff. In 1919 MacArthur became superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which was out of date in many respects and much in need of reform. MacArthur ordered drastic changes in the tactical, athletic and disciplinary systems; he modernized the curriculum, adding liberal arts courses.
From 1922 to 1930, MacArthur served two tours of duty in the Philippines, the second as commander of the Philippine Department ; 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. In 1928 he headed the U.S. Olympic Committee for the
Amsterdam games.
He married Henrietta Louise Cromwell Brooks, a wealthy heiress, on February 14, 1922; she had two children from a previous marriage. They were divorced in 1929. President
Herbert Hoover appointed MacArthur
Army Chief of Staff in November 1930, with the temporary rank of General. He faced severe budget cuts, at the same time there was a surge in enrollments because of unemployment. President
Franklin D. Roosevelt renewed his appointment. In October 1935, the army ranked 16th in size among the world's armies, with 13,000 officers and 126,000 enlisted men. MacArthur's main programs included the development of new mobilization plans, the establishment of a mobile 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. He brought along many talented mid-career officers, including
George C. Marshall, and
Dwight D. Eisenhower. His most controversial actions came in 1932, when Hoover ordered him to disperse the '
Bonus Army' of veterans who were in the capital protesting against the government. MacArthur received negative publicity for using tear gas against the veterans. According to MacArthur, the demonstration had been taken over by Communists and pacifists by the time of his action, with, he claimed, only 'one man in 10 being veterans'. Hundreds of veterans were injured, two were killed, and other casualties, including children, were inflicted among the veterans' families.
When the
Commonwealth of the Philippines achieved semi-independent status in 1935, with its own army, the
President of the Philippines Manuel L. Quezon asked MacArthur to supervise the creation of a
Philippine Army. With Roosevelt's approval MacArthur accepted the assignment. MacArthur had been friends with Quezon when his father was Governor General. MacArthur had two conditions for taking the job: his salary was to be the same as the President's, and his housing had to be equal to that of the President. After all, the house that the President was using had been the one Douglas had known as a child,
Malacanang Palace. The Palace has been the home of the Spanish Governor General, the American Governor General and all Philippine Presidents to present day.
It was decided to house MacArthur in a suite at the world famous Manila Hotel. The hotel was owned by the Philippine Government. It was on Manila Bay across the park from the Army & Navy Club, MacArthur's favorite haunt. It was conveniently near the U.S. Embassy. Government accountants decided that the best way to handle the cost of the suite was to make MacArthur a hotel employee entitled to housing. MacArthur was given the honorary title of "General Manager". MacArthur ignored the honorary status and took control of hotel management while he lived there. The MacArthur Suite still exists in the hotel.
Manila was one of the cities most devastated by Japanese bombs in WWII. Pictures show the city almost leveled except for the Manila Hotel. Out of respect for MacArthur the pilots had been ordered not to bomb the hotel. MacArthurs suite was occupied by the highest ranking military officer in the islands. MacArthur gave the same order to American pilots when the Philippines were retaken. Legend has it that his suite and personal possessions that were left behind were still intact. MacArthur had tremendous respect for the tradition of "honor among warriors."
MacArthur heavily invested in Philippine mining and industry. Before the Philippine National Bank in New York City closed when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, MacArthur was able to sell all of his holdings and convert all of his pesos to dollars.
Among MacArthur's assistants as Military Adviser to the Commonwealth of the Philippines was
Dwight D. Eisenhower.
On April 30, 1937, MacArthur married his second wife, Jean Faircloth; they had one son, and remained together until his death.
When MacArthur retired from the U.S. Army in 1937, he was made a Field Marshal of the
Philippine Army, by President Quezon. In July, 1941 Roosevelt recalled him to active duty in the U.S. Army and named him commander of United States Armed Forces in the Far East , based in Manila.
World War II
After the United States entered
World War II, MacArthur became Allied commander in the Philippines. He "courted controversy" on several occasions, especially when he over-ruled his air commander, General Lewis H. Brereton, who had requested permission to launch air attacks by the US Far East Air Force against
Japanese bases on nearby
Taiwan, a plan that MacArthur had labeled suicide. MacArthur instead ordered the planes to be moved, to conserve them from Japanese raids; only half had been moved when FEAF was all but destroyed on the ground, the prelude to a Japanese invasion.
His headquarters during the Philippines campaign of 1941-42 was on the island fortress of
Corregidor; his single trip to the front lines in
Bataan led to the disparaging moniker and ditty, "Dugout Doug." Nevertheless, MacArthur's 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 US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt to relocate to
Melbourne, Australia, after Quezon and his wife had already left. With his wife and four-year-old son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate military commanders, MacArthur at last fled the Philippines on a PT 41 commanded by Lieutenant
John D. Bulkeley, and successfully evaded an intense Japanese search for the escaping American general.
MacArthur reached the island of
Mindanao on March 13, and boarded a
B-17 bomber three days later; on 17 March, he arrived at Batchelor Airfield in Australia's
Northern Territory, and 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 made at
Terowie,
South Australia on March 20. During this period, President
Manuel L. Quezon decorated MacArthur with the Philippine Distinguished Conduct Star.
MacArthur was appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the
Southwest Pacific Area . To remove all ambiguity, the Australian Prime Minister,
John Curtin put MacArthur in direct command of the Australian military, which numerically dominated MacArthur's forces at the time, augmented by a small number of U.S.,
Dutch and other Allied forces. One of MacArthur's first missions was to reassure Australians, who apprehended 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, Australia, taking over the
AMP Insurance Company building .
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 that many officers in the
U.S. 32nd Infantry Division, a hastily-mobilized
National Guard unit, had proved incompetent in the
Allied offensive against Buna and Gona, the major Japanese beachheads in north-east New Guinea, MacArthur told the
U.S. I Corps commander,
Robert L. Eichelberger to assume direct control of Allied operations:
- 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. [Emphasis added.]
In March 1943, the
Joint Chiefs of Staff approved MacArthur's grand strategy, known as
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 to bypass Rabaul and let the forces there "wither on the vine", Initially, the majority of his land forces were Australian but increasing numbers of US Army forces arrived in the theater, including the
Sixth Army , and later the
Eighth Army.
Allied forces under MacArthur's command
landed at Leyte Island , on October 20, 1944, fulfilling MacArthur's vow to return to the Philippines. They consolidated their hold on the archipelago in the Battle of Luzon after heavy fighting, and despite a massive Japanese naval counterattack in the
Battle of Leyte Gulf. With the reconquest of the islands, MacArthur moved his headquarters to Manila, to
plan the invasion of Japan in late 1945. The invasion was pre-empted by the
bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in September, 1945 MacArthur received the
formal Japanese surrender which ended World War II.
MacArthur was awarded and received the
Medal of Honor for his leadership in the Southwest Pacific Theater. Philippine President
Sergio Osmeña also decorated him with the Philippines' highest military award, the Medal of Valor.
Post-World War II Japan
After World War II, MacArthur served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers . His first responsibility was overseeing the reconstruction, re-organization and re-supply of the people in
Occupied Japan. Though it was officially an effort of the Allies, the US was firmly in control, and MacArthur was effectively the leader of Japan during this period. In 1946, MacArthur's staff drafted a new
constitution that renounced war and reduced the
emperor to a mere figurehead; this Constitution is in use in Japan to this day. 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.
In late 1945, Allied military commissions tried 4,000 Japanese officers for war crimes. About 3,000 were given prison terms and 920 were executed; the charges included the
Rape of Nanking, the Bataan Death March, and the sack of Manila. Some critics say that the main Japanese commander in the Philippines General
Yamashita Tomoyuki had lost control of his soldiers and should not have been executed. However he did not resign his post and therefore retained command responsibility; this case has become a precedent and is known as the
Yamashita Standard.
PBS has called the trials "hasty"
At the end of the war he secretly granted immunity to the physicians of
Unit 731 in exchange for providing America with their research on biological weapons. The Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal has heard only one reference to Japanese experiments with "poisonous serums" on Chinese civilians —. This took place in August 1946 and was actioned by David Sutton, assistant to the Chinese prosecutor.
Korean War
In 1945, as part of the surrender of Japan, the United States proposed an agreement with the Soviet Union to divide the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel and occupy it. Without consultation with the Korean people, the United States and the Soviet Union occupied the southern and northern halves of Korea. The division continued and was soon marked by numerous battles between North and South Korean forces along the border. Finally, in 1950 the North Korean military escalated the conflict and attacked southwards with the aim of unifying the peninsula under their own political system, thereby beginning a civil war. After the surprise attack by the North Korean military on June 25, 1950 started the
Korean War, the
United Nations General Assembly authorized a
United Nations force to help
South Korea. MacArthur led the UN coalition counter-offensive, noted for a daring and overwhelmingly successful
amphibious landing behind North Korean lines in the
Battle of Inchon. The maneuver successfully out-flanked the North Korean army, which had been trying to annihilate the surrounded Korean and American forces in Korea. The North Korean forces retreated north, pursued by the Americans and their military allies.
For months leading up to MacArthur's forces approach to the Korea-China border, the Chinese had warned that they would become involved, rather than watch the North Koreans be defeated and have an enemy military on their border. During his trip to
Wake Island to meet with President of the United States President Harry S. Truman, MacArthur was specifically asked by
President Truman about Chinese involvement in the war. MacArthur did not believe this to be a danger, advising absolute defeat for the North Korean forces, and famously-advising, "There is no substitute for victory." On November 19, 1950, Chinese military forces crossed the Yalu River, routing the U.N forces and forcing them on a long retreat. Calling the Chinese intervention the beginning of "an entirely new war", MacArthur repeatedly requested authorization to strike
Manchuria and major Chinese cities with thirty to fifty nuclear weapons, an action which Truman and the State Department feared would draw China's ally, the Soviet Union, into the conflict. Angered by Truman's desire to maintain a "limited war," MacArthur began issuing important statements to the press, warning them of a crushing defeat. In March of 1951, after a painful U.N. counterattack commanded by
Matthew B. Ridgway turned the tide of the war in the U.N.'s favor, Truman alerted MacArthur of his intention to initiate 'cease-fire' talks. Such news ended any hopes the general had retained of leading a full-scale war against China, and MacArthur quickly issued his own ultimatum to China. Mocking the Chinese lack of military power and industrial strength, MacArthur's declaration threatened the expansion of the war, and was by his own aide's later admission 'designed to undercut' Truman's negotiating position. Such an act unquestionably qualified as rank insubordination, and was so contrary to MacArthur's long and distinguished military service that General Omar Bradley later speculated that MacArthur's disappointment over his inability to wage war on China had "snapped his brilliant but brittle mind." On April 11, 1951 President Truman relieved General MacArthur of his military command. General Matthew B. Ridgway replaced MacArthur and fighting eventually ended near the
38th parallel.
Return to America
MacArthur returned to Washington , 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.'
On his return from Korea, after his relief by Truman, MacArthur encountered massive public adulation, which aroused expectations that he would run for the US presidency as a Republican in the
1952 election. However, a
U.S. Senate Committee investigation of his removal, chaired by
Richard Russell, contributed to a marked cooling of the public mood and MacArthur's presidential hopes died away.
In the 1952 Republican presidential nomination contest, rumors were rife that Senator
Robert Taft of Ohio offered the vice presidential nomination to MacArthur. Had a Taft-MacArthur ticket defeated Democrat
Adlai Stevenson in November, the general would have become President upon Taft's sudden death eight months later in July 1953. Taft, who was initially favored to win the GOP nomination, lost the nomination to
Dwight Eisenhower. MacArthur later became head of the
Remington Rand Corporation.
MacArthur spent the remainder of his life quietly in
New York, except for a spectacular "sentimental journey" to the Philippines in 1961, when he was decorated by President
Carlos P. Garcia with the Philippine Legion of Honor, rank of Chief Commander. During one of his visits, a section of the
Pan-Philippine Highway was renamed to MacArthur Highway in his honor.
President
John F. Kennedy solicited MacArthur's counsel in 1961. The first of two meetings was shortly after the
Bay of Pigs fiasco. According to White House staffer Kenneth P. O'Donnell, 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 that domestic problems should be given a much greater priority. Kennedy was said to have come out of the more than three-hour meeting 'stunned' and 'enormously impressed'.
Death and legacy
MacArthur and his second wife, Jean Faircloth, spent the last years of their life together in the penthouse of the
Waldorf-Astoria. After his death Jean continued to live in the Penthouse until her death. The couple are entombed together in downtown
Norfolk, Virginia; their burial site is in the rotunda of a memorial building/museum dedicated to his memory, and there is a major shopping mall named for him across the street from the memorial. According to the museum, General MacArthur chose to be buried in Norfolk because of his mother's ancestral ties to the city.
The couple's son, born Arthur MacArthur IV, changed his surname and now lives anonymously as a
saxophonist in the New York area.
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 served as a diplomat for several years, including the post of Ambassador to Japan and several other countries.
MacArthur Boulevard in
Maryland and
Washington, D.C. is named in his honor. It runs from Great Falls Park in Potomac, Maryland into the Georgetown neighborhood of DC.
Summary of service
West Point
- June 13, 1899 – appointed as a Cadet at the United States Military Academy, West Point, New York
- 1900: Is the victim of hazing and becomes involved in a serious scandal where one Cadet is left dead by upperclassman abuse. Maintains his honor, and does not appear as a snitch, by only naming cadets who hazed him who were already expelled from West Point or had previously confessed
- June 1903 – Graduates first in his class, commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers
Early career
- June 1903: Serves with the 3rd Battalion of Engineers in the Philippine Islands.
- 1904: Assigned to the California Debris Commission.
- April 1904: Promoted to First Lieutenant
...
, becomes acting Chief Engineering Officer for the Army Pacific Division based in
San Francisco, California- October 1904: Reports to Tokyo, Japan to serve as an aide to his father in the Far East
- December 1906: Serves as aide-de-camp to President Theodore Roosevelt
- August 1907: Attends the "Engineering School of Application" in Washington, DC
- February 1908: Assigned as the Officer-in-Charge , Improvements Commission, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- April 1908: Appointed as Commanding Officer, Company K, 3rd Battalion of Engineers. Later that year becomes an instructor at the Mounted Service School,
