The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur (50 page)

Acknowledgments

I want to express my appreciation to Lara Heimert, my publisher and editor at Basic Books, whose patience and detailed comments on this narrative proved invaluable; to Roger LaBrie, whose edits and suggestions saved me much embarrassment; to James Zobel, the archivist at the MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, who provided tireless research guidance; to Gail Ross, my agent, who has stood by my side through a lifetime of writing; and to my wife Nina and my children Cal and Madeleine for their unfailing love and support. I have dedicated this book to General Bruce Palmer Jr., who served his country with honor and distinction and was a good friend to me.

The Most Dangerous Man in America
was written from the firsthand accounts of the historical participants: the diaries, digests, interviews, notes, letters, monographs, memoranda, papers, and reminiscences of Douglas MacArthur, Franklin Roosevelt, George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Jean MacArthur, Henry Arnold, Ernest King, Chester Nimitz, William Halsey, Jonathan M. Wainwright, Harold Ickes, Henry Stimson, Robert Eichelberger, Walter Krueger, George Kenney, Ennis Whitehead, Richard Sutherland, Richard Marshall, Sidney Huff, John D. Bulkeley, Thomas Blamey, Daniel Barbey, Thomas Kinkaid, Thomas Hart, and Lewis Brereton.

The MacArthur Memorial in Norfolk, Virginia, contains the correspondence of both MacArthur and his wife, his reminiscences on his service in World War One, an extensive cache of interviews he conducted during his career and after, and, most importantly, thousands of radio cables that MacArthur sent and received during World War Two. The memorial’s archivist, James Zobel, provided valued and patient assistance in the research for this book.

The Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York, contains the president’s invaluable correspondence with MacArthur during World War Two. The library also holds notes and papers that provide his views on his relationship with MacArthur, Marshall, Eisenhower, and their subordinates—as well as his most important wartime papers.

Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall’s papers are collected in
The Papers of George Catlett Marshall
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991), which includes his wartime memoranda to Franklin Roosevelt and his wartime cable messages to MacArthur. I have also relied on the invaluable postcareer interview of Marshall conducted by his biographer, Forrest Pogue.

Dwight Eisenhower’s views of MacArthur, including those during his tenure as a staff officer for MacArthur during the Bonus March, during the budget fights when MacArthur was army chief of staff, and then during MacArthur’s prewar tenure in Manila can be found in
Eisenhower, The Prewar Diaries and Selected Papers
,
1905–1941
(Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998). Eisenhower’s wartime dispatches to MacArthur are contained in the multivolume
The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, The War Years
(John Hopkins University Press, 1970).

The memories and reminiscences of the events of World War Two of each these major participants have been checked against the official accounts of the battles and campaigns as contained in each military service’s official history (these also contain interviews with the major commanders after the fact). Samuel Eliot Morison’s fourteen-volume
History of United States Naval Operations in World War II
(Little, Brown & Company, 1947); the six-volume
Army Air Forces in World War II
(University of Chicago Press, 1948); and the multivolume
U.S. Army in World War II
(Center of Military History, 1996). I have relied most particularly on those multiple volumes of the U.S. Army’s official history dealing with MacArthur’s campaigns and his relationship with the army chief of staff and the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (all sources from the U.S. Army Center of Military History):
The Supreme Command
(1954);
Strategy and Command: The First Two Years
(1962);
The Fall of the Philippines
(1952);
Guadalcanal: The First Offensive
(1949);
The Approach to the Philippines
(1953);
Victory in Papua
(1955);
Seizure of the Gilberts and Marshalls
(1955);
Cartwheel and the Reduction of Rabaul
(1959);
Leyte: The Return to the Philippines
(1954); and
Triumph in the Philippines
(1963).

Nearly all of MacArthur’s commanders have provided personal reminiscences of him and an account of their service in the Southwest Pacific Area. These are invaluable first-person accounts: Vice Admiral Daniel E. Barbey’s
MacArthur’s Amphibious Navy: Seventh Amphibious Force Operations
(United States Naval Institute, 1969); Lieutenant General Robert L. Eichelberger’s
Our Jungle Road to Tokyo
(Viking Press, 1950) and
Dear Miss Em, General Eichelberger’s War in the Pacific
,
1942–1945
, edited by Jay Luvaas (Greenwood Press, 1972); General George Kenney’s
George Kenney Reports
(Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1949); General Walter Krueger’s
From Down Under to Nippon
(Combat Forces Press, 1953); and General Jonathan Wainwright’s
General Wainwright’s Story
, with Robert Considine (Doubleday, 1946). Of less value, but of interest, is MacArthur’s own account of his life:
Reminiscences
(McGraw Hill, 1964). I recommend the often-ignored but valuable two-volume autobiography of Paul P. Rogers, an eyewitness to the MacArthur-Sutherland relationship:
MacArthur and Sutherland:
The Bitter Years
and
MacArthur and Sutherland: The Good Years
(Praeger, 1990).

No account of the life and campaigns of Douglas MacArthur can be written without acknowledging the work of the biographers who have contributed to the MacArthur story. The works include D. Clayton James’s two-volume
The Years of MacArthur
(Houghton Mifflin Company, 1970); William Manchester’s
American Caesar
(Little, Brown and Company, 1978); and Geoffrey Perret’s
Old Soldiers Never Die
(Random House, 1996).

A complete list of the literature on the life of Douglas MacArthur and his career during the Great Depression and the Pacific War would run to hundreds of pages. But a select listing of those most valuable biographies and studies that contributed to this narrative must include the following:

Allen, Thomas B., and Norman Polmar.
Codename Downfall: The Secret Plan to Invade Japan
(Headline, 1995).

Borneman, Walter R.
The Admirals
(Little, Brown and Company, 2012).

Brands, H. W.
Traitor to His Class
(Doubleday, 2008).

Buell, Thomas B.
Master of Sea Power: A Biography of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King
(Little, Brown and Company, 1980).

Campbell, James.
The Ghost Mountain Boys
(Crown, 2007).

Connaughton, Richard, John Pimlott, and Duncan Anderson.
The Battle for Manila
(Presidio, 1995).

———.
MacArthur and Defeat in the Philippines
(Overlook Press, 2001).

Davidson, Peter D.
Bulldozing the Way: New Guinea to Japan
(privately published, 2009).

Gamble, Bruce.
Fortress Rabaul
(Zenith Press, 2010).

Griffith, Thomas E. Jr.
MacArthur’s Airman: General George C. Kenney and the War in the Southwest Pacific
(University Press of Kansas, 1998).

Harries, Meirion, and Susie Harries.
Soldiers of the Sun
(Random House, 1991).

Hastings, Max.
Retribution
(Knopf, 2008).

Holzimmer, Kevin C.
General Walter Krueger
(University Press of Kansas, 2007).

Hoyt, Edwin P.
MacArthur’s Navy
(Orion Books, 1989).

Leary, William M., ed.
We Shall Return! MacArthur’s Commanders and the Defeat of Japan
(University Press of Kentucky, 1988).

———.
MacArthur and the American Century
(University of Nebraska Press, 1995).

McAulay, Lex.
MacArthur’s Eagles: The U.S. Air War over New Guinea 1943–1944
(Naval Institute Press, 2005).

Norman, Michael, and Elizabeth M. Norman.
Tears in the Darkness: The Story of the Bataan Death March and Its Aftermath
(Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2009).

Persico, Joseph E.
Roosevelt’s Centurions
(Random House, 2013).

Petillo, Carol Morris.
Douglas MacArthur: The Philippine Years
(Indiana University Press, 1981).

Potter, E. B.
Nimitz
(Naval Institute Press, 1976).

Prados, John.
Islands of Destiny
(NAL Caliber, 2012).

Sarantakes, Nicholas Evan.
Allies Against the Rising Sun
(University Press of Kansas, 2009).

Schultz, Duane.
Hero of Bataan: The Story of General Jonathan M. Wainwright
(St. Martin’s Press, 1981).

Sloan, Bill.
Undefeated: America’s Heroic Fight for Bataan and Corregidor
(Simon & Schuster, 2012).

Smith, George W.
MacArthur’s Escape
(Zenith Press, 2005).

Smythe, Donald.
Pershing: General of the Armies
(Indiana University Press, 1986).

Taaffe, Stephen R.
MacArthur’s Jungle War: The 1944 New Guinea Campaign
(University Press of Kansas, 1998).

———.
Marshall and His Generals
(University Press of Kansas, 2011).

Thomas, Evan.
Sea of Thunder
(Simon & Schuster, 2006).

———.
The War Lovers
(Little, Brown & Company, 2010).

Toll, Ian W.
Pacific Crucible
(Norton, 2012).

Weintraub, Stanley.
Fifteen Stars
(Free Press, 2007).

Young, Kenneth Ray.
The General’s General: The Life and Times of Arthur MacArthur
(Westview, 1994).

Abe, Hiroaki,
224

Adachi, Hadacho,
266

Adelaide,
157
,
159

Aguinaldo, Emilio,
42–43

Aitape,
261

Akin, Spencer,
168

Alexander, Milton,
117

Alice Springs,
155–156

Allen, Robert,
22
,
23–26

Allen, Terry de la Mesa,
226

Andrews, Frank,
32
,
36

Aparri,
86–87
,
88

Arawe,
247

Arcadia Conference,
119

Army budget.
See
U.S. army budget

Army-navy competition,
163–164
,
243–246
,
248
,
276
,
354

Arnold, Henry H. “Hap,”
31
,
32
,
73
,
193
,
226
,
232
,
257
,
327

    
and commanders, assessment of,
205–208

    
and Kenney, George,
191–192

    
and Philippines, U.S. airfield attack in, responsibility for,
76
,
81
,
82

    
and promotion to general of the army,
309

Australia,
89
,
90
,
100–102
,
140
,
177–178

    
establishment of three combat commands in,
167–168

    
and MacArthur as commander and chief, Southwest Pacific area,
140
,
143–147

    
MacArthur’s evacuation to,
148–153

    
MacArthur’s request for reinforcements in,
178–183
,
185

    
See also
Blamey, Thomas
;
Chifley, Joseph Benedict “Ben”
;
Thomas
;
Curtin, John
;
specific cities, towns, battle sites, battles, etc.

Australian Imperial Force,
142
.
See also
Blamey, Thomas

Baker, Newton,
32

Baliuag,
114–115

Barbey, Daniel,
233–234
,
246
,
252
,
262
,
286
,
300
,
356

    
and Operation Cartwheel,
240
,
242

    
and Operation Oboe,
340–341

Baruch, Bernard,
29

Bataan,
54
,
96
,
98–99
,
105
,
118–119
,
322

    
MacArthur’s escape from,
157

    
promise of relief in,
119–121
,
123–125
,
139–140
,
173

    
retreat into,
111–118

    
surrender of,
169–171

    
surrender of, responsibility for,
174–176

    
See also
Battle of Bataan

Bataan Death March,
172
,
173–174
,
176
,
207
,
256–257

Battle of Bataan,
119–121
,
122–123
,
128–131
,
133–135
,
136
,
173
.
See also
Bataan

Battle of Bloody Ridge,
204

Battle of Leyte Gulf,
292–294
.
See also
Leyte

Battle of Luzon,
118
.
See also
Luzon

Battle of Midway,
187
,
189–190

Battle of the Bismarck Sea,
228–230

Battle of the Bulge,
330

Battle of the Coral Sea,
187

Battle of the Eastern Solomons,
203

Battle of the Philippine Sea,
266

Battle of the Pockets,
135
,
136
,
147–148

Battle of the Points,
147–148

Beard, Charles,
12

Beightler, Robert,
319
,
320
,
321–322

Biak,
263–264
,
265–266

Blaik, Earl “Red,”
220

Blamey, Sir Thomas,
167
,
217
,
234–235
,
279–280
,
283
,
336–337
,
356

    
and Leyte,
286

    
and New Guinea,
195
,
196

    
and Operation Cartwheel,
241

Bong, Richard,
305

Bonus Army/Bonus March/Anacostia Flats scandal,
3–4
,
6
,
7
,
13
,
14
,
25
,
29
,
37
,
38
,
40
,
45
,
144
,
328
,
354

Borneo,
87
,
336–341
.
See also
Operation Oboe

Bradley, Omar,
144–145
,
226
,
309
,
343

Bratton, Rufus,
69–71

Brereton, Lewis,
52
,
67
,
74
,
76
,
87–88
,
106–107
,
356

    
and Pearl Harbor attack,
71–74

    
and Philippines, U.S. airfield attack in, responsibility for,
81–85

Brett, George,
100
,
155
,
166
,
167
,
191
,
195

Brisbane,
194–195
,
211

Brooke, Alan (1st Viscount Alanbrooke),
185

Brooks, Louise,
22
,
24
,
51

Brougher, William,
176

Bruce, Andrew,
298

Buckner, Simon Bolivar,
245

Bulkeley, John,
126
,
148–149
,
151–152

Buna,
196
,
208–213
,
213–219
,
221–222
,
224
,
225
,
226

Burma,
161

Byers, Clovis,
218–219

Byrnes, Joseph,
39
,
40

Callaghan, Daniel,
224

Calumpit Bridges,
114
,
115
,
116

Camero, Archibald,
337

Canberra,
162

Cape Gloucester,
246–248

Carney, Robert,
268

Carpender, Arthur Shuyler “Chips,”
206
,
242
,
244–245

Casablanca conference, 1943,
231–233

Casey, Hugh,
168
,
178
,
197–198
,
212
,
263
,
306

Casey, Pat,
99

Cavite Navy Yard (Manila),
87–88

CCC.
See
Civilian Conservation Corps

Central Pacific campaign,
243–246
,
248
,
276

Chamberlin, Stephen,
168
,
231
,
261–262
,
282

Chifley, Joseph Benedict “Ben,”
337
,
338
,
341

Churchill, Winston,
64
,
88
,
180
,
183
,
348

    
and anti-British sentiment,
338–339

    
and Bataan, promise of relief to MacArthur in,
119–120

    
and Casablanca Conference, 1943,
231–233

    
and Curtin, John,
140–143
,
161–162

    
and France, second front in,
184–186

    
and MacArthur,
96
,
109–110
,
143
,
145

    
and Operation Sledgehammer,
189–191

    
and Roosevelt, Franklin,
100
,
223

    
and two-front war strategy,
179
,
182
,
183

    
and Yalta Conference,
316–318

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC),
7–13

Clark, Mark,
144–145
,
226
,
275

Clark Field attack,
74
,
76
,
80–85
,
91–93
,
313–314

Clarke, Elaine,
283–284
,
307

Colin, P. Kelly, Jr.,
87

Collins, Ross,
4–5
,
15
,
22
,
23
,
24
,
26
,
32
,
37

Conner, Fox,
30
,
32
,
36
,
277

Cooke, Charles,
231
,
251

Cooper, Isabella Rosario,
22
,
23–26
,
51

Corregidor,
54
,
105
,
131
,
135–136
,
140
,
322

    
MacArthur’s escape from,
157
,
159–160

    
MacArthur’s evacuation from,
140
,
143–147
,
355

    
MacArthur’s evacuation to,
106–109

    
Philippine government move to, from Manila,
94–95

    
surrender of,
171–172

    
surrender of, responsibility for,
174–176

Craig, Malin,
38
,
40
,
48–50
,
60–61
,
134
,
220

Cruzen, R. H.,
292–293

Curtin, John,
149
,
159
,
179–181
,
182
,
229
,
336–337
,
355

    
and Churchill, Winston,
140–143
,
161–162

    
and MacArthur as commander and chief, Southwest Pacific area,
143
,
144
,
155

Dalton, James II,
314

Daniels, Josephus,
4
,
5
,
26
,
38

Darwin,
156
,
166

Davis, Thomas Jefferson,
47
,
48

Dawes, Charles,
20–21

Decker, George,
321

Dern, George,
14–16
,
21
,
24
,
33
,
34
,
43
,
44
,
49

    
and army air corps,
31–32

    
and army budget,
16–17
,
36

Dewey, Thomas,
267
,
271–272
,
303–304
,
305

Diller, LeGrande “Pick,”
304

Doe, Jens,
263

Doolittle, Jimmy,
186
,
238

Drum, Hugh,
48
,
50

Early, Jubal,
82

Early, Steve,
10
,
25
,
65–66

Eddleman, Clyde,
312

Egeberg, Roger,
254–255
,
289
,
307

Eichelberger, Robert,
219–221
,
234
,
252
,
267
,
314
,
323
,
331–332
,
356–357

    
and Biak,
266

    
and Buna,
218–219
,
221–222
,
224
,
225

    
and Distinguished Service Cross,
227
,
228

    
and Eisenhower, Dwight,
261

    
and Hollandia,
261
,
263

    
and Japan, invasion of,
343

    
and Japan, surrender of,
347–348

    
and Krueger, Walter,
237
,
297–298
,
312

    
and Leyte,
299

    
and MacArthur,
218–219
,
220
,
221
,
227–228

    
and MacArthur’s criticism of colleagues,
324–325

    
and nomination for Medal of Honor,
228

    
and Operation Oboe,
337–338

    
and Operation Victor,
332–333

    
and POWs,
347

    
and Sanananda,
227

Eisenhower, Dwight,
29–30
,
36
,
49
,
53
,
138
,
144–145
,
220
,
331

    
and army budget,
9–10

    
and Australia,
89
,
90

    
and Bataan, promise of relief to MacArthur in,
125

    
and Clark, Mark,
226

    
and Collins, Ross,
15

    
command structure of,
236

    
as commander of the invasion of France,
250

    
and Cooper, Isabella Rosario,
24