Posted on 07/10/2013 12:48:20 PM PDT by Kaslin
I recall a story from not long ago about a youngster who asked an astronaut what he must do to prepare for such a career. The astronaut replied, "learn Russian."
MacArthur was insubordinate to 3 president. Now that might sound cool, but in his case, it really was't.
MacArthur served under seven presidents. Who were the three to whom he was insubordinate?
Hoover, Roosevelt, Truman.
Hindsight is always 20-20.
How was he insubordinate to Hoover and Roosevelt?
As far as Roosevelt, I'm not even sure I know the whole story. Roosevelt let him get away with it, which doesn't make it right. Among other things, The Commander in Chief ordered him to a strategy meeting, and MacArthur just ignored him. MacArthur basically ran his own operation, without bothering to coordinate with Admiral Nimitz or anyone else. Luckily he didn't screw up things badly enough to get in Nimitz' way.
I figured you would bring up the Bonus Army. Remember, iit was the demonstrators who started the violence. Interestingly, FDR also opposed paying the veterans the bonus they were demanding, and it took years before they got their bonus.
It sounds as though MacArthur’s “insubordination” against FDR was rather minor.
However flawed MacArthur was, I’m not about to diss him. He was a hero of mine when I was a teenager and a major reason that I became a conservative.
I wish MacArthur had come home in 1944 to run for president. Among Roosevelt's opponents, he would have had the best chance to win. Had he won, Harry Truman would only be known to students of political corruption, Eisenhower would be famous only for his accomplishments in WWII, and the Republican Party's Dewey-Warren faction--the GOPe of the day--would have been out in the cold.
The US occupation of Iwo Jima saved the lives of many US fliers whose battle-damaged planes had to land there while returning from combat over Japan.
McArthur wasn't involved in either the Guadalcanal or Tarawa campaigns. Both of them were CINCPAC (Nimitz) shows.
By the way, do you believe the U.S. people would not reelect any president in war like 1944? No way. And certainly not a general who deserted the field.
LOL. Neither of those facts has the slightest to do with it. Were you ever in the military? Is it your experience you can disobey the order of a commanding officer, then say as an excuse, "But, sir, Roosevelt did this, and some other people did that." The CIC told him to stop the attack, and he started a new attack! Not even to mention it was against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.
MacArthur had little to do with the island hopping and bypassing campaign, which was largely carried out in the Central Pacific by Nimitz. And War Plan Orange, which laid out the general approach, was not authored by MacArthur.
He was an excellent military proconsul post-war.
What do you mean "deserted the field"?
I believe FDR was beatable in 1944. The people were tired of the New Deal, and the GOP had done well in 1942. Despite being a lousy candidate who ran a lousy campaign, Thomas Dewey, the GOP presidential standard bearer, did better than Willkie, Landon or Hoover and brought Wisconsin and Ohio into the Republican column for the first time since 1928. Had the GOP run an immensely popular candidate like MacArthur, it might very well have won.
You’re probably one of those guys who refers to LA’s famous MacArthur Park by its original name of Westlake Park, or Orange County’s MacArthur Blvd. as Talbert Avenue.
How so? I always thought that Germany, Italy and Japan were the losers.
Not sure that is true.
First most B-29 aircraft that landed there did so on “training” missions.
Second, even aircraft that may have ditched about that far from Japan might have parachuted out and been picked up by the Navy.
Certainly the airfields there were useless to the Japanese, as they had no meaningful amount of fuel. It is open to question as to how sure the various commanders may have been of that aspect of Japanese want.
Certainly we reelected GW Bush in 2004.
I am not sure that MacArthur wasn’t right about the 10th Corps. Certainly if the Marine division had kept on line with the 7th Army division and pushed hard, the dirt where the Chinese concentrated for their Chosin Reservoir attacks would have been controlled by the US. The Chinese would have been discovered while the X corps was attacking, with scouts out, artillery concentrations working, and caissons full of ammunition going forward.
As it was, the remnants of 7th Infantry division fought as rear guard protecting the Marines from the Chinese as the Marines retreated.
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