“In reality, MacArthur was a brave man. “
MacArthur was a pompous idiot.
Oh, yes. But one can be both pompous and brave.
From what I know of MacArthur, I simply don’t care for him. I don’t think he was an idiot, but he sure was pompous.
I give him leadership props for two things, however inconsequential, I did like them:
1.) When Halsey was being raked over the coals by MacArthur’s subordinates (in MacArthur’s presence) after the Typhoon Cobra incident, he squashed it forcefully. Whether Halsey did or didn’t screw up (he did) wasn’t the question, it was simply the right thing to suppress that.
2.) When Charles Lindbergh was called on the carpet and had to fly to Australia to explain why he was flying combat missions in P-38s against all regulations, Lindbergh explained what he had been doing, and why. When he told MacArthur that, through is instruction, he had extended the combat radius of their squadrons by 20-30% simply by adjusting fuel mixtures and trim, MacArthur basically told him to go back and do whatever he wanted.
I also give him credit for the postwar management of Japan, but...probably more of that credit should be given to his persona and the Japanese favorable perception of it culturally than his actual actions. Other than that, I dislike the way he treated his peers, the President, his subordinates, and the troops under him. But hey, I am an armchair general, that’s all. Never met him or had to serve under him, so it is only from reading and the accounts of others.