Strengths and Weaknesses of General Douglas MacArthur

Strengths and Weaknesses of General Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur was the son of Arthur MacArthur, Jr. and Mary Hardy and was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1880. He was the youngest of Arthur and Mary’s three children. His father was an army officer and a Union hero of the American Civil War. Douglas MacArthur accompanied his father to different military posts across the U.S. from New Mexico to Washington, D.C. He attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he began his studies and excelled there. After graduation, MacArthur became a lieutenant in the United States Army Corps of Engineers. This is where his career as a Military leader begun and was assigned in the Philippines. Throughout his career, General Douglas MacArthur showed his prowess in leading and strategizing wars. He is associated with the Philippines’ defeat and clashed severally with Washington and the Navy over war strategy and the allocation of resources; these are some of the arguments used in this report to support his weaknesses. He mostly gained recognition during the Second World War as he was greatly involved in the defeat of the Empire of Japan during the war. General Douglas MacArthur is considered one of the greatest general of World War II mostly for his achievements in leading America to victory during the Second World War for his intelligent and brave nature, even though he also had several shortcomings/weaknesses, such as being arrogant, dishonest, and selfish.

Strengths

One of the greatest strengths that General Douglas MacArthur has was intelligence. Many people considered him to be a smart thinker with a great ability to think out of tough situations and solve problems that other people could not solve. His intelligence enabled him to excel in his studies, graduating top of his class and started his career in the Army as a Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.  He was also one of the nation’s great orators who could expound knowledgeably on subjects as diverse as baseball and national economics. He could remember things that other people would easily forget. He had the ability to design battle plans that made his enemies give up and surrender. His intelligence enabled him to get out of situations that seemed difficult for others, and on countless occasions, he saved his own men from the enemies. He once killed seven attackers with only a .38 caliber revolver and escaped with only four bullet holes in his clothing.[1] General Douglas MacArthur was one of U.S. Army’s greatest intellectuals. When he was chief of staff at Hoover Administration, he presided over the modernization of War Department mobilization plans and the beginnings of mechanization in the Army and an expanded role for the Army Air Corps. During the Great Depression in America, General MacArthur fought to prevent the emasculation of tens of thousands of young men when he organized the Civilian Conservation Corps after President Roosevelt requested him.

MacArthur exhibited traits which many people who can be considered highly intelligent show, such as a tendency to monopolize and dominate a conversation being one. He could also be jealous of others and crave the spotlight. He could become jealous of others and crave the spotlight. He expected his orders to be followed exactly as he ordered. As a commander, he liked working with the subordinates that were sent by the War Department rather than trying to ferret out officers, and there were fewer reliefs of general officers in his theater than in Europe as officers were given a chance to learn rather than being fired at the first mistake. Fortunately, during World War II, he had a hard-working and highly capable chief of staff, Lieutenant General Richard K. Sutherland, who acted more as a deputy commander than a chief of staff. This showed an ability to inspire loyalty in subordinates, and a desire in them to perform at their best, a very strong asset in general.

Another strength of General Douglas MacArthur was his braveness. He was extremely brave in battle. Time and again in the course of his 52-year military career, Douglas MacArthur displayed extraordinary leadership and uncommon personal bravery.[2] Due to his bravery and his many acts of bravery, General Douglas MacArthur “received numerous decorations and the undying loyalty of his men…he shared his sacrifices and their successes, and his natural super, ciliousness seldom manifested itself.” [3] After WWI, MacArthur was named superintendent of the United States Military Academy. His bravery and intelligence in his leadership made him become recognized as “the father of the modern West Point.” There were other instances when people mistook his bravery for foolishness. Others thought that he believed that he could not be killed. His bravery enabled him to be awarded every medal and honor that a United States soldier could ever win. In his Washington Post, Evan Thomas states that MacArthur had showy, inspirational bravery. “Inspecting the front lines on the embattled island of Los Negros, he was momentarily stopped by an Army officer who told him that they had killed a jap sniper in there just a few minutes ago and MacArthur responded by saying that that it was the best thing to do with them and proceeded into the jungle. [4] MacArthur was an innovative genius, especially when it came to moving huge numbers of army men over long distances. Different authors such as Mark Perry in his book, “The Most Dangerous Man in America,” noted that MacArthur had great skills as a pioneer of air-land-sea battle in the Pacific.

Apart from his intelligence and bravery, MacArthur is remembered as a reformer and modernizer of West Point, as the Chief of Staff who saved the prewar Army officer corps from depression-era cuts, thus preserving the army officers who fought the Second World War. He is also remembered as a military modernizer who fortified the growth of the Air Corps and the mechanization of the Army within limits imposed by the Great Depression. He was the Defender of Australia, the Liberator of the Philippines, the Conqueror of Imperial Japan, the Creator of Modern Japan, and the Savior of the Republic of Korea. Also, as allied commander of the Japanese occupation in 1945-1951, he effectively directed the demobilization of Japanese military forces, the restoration of the economy, and the drafting of a liberal constitution in Japan. As a result, major reforms were inaugurated in education, labor, land distribution, and public health. He even helped to pass the law that allowed women to vote in Japan. Despite not being a Japanese, MacArthur was able to achieve all of these achievements in a foreign country, and it is because of his intelligence and bravery that he even headed the Army’s Far East Command in Japan.

Weaknesses

Despite his strengths and military prowess, General Douglas MacArthur had his weaknesses that sometimes affected his ability to lead and make wise decisions. Throughout his career as a military professional, Douglas made some mistakes, which was a result of his huge ego that made him overlook some important things that would lead to some of his failures. He was arrogant, vain, and sometimes petty and vindictive. Anyone who denied him resources or disagreed with his views and strategies was considered an enemy in the eyes of Douglas. He sometimes lied about the status of some of the battles he was involved in so that he could justify his command decisions and also receive obsequious media coverage. For instance, the Philippines campaign was far more costly than Douglas predicted; it resulted in a bloody war of attrition, as Perry describes in detail in his book. In his book, Perry describes Douglas’s frequent clashes with Washington and the Navy over the allocation of resources and war strategy. From this, his nature as an egoistic, lying narcissist is brought to light.

When Douglas was Chief of staff of the Army, he faced some controversy as he was involved in some problems with the Army and the media. When he was asked to remove the ‘Bonus Army,’ which was a group of thousands of WWI unemployed veterans protesting for the government to offer them bonuses promised during the war, he forced the group out of Washington and burned their encampments. He later sued a journalist for slander a report stating that MacArthur was disrespectful to those above him, and an oppressor to those under him was published. The reporter then informed MacArthur that he had attained letters between him and a famous female star he had connections with, and as a result, MacArthur backed down and paid the reporter a total of $15,000 to get the letters as he did not want the story to become public.[5] This is one of the many cases of dishonesty that General Douglas MacArthur was involved in that showed his flaws as a dishonest man with a huge ego and with no respect for others. One of MacArthur’s greatest failures involves the fall of the Philippines. His arrogant nature led to the fall of the Philippines during WWII. His refusal to work with the Navy to develop a war plan led to his miscalculations, which consequently led to the soldiers suffering enormously due to the brutal actions of the Japanese.[6] Many historians and authors have had many interpretations of MacArthur’s role in the Philippines during World War II. Despite being an intelligent military strategist, MacArthur made several errors while in the Philippines, which led to the fall of the Philippines.[7] He used ill-trained and poor equipment. Additionally, he underestimated the power of the Japanese, and these contributed to his failure. Some praise him for his ability to achieve as much as he did despite having limited resources. Others see him as a cocky, arrogant man, who abandoned his men in their time of need.

Conclusion

Arguably, General Douglas MacArthur was one of America’s most intellectual military leaders. Most of his military strategies proved successful, and his victories in numerous wars enabled him to gain prominence and be identified as an effective military leader, especially during World War II. His efforts in this war were highly recognized as he somehow changed the course of the war and enabled his allies to defeat the Japanese. As seen in this report, General Douglas MacArthur was an influential leader who did things his own way. Part of his success can be attributed to some of his character traits as an intelligent and brave person, while part of his failure can be attributed to his arrogant and egoistic nature. MacArthur was a great leader and a good man in general. Even under the scrutiny of most people, he always wanted to gain a position to do whatever he felt was necessary for the betterment of his country. Many can consider him a selfish man and a narcissist who did not care about the lives of his men due to his military tactics that exposed his men to danger. Clearly, his strengths outweigh his weaknesses, and therefore, he can be considered as one of the greatest leaders in the American Army. Despite all of his flaws, General Douglas MacArthur was an American hero whose intelligence, bravery, and determination helped the American Army go through some very difficult times and achieve victory for the United States during the Second World War.

Bibliography

Beck, John. MacArthur and Wainwright; Sacrifice of the Philippines. Albuquerque, NM, University of New Mexico Press, 1974.

Buhite, Russell D. Douglas MacArthur: statecraft and stagecraft in America’s East Asian policy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008.

Ellingson, Lahia Marie. “The Bastards of Batan: General Douglas MacArthur’s Role in the Fall of the Philippines During World War II.” (2007).

Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. Back Bay Books, 2008

Perry, Mark. The Most Dangerous Man in America: The Making of Douglas MacArthur. Basic Books, 2014.

Rice, Earle. Douglas MacArthur. Infobase Publishing, 2009.

Thomas, Evans 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-most-dangerous-man-in-america-the-making-of-douglas-macarthur-by-mark-perry/2014/03/28/74aa68e4-b049-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html, accessed March 9 , 2020.

[1] Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964. Back Bay Books, 2008.

[2] Rice, Earle. Douglas MacArthur. Infobase Publishing, 2009. 81.

[3] Buhite, Russell D. Douglas MacArthur: statecraft and stagecraft in America’s East Asian policy. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008. 10.

[4] Thomas 2020.

[5] Ibid. 18.

[6] Ellingson, Lahia Marie. “The Bastards of Batan: General Douglas MacArthur’s Role in the Fall of the Philippines During World War II.” 3.

[7] Beck, 14