MacArthur
- Episode aired Feb 25, 2013
- 1h
IMDb RATING
7.0/10
5
YOUR RATING
He was a US Army general who was also the only ever Field Marshal of the Philippine Army, and this symbolizes MacArthur's visionary belief that Asia would dominate the future of the world.He was a US Army general who was also the only ever Field Marshal of the Philippine Army, and this symbolizes MacArthur's visionary belief that Asia would dominate the future of the world.He was a US Army general who was also the only ever Field Marshal of the Philippine Army, and this symbolizes MacArthur's visionary belief that Asia would dominate the future of the world.
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Remarkable.
General Douglas MacArthur was born into a military family and educated at West Point. His was a much an aristocratic military family as any of those in Europe. His father, a Medal of Honor winner, participated in the subduing of Philippine resistance at a point when American imperialism was expanding outside of the continental US, the American Indians having been finally defeated. MacArthur himself fought bravely in World War I. But, my God, he was vain. He loved publicity and carried around a number of props like some other vainglorious generals -- a swagger stick, a pipe that grew longer and more bizarre with the years, the shades, the elaborate cap of a Field Marshall in the Philippine Army. He hated the Navy and told the Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, that he'd discovered a conspiracy to have the Navy take over all of America's defense.
Probably his best-known utterance was "I shall return," after he'd reluctantly left the Philippines and arrived in Australia in 1942. The government requested that he change the "I" to "We" but he refused. The Philippines were a personal matter for him. He'd served there as his father's adjutant and he held a paternalistic affection for the Philippine people. Roosevelt, wanting to keep the debonair general at a distance, made him chief of the US Army in the Philippines. In 1937, he resigned from the army to accept a role of a military adviser to President Quezon. The rank of Field Marshall was MacArthur's idea.
The defense of the 4,000 Islands was no small task. The coastline was greater than that of the USA. MacArthur kept asking for more men and equipment from Washington, which were not forthcoming and where he was known as The Emperor of Luzon. He took these denials as a personal slight. Nevertheless, he was reappointed to the US Army, was sent several thousand green troops and 37 B-17 bombers. Like everyone else outside of Japan, he didn't foresee the impact of air power. But something very puzzling happened on December 8th, after the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, for which there is simply no adequate explanation. For 25 hours after Pearl Harbor, he did nothing. His B-17s and fighters were all properly lined up on Clark Field when the Japanese attacked and destroyed them in a few minutes.
It took two days before he issued any military orders and by that time the Japanese were already landing. Two heads rolled at Pearl Harbor but MacArthur's neck remained intact. The official Air Force history suggests he had "a mild nervous breakdown." Finally, following prearranged plans he had his Philippine and American troops retreat to the peninsula of Bataan, a very successful move with few casualties. MacArthur and his staff moved to the rock-like island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. There followed a five-month siege by the Japanese while the Allied troops fought and ran out of supplies like food and ammunition. MacArthur was misled by the Allied command that promised him reenforcements and supplies that never came. He seemed not to know about the deteriorating conditions of his troops. In seventy-seven days he visited Bataan only once, earning him the nickname of "Dugout Doug." Maybe he couldn't face them. Without MacArthur's knowing about it, the Philippines had already been written off. The general reluctantly followed orders to move to Australia, leaving behind his defeated men who were savagely treated by their captors.
I'll have to keep this short or I'll run out of space but it's a job to do so because the narrative is fascinating. One usually unacknowledged fact is that the first ground victory over the Japanese was not made by Americans or Brits but by Australians on New Guinea. MacArthur claimed this as an Allied victory. When Americans won, it became an American victory. It didn't endear him to the diggers. Of his 149 communiques, 109 contained only one name -- his. But his strategy was unimpeachable. Instead of creeping towards the Philippines island by island, he leapfrogged and left major bases behind to "wither on the vine." A prime Japanese base at Rabaul stranded 100,000 Japanese troops with no air force and no one to fight.
One of his most admirable achievements was in running a defeated Japan after the war. He wrote its constitution and, on the advice of anthropologists, allowed Hirohito to remain as Emperor. It was a constitutional monarchy, rather like Britain, and not a Jeffersonian-style democracy like America's. His impulses here were mostly humanitarian and successful. He was a remarkable man, a cocktail of contradictions, as the program calls him.
The writers have dwelt at length on MacArthur's foibles but I think it's a valuable corrective. Not because it knee-caps MacArthur's achievements but because the revelation of his flaws fills in some of the blanks in the public's perception of him, as projected in the feature film, "MacArthur." Reality is usually an improvement over myth, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
Probably his best-known utterance was "I shall return," after he'd reluctantly left the Philippines and arrived in Australia in 1942. The government requested that he change the "I" to "We" but he refused. The Philippines were a personal matter for him. He'd served there as his father's adjutant and he held a paternalistic affection for the Philippine people. Roosevelt, wanting to keep the debonair general at a distance, made him chief of the US Army in the Philippines. In 1937, he resigned from the army to accept a role of a military adviser to President Quezon. The rank of Field Marshall was MacArthur's idea.
The defense of the 4,000 Islands was no small task. The coastline was greater than that of the USA. MacArthur kept asking for more men and equipment from Washington, which were not forthcoming and where he was known as The Emperor of Luzon. He took these denials as a personal slight. Nevertheless, he was reappointed to the US Army, was sent several thousand green troops and 37 B-17 bombers. Like everyone else outside of Japan, he didn't foresee the impact of air power. But something very puzzling happened on December 8th, after the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, for which there is simply no adequate explanation. For 25 hours after Pearl Harbor, he did nothing. His B-17s and fighters were all properly lined up on Clark Field when the Japanese attacked and destroyed them in a few minutes.
It took two days before he issued any military orders and by that time the Japanese were already landing. Two heads rolled at Pearl Harbor but MacArthur's neck remained intact. The official Air Force history suggests he had "a mild nervous breakdown." Finally, following prearranged plans he had his Philippine and American troops retreat to the peninsula of Bataan, a very successful move with few casualties. MacArthur and his staff moved to the rock-like island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. There followed a five-month siege by the Japanese while the Allied troops fought and ran out of supplies like food and ammunition. MacArthur was misled by the Allied command that promised him reenforcements and supplies that never came. He seemed not to know about the deteriorating conditions of his troops. In seventy-seven days he visited Bataan only once, earning him the nickname of "Dugout Doug." Maybe he couldn't face them. Without MacArthur's knowing about it, the Philippines had already been written off. The general reluctantly followed orders to move to Australia, leaving behind his defeated men who were savagely treated by their captors.
I'll have to keep this short or I'll run out of space but it's a job to do so because the narrative is fascinating. One usually unacknowledged fact is that the first ground victory over the Japanese was not made by Americans or Brits but by Australians on New Guinea. MacArthur claimed this as an Allied victory. When Americans won, it became an American victory. It didn't endear him to the diggers. Of his 149 communiques, 109 contained only one name -- his. But his strategy was unimpeachable. Instead of creeping towards the Philippines island by island, he leapfrogged and left major bases behind to "wither on the vine." A prime Japanese base at Rabaul stranded 100,000 Japanese troops with no air force and no one to fight.
One of his most admirable achievements was in running a defeated Japan after the war. He wrote its constitution and, on the advice of anthropologists, allowed Hirohito to remain as Emperor. It was a constitutional monarchy, rather like Britain, and not a Jeffersonian-style democracy like America's. His impulses here were mostly humanitarian and successful. He was a remarkable man, a cocktail of contradictions, as the program calls him.
The writers have dwelt at length on MacArthur's foibles but I think it's a valuable corrective. Not because it knee-caps MacArthur's achievements but because the revelation of his flaws fills in some of the blanks in the public's perception of him, as projected in the feature film, "MacArthur." Reality is usually an improvement over myth, even when it makes us uncomfortable.
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- rmax304823
- Sep 9, 2015
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- Runtime1 hour
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