The Unauthorized History of the Pacific War

The Legend of Dugout Doug

Episode Summary

Today we are going to be discussing one of the more polarizing figures in American military history. That being, General Douglas MacArthur. During World War II, MacArthur was lauded by the American public and press. He was seen by many as a messiah, a description that he himself never once shrugged off as being false or overly exaggerated. He often stated, publicly and privately, that he was the only person that could possibly lead the United States to victory over the Japanese, that he himself should be the supreme commander and that he himself was the only person who knew what the hell he was doing.

Episode Notes

As you know, the nation is going through a process of reviewing Confederate leaders through a clearer lens, clearing away the mythology around them that emerged to justify their actions after the end of the Civil War.  I see this as right and appropriate.

But I also think it’s time to contemplate General MacArthur through a clearer lens.  And if we do this, we realize:

• He was an unabashed liar, regularly committing what we would refer at Annapolis as honor violations of the type that would have gotten any other military officer fired.
• He was a narcissist of the degree to which made George Patton look like a humble man.
• He was self-delusional about his military prowess, believing that he and he alone had the ability to win this war in a largely naval theater, when in fact his actions likely extended it.
• He was a known pedophile who at the age of 50 took in a 16-year-old girl as his live-in concubine
• As Army Chief of Staff he used Army mounted cavalry and tanks against protesting World War I veterans in an event referred to as the Bonus March demonstrations.
• In my view, rather than being a military genius, for his part in the execution of questionable campaigns that contributed to the deaths of thousands of Americans, I see him as the worst American general since another General Mac— George McClellan. 
• About the only good thing I can say about him is he performed admirably in World War I when he far less responsibility and in his leadership of occupied Japan.

A lot of this is going to sound like 20-20 hindsight, but in the military we have this thing called the After Action Report or AAR that is 100% 20-20 hindsight.  The whole purpose of the AAR is to overcome the fog of war and look back on what really happened so that we can learn from it.