Arthur Herman | Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior

[@WilliamBrownGuitar]

So glad that you are posting these lectures! It's a wonderful service to liberty and to the world.

[@josephbieberly8624]

W Brown...I read your comment and I think it was succinct and spot on.

[@68orangecrate26]

Outstanding lecture about an outstanding American leader.

[@WelshRabbit]

Any time spent in the company of Arthur Herman is time well spent. This one is no exception.

[@paulwilson4738]

Absolutely!

[@JJDSports2012]

Thx to Hillsdale for this series. And thx to Prof Herman. I could listen to him all day.

[@paulwilson4738]

Very engaging!

[@Frankincensedjb123]

I love these lectures. Just watched two videos on Amazon Prime, Adam Smith and Teddy Roosevelt. I've listened to Hillsdale lectures on Washington, Trump, and now MacArthur. Great stuff

[@ag3957]

There was a 3 episode "Washington" mini-series on History last week. It's good.

[@chaidirkarana5035]

............u.

[@chaidirkarana5035]

..

[@chaidirkarana5035]

..

[@jameskostrewa9861]

AWESOME... please have him come back for more lectures !

[@HALLTOM]

After listening to this lecture I am retiring "American Caesar" and replacing it with "Douglas MacArthur - American Warrior." Wonderful lecture!

[@jamese544]

Men who are not “yes men” get the job done and usually great, but piss everyone off along the way. Really enjoyed the videos on Patton and MacAurthur

[@gerardoramoncesarreynaldo9469]

He's also appreciated here in the Philippines.

[@chesslerbooks]

At the end 1:03:00 there is a question regarding using B-29s for taking aerial photos for mapping Korea. Actually the USA realized during and after WWII that that we fought much of the war, especially in Asia, using crude ancient maps or no maps at all. The B-29s were the spy satellites of their day, and since we had aerial supremacy of the entire world except the USSR (and probably the USSR as well, as the Soviets probably didn't have or need fighter planes or missiles that could fly as high as B-29s, 30,000'), we took photos that were later used to create the U-502 maps, made by the US Army Map Service. The U-502s were kept secret for decades, I don't think they are now as they are made obsolete by modern satellite and mapping technology. Many B-29s were converted into reconnaissance planes with flight duration of 24 hours, and continued to overfly the USSR into the 1950s, until the Soviets started shooting them down. (That's how that famous B-29 Kee Bird ended up lost and landing in Greenland. Also, remember in Dr Strangelove, all the B-52 bombers were flying to the USSR over the North Pole, as that's the last part of the USSR that got radar and air defense.)

[@MikeFreesinger]

Absolutely important.... Especially vision of imperialist China. We have been at a largely unrecognized war with China since even before Macarthur landed in Korea. Shame on KissAzsinger and Dick.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Shame on Dirty Harry Truman for giving North Korea and China to the communists

[@Sabhail_ar_Alba]

He also wrote a great book on the Scottish Enlightenment which was well received in the UK.

[@Tendedolive]

Outstanding teacher.

[@OceanHedgehog]

MacArthur is interesting because there were always three MacArthurs at play: MacArthur the general, MacArthur the politician, and MacArthur the statesman. Many in the public remember MacArthur the general and statesman; the navy remembers MacArthur the politician and hated him for his behavior. Depending on whom you ask, their assessment of MacArthur is different because he was such a multifaceted man.

[@nogoodnameleft]

U.S. Navy in the Central Pacific and USMC hated MacArthur because they were jealous and were playing a game of telephone which led to ridiculous rumors and lies about Mac. The USN in the SWPA loved MacArthur, OTOH. Halsey really loved MacArthur, for example, when Halsey served under MacArthur during Operation Cartwheel. The only reason the USMC hates MacArthur is because MacArthur banned any USMC infantry forces to fight in New Guinea and the Philippines. There is a reason the USN/USMC hagiographers and Hollywood never make movies about New Guinea and 1944-45 Philippines.....it is because MacArthur banned USMC infantry from both campaigns. They are still angry at MacArthur after 80 years!!! The USMC wanted the glory of liberating the U.S. territory of the Philippines, but the Army did the work. Also Nimitz was the foolish meatgrinder commander in the Pacific, not MacArthur. Nimitz ordered Peleliu which would have also been invaded if Nimitz' Formosa invasion had happened. Nimitz' Iwo Jima and Okinawa campaigns were foolish meatgrinders also. Iwo Jima was not necessary at all because the USAAF didn't even use it as a P-51 fighter escort base after mid-March after the failure of the escort missions for the B-29s after only a week or two of operations! That "Iwo Jima escort planes myth" is one of the BIG LIES of WWII. Iwo Jima was a complete waste of 7,000 U.S. troops' lives.

[@steveneisenberg9686]

A fantastic and fascinating talk. His use of previously unpublished sources builds on prior bios. No need to criticize Manchester, though. It's easy to criticize a dead man.

[@amartinjoe]

screw the haters....MacArthur will always be America's Greatest Battlefield Commander. So what if he had an ego? or was flawed ? One reporter summed it up nicely - "people say that the trouble with MacArthur is that he has an ego.....well!! How would you like to go to war behind a General who has an inferiority complex?"

[@aristonandrada5446]

During invasion of Iraq, no general questioned, rumsfield. Imagine if Macarthur is present.

[@shulahamilton9025]

At 12:30, nine hours after the attack on Pearl Harbor, aircraft of Japan's 11th Air Fleet achieved complete tactical surprise when they attacked Clark Field and the nearby fighter base at Iba Field, and destroyed or disabled 18 of Far East Air Force's 35 B-17s, 53 of its 107 P-40s, three P-35s, and more than 25 other aircraft. Most were destroyed on the ground. Substantial damage was done to the bases, and casualties totaled 80 killed and 150 wounded.[132] What was left of the Far East Air Force was all but destroyed over the next few days. Wikipedia, Philippines Campaign. Can you respond? BTW, my husband is a retired pilot.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Easy. FDR and Marshall refused to send proper equipment to MacArthur in the 1930s and through Dec 1941. Also the thing is the 35 B-17s were the ONLY planes that could have hit southern Formosa. Most of those other planes were obsolete as seen when all the ones sent up in the air except the P-40s were destroyed within 48 hours and so many airmen died because the planes were incredibly outdated. Also you wanted MacArthur to send 35 B-17s with zero fighter escorts to bomb Formosa with no reconnaissance beforehand? You would be bitching about how MacArthur killed hundreds of airmen over Formosa and lost 35 B-17s. The P-40s cannot escort B-17s for a round trip to Formosa. It is funny how you Mac haters blame him for everything. I read some of your comrades online laughably blame MacArthur for kamikaze attacks. You guys are delusional. MacArthur will always be the most beloved general of the 20th century.

[@annpeerkat2020]

@@nogoodnameleft Good one SS! Answer an obviously valid question with a response which for some reason irrelevantly addresses bombing formosa. I can see how the word delusional got into your mind. As far as the beloved general... perhaps to Elizabeth Cooper, but certainly not to a lot of soldiers in the Philippines and New Guinea. Now I have an open mind unlike you, but I struggle to understand that because the lecturer says "the mistress didn't exist" with absolutely no evidence or backup in the face of all other reports... as an example... I dunno about his value. I'd sure like the speaker to write me a reference....but maybe not to have anything to do with intelligence.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Wow, you are delusional and have a very low IQ. Why is the fact that those B-17s would have ZERO fighter escorts in Formosa and would have all been shot down due to those being early model B-17s with no chin turret, no ball turret, and no tail gun irrelevant? The Mac haters like you want to lie and claim that bombing Formosa would have been feasible. It wasn't at all. Also the NAVY lied to MacArthur and did not tell him the Japanese were going to attack and they refused to send him information that Pearl Harbor was bombed. Admiral Hart in Manila received the Pearl Harbor news and REFUSED to tell MacArthur. This delayed the response by MacArthur because Hart found out about Pearl Harbor like 5 hours before Mac did but be hid the information from MacArthur!!! With regards to Isabel Cooper, there was a wonderful biography written about her and released in 2021 called "Empire's Mistress, Starring Isabel Rosario Cooper". Maybe you need to read it. MacArthur fell in love with a 18-30 year old grown Filipina woman, not an underage minor. She LIED about her age numerous times and even her surviving family in the Philippines said that Manchester was a liar and provided her birth certificate which proved she was an adult when she first started dating MacArthur. What exactly was the problem with Mac having a Filipina girlfriend. Only a racist would be whining about that. He was not married and had no girlfriend when he dated her. Also, the Navy of the Nimitz theater and USMC hated MacArthur because of a bunch of slander and libel told about MacArthur by jealous sailors and Marines. But the Army which did all the ground operations in New Guinea and Philippines which served under MacArthur loved him. Bunch of sailors who served in the SWPA loved MacArthur too because he didn't send them into worthless meatgrinders like Nimitz foolishly did at Peleliu, Okinawa, Tarawa, and Iwo Jima. MacArthur lost far less troops than Nimitz did starting in June 1942 after the Pearl Harbor and Philippines defeats. Guadalcanal was a sloppily executed campaign by Nimitz too. Nimitz lost 7,100 American lives at Guadalcanal as well as 30 USN ships including numerous aircraft carriers at Guadalcanal.

[@libertycoffeehouse3944]

FDR wanted America in the war. The strategy was to let the Japanese get the upper hand and first blow.

[@t.f.fredrick9101]

Arthur Herman makes the same mistake, as most people do, regarding the pronunciation of the last name of Douglas MacArthur. As the general himself made clear in the very first paragraph of page one, of his autobiography titled "Reminiscences," he is of Scot descent in the Clan MacArtair. The proper enunciation of his last name sounds like Mack-Arthur, not Muh-Carther.

[@texasknight5175]

The photo of Mac, FDR and Nimitz is quite telling.

[@twinturbo8304]

No mention of the surrender on the Missouri . I had to research him on my own, because this speech left so many unanswered questions.

[@user-yi1wk3zs5j]

blah blah blah get over u..your repeating

[@Stew357]

Excellent lecture, ty!

[@LuisDiuk]

We must promote intelectuals that give the battle of ideas to make the truth up

[@alitlweird]

MacArthur has a good movie. Emperor. starring Tommy Lee Jones. I thought it was good, anyway.

[@donaldreed2351]

I want to hear more, more, more...

[@e.a.p3174]

Dr. Herman the Americans did not liberate the Philippines from the Spanish, the fact is the Filipinos had declared independence from Spain. The fact is American troops fought a battle with Filipinos and killed 600,000 Filipinos which is about 10% of the population. In fairness to the American occupiers, the Americans invested a lot of money in the infrastructure of the Philippines. Next to Jesus Christ and Mama Mary, Douglas MacArthur is the most revered person in the Philippines among the older people. I was fortunate to get a personal tour of MacArthur's suite in the Manila hotel, and I visited Corregidor.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Without the U.S. defeating the Spanish Empire in Cuba and Puerto Rico the Spanish would have never left the Philippines, though. The elite Filipino Catholics still loved the Spanish and only the death of the Empire by America could have changed the status quo. That is why there is a glass half full, half empty situation about the U.S. entry into the Philippines in 1898-1899. Same thing about what you said like incredible infrastructure modernization of the Philippines thanks to the USA. The resulting war with atrocities by all factions was terrible and horrifying. MacArthur is revered by the general public of all ages in the Philippines too, not only "old people". In Dagupan and Lingayen City they are building two brand new MacArthur statues to honor him and the 1945 Luzon landings! They recently renovated the school building where Mac's HQ was in Dagupan for about a month and even preserved and renovated the bathtub that he used hahah. The Price Mansion in Leyte where Mac had his HQ for 3 months in 1944 has also been renovated and preserved to remember and thank MacArthur. They even built MacArthur memorials in the 2000s in Mindanao where his PT boat landed in March 1942 and also at the airfield where he escaped via a B-17!!! Without Mac there would be no liberation of the Philippines until after the firebombings and nukings of Japan....and just imagine what those healthy 500,000 Japanese troops under Yamashita would have done to Americans and Filipinos after learning about the destruction of Tokyo and Hiroshima and Nagasaki and suffering almost no casualties from small Allied air attacks on the Philippines in 1945.

[@e.a.p3174]

@@nogoodnameleft My friend have you been in Palo where they have the statutes? It's supposed to be a national historic shrine, and I visited it 3 times and every time I go there it's more decrepit. There used to be also a monument in Barili Cebu where Japanese soldiers through over a cliff. It's been gone now. I contacted the govenor of Cebu and the mayor of Barili regarding the monument and got no reply.

[@nogoodnameleft]

@@e.a.p3174 The President of the Philippines honored MacArthur and his soldiers at the anniversary just 3 months ago! The climate in the Philippines is very rough on statues so maintenance is necessary frequently. I remember when that nasty typhoon 10 years ago toppled and destroyed a few of the statues at Palo. And judging by very recent videos of the MacArthur Landing Memorial in Leyte they have made it a lot nicer looking nowadays. Same with the Price Mansion in Tacloban (this was MacArthur's Leyte HQ which today has another cool statue of MacArthur and Osmena announcing the re-establishment of the Commonwealth government) which looked crappy until about a year or two ago and they renovated it very well. I think the current Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines is from Tacloban so they made sure to renovate the Mansion and MacArthur Landing statues very well in the past year. 2 years of COVID completely screwed up maintenance funds for renovation and upkeep, btw. By the way, look up Dagupan City and Lingayen City's plans to build two separate MacArthur Landing Memorials/Statues/Parks to honor MacArthur! Dagupan's MacArthur Landing Park is mostly complete and is just waiting for the statue while Lingayen City is 2-3 years from building because if you watch the CGI video modeling presentation that is a very ambitious project and they plan on making a Leyte-size memorial with large statues. Dagupan's MacArthur statue I think will not be that large.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

BIG MAC ? How tall was he ? 6 4 ? 193cm ?

[@garymccoy2888]

I thought the crushed hat was due to pilots needing to wear head-phones over it.

[@destry5250]

In WWII, yes. In WWI, pilots didn't have earphones . . .

[@VincenzoPentangeli]

KZbin, Unauthorized History has a much different view of MacArthur. Look for "Episode 103: The Legend of Dugout Doug".

[@jago5373]

MacArthur wasn't respected by the Australian soldiers that served under him 1942-1944. They thought he was overdramatic with a tendency to panic. Also noted that failed to visit or understand the battlefront on new guinea and made totally unrealistic demands of the Auz troops and the undertrained Americans. Finally, I never got why America invaded the Philippines at all, there was no need. It seemed like a MacArthur lead demand. If MacArthur really had foresight he would have suggested aiding the Chinese nationalists.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Australian PM Curtin was the only reason MacArthur was relocated to Australia. FDR and Marshall would have been okay with Japan's desire to capture and kill MacArthur (because FDR and Marshall hated MacArthur due to jealousy) after Japan declared on radio that after they captured MacArthur they will chop off his head in front of the emperor in Tokyo. Curtin, however, was a MacArthur fan and wanted him to become the de facto Australian Minister of Defense. So you can thank your PM for that instead of blaming MacArthur for everything, 😃. And you are very selective about MacArthur "not visiting the frontlines". During Operation Cartwheel and Reno Plan (Hollandia and Aitape) he was landing on the beaches and visiting the frontlines numerous times. During the 1944-45 Philippines campaign he was embarked on a warship at Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf and was under kamikaze, torpedo, and aerial bombing attacks. At Leyte, Luzon, and Manila he went to the frontlines to visit privates to encourage them to be brave and fight. He never wore a helmet just like during his combat service in WWI. I wonder why you don't call Eisenhower and Nimitz cowards when Eisenhower hid in a bunker and cried for his mommy during the Battle of the Bulge and Nimitz refused to ever leave Pearl Harbor during all of WWII. Why is MacArthur's bravery being questioned by you while you seem to not want to talk about the true cowards known as Eisenhower, Nimitz, Marshall, Ernest King, and Bradley? Also in 1944 the only option was Formosa or Philippines. Okinawa and Iwo Jima would never happen unless Formosa/Philippines were taken first. Because Formosa was a Japanese colony since 1895 the whole population there were Japanese and firmly devoted to defending the island like how Okinawans defended Okinawa. 750,000 U.S. troops were required to invade Formosa vs only 250,000 needed for Philippines because Filipinos were loyal to America and hated Japan. Because of the 750,000 troops needed for Formosa an invasion of Formosa would not occur until June 1945, when the war in Europe ended. So according to what you wanted Okinawa and Iwo Jim would have been delayed until around February 1946. Formosa would have made Okinawa look like a cakewalk. Japan had thousands of kamikaze aircraft ready in mainland China vs a Formosa invasion vs only about 300 kamikaze at Philippines (and the 300 kamikazes in the Philippines still sunk around 30 ships and heavily damaged 100+ ships). Do the math on how many Filipinos and Americans would be executed from 1944 to mid 1946 by the 550,000 Japanese troops on the Philippines after U.S. planes started firebombing Japan. MacArthur ended up killing 450,000 out of the 500,000 Japanese troops in the Philippines at the cost of about 18K dead U.S. troops. Contrast this with Nimitz' 20K dead U.S. troops vs 150,000 dead Japanese troops on the small island of Okinawa.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

@@nogoodnameleft & H A P ! Nice speech !

Luftwaffe pilots did the same with their caps to give them a "warrior" look.

[@mariarahelvarnhagen2729]

Jack Buetel Was Primary Opponent Of MacArthur And Not His Father

[@jamieh.2224]

I believe the "modern historian" he refers to is Bill O'Reilly.

[@LewisHTreadway]

Douglas "Dugout Doug Macaroni MacArthur was the reason my father suffered for his entire life and the ultimate cause of death 😢 along the deaths of thousands of his fellow soldiers!

[@DrJeffreyMSeder]

WRONG!

A lot of 20/20 hindsight-type comments

[@chriscollins1525]

You leave out a lot of his failures. He did possess many of qualities you describe. But also, the other side of his grand ego was his flaws.

[@billsanders5067]

If you really think Dougout Doug was America's greatest military leader you need to talk to any WWII or Korean United States Marine veteran. Oh and don't forget that it was Douggie that routed and razed the Bonus Army.

Nimitz was a highly able commander and no prima donna like Patton and Mc Arthur, who was surrounded by sycophants… The two greatest military men in American history were Robert E. Lee and G.C. Marshall.

[@jimcatanzaro4897]

The most egregious capitulation in U.S. history leading to the Bataan death march of thousands of American soldiers; racing our infantry north without mechanized support to be catastrophically overwhelmed by 300,000 Chinese soldiers swarming across the Yalu River into north Korea; losing 7,000 Marines in the needless invasion of the coral atoll Peleliu - just three of MacArthur’s mega-blunders driven by ungoverned impulses, disregard for intelligence, and dereliction of duty. No, his dramatic speeches and the subsequent claims of his sycophants to the contrary, MacArthur weakened America in our struggle with Soviet and Chinese Communism. Read what Marshall, Bradley and Eisenhower thought of MacArthur as a general and you will see the full picture.

[@sulevisydanmaa9981]

PELELIU was a Nimitz op, based on a self-congratulatory promise given by N to FDR @ PH some weeks before its commencement. SOURCE : Ross, Bill D. Peleliu - a Tragic Triumph (the best study on P). Halsey heavily pressured 4 its cancellation, to no avail, only days prior to. His TF had lambasted Koror and eliminated JAAF in the area recently. MOROTAI op was Mac s, and started simultaneously (sept 15.44) and would provide the required pedestal 4 long range B-24 missions toward points east on mainland Asia proper. Peleliu was hampered by inadequate leadership skills of maj.gen Rupertus, not the brightest pencil in the corps. Chesty Puller also fucked up. The flotilla was under cmd of vice-adm Th. Wilkinson - 3rd Amph Corps. Suggest order the book ! SEMPER FINN

[@brucesutton3344]

Dug-out Doug landed from the landing craft on dry land. This prima donna wanted a more dramatic landing for the photographers so they did it again with him wading ashore from the landing craft. The Russians would have just shot an incompetent like him, whereas he is given a medal of honour in the US. Just one of the many glory seeking US commanders that disobeyed orders. See also Clark the so-called liberator of Rome, and Patton trying to rescue his son-in-law from a POW camp. Good men died because of these jerks.

[@aristonandrada5446]

They risk there lives and destroyed your enemies, and you called them jerks!

[@brucesutton3344]

@@aristonandrada5446 Douglas Mac Arthur abandoned his men to their fate in the Philippines. Many of them, and Filipino soldiers, would die on the Bataan death march and in Japanese POW camps. Clark disobeyed orders, rather than intercept the retreating Germans, retreating because the other allies were fighting them, he decided to chase glory and enter Rome, were there weren't any Germans, so he could be hailed as its liberator. All three were jerks. Mac Arthur certainly did not risk his life and Clark avoided any fighting. Patton was full of himself. Typical Americans.

[@nogoodnameleft]

This loser lightweight Mac hater prefers worthless REMFs who were too scared to fight in combat like Ike, Nimitz, King, and Marshall. The true cowards of WWII were Marshall and Nimitz. Those two REMFs were never within 1,000 miles of a battlefield. They never even served in combat in WWI! MacArthur served well in WWI OTOH. Mac's 2 DSCs and 7 SSMs and the highest military awards from France are pretty amazing accolades. Ike and Marshall never came close to achieving MacArthur's European frontline coombat experience or success during their combined WWI and WWII service. Mac earned 7 Silver Stars!!!!

[@user-yi1wk3zs5j]

trying to make him lose his train of thought shame on you!

Dugout Doug!

If you read "The Coldest war" by D. Halberstam, and "American Caesar" by Manchester, you get great insights. So why another book?

[@ze-pie11]

Money, Obviously...

[@kalvin1123]

He got access to more recently available documents, like he said.

[@mysticalwind4632]

What's with Arthur Herman's sick infatuation with Douglas MacArthur ? Douglas MacArthur was relieved of his command for his gung ho approach and reckless disregard for human life (not to mention advocating actions that went counter to official US policy at the time). Insubordination is a military offense and Douglas MacArthur should have been put on trial for that.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Major problem with your fairytale: MacArthur never committed the military crime of insubordination. Dirty Harry Truman never ordered the JCS to give a military command to MacArthur to not publically disagree with Dirty Harry's crappy Korean War plans. Truman merely made it a DOD employees order, not a military order. Bradley and Marshall both confirmed under oath that Mac never broke any laws or disobeyed orders...they explicitly said "Mac never committed the military crime of insubordination". You know who was worthless though? Those REMFs named Marshall, Ike, King, and Nimitz who in their combined careers saw ZERO combat experience, unlike MacArthur, who saw combat stretching back to the Philippine American War! Mac earned 2 DSCs and 7 SSMs and numerous French awards for his brave service in the trenches and no man's land of France in WWI. He had nothing to prove in WWII as a 61-65 year old retiree brought back to active duty yet he still landed on the beaches all during WWII from New Guinea all the way to the Philippines (Leyte Gulf and Lingayen Gulf were incredibly dangerous yet MacArthur courageously exposed himself to kamikaze attacks for 4 months from Leyte to Luzon) rather than hide in his bunker like cowardly Nimitz did in Pearl Harbor for the WHOLE war! Btw, what is with your infatuation with that crappy president named Dirty Harry Truman, aka the man who created the NSA, CIA, and the military-industrial complex?

[@rd9793]

Patton was also a great general

[@garymccoy2888]

I had always heard that that return to the Philippines was staged and repeated several times to get it right.

[@nogoodnameleft]

More Navy bias in history books and pro-Truman/Marshall fantasy propaganda. FDR loved MacArthur and the Mac haters always ignore this. Without FDR always having Mac's back Mac would have been toast if any other Democrat was president. Shouldn't that be enough for all the Mac haters who bitterly defend their precious Marshall and Truman?

[@jstanley011]

This isn't history, it's hagiography and apologia. MacArthur's SW Asia campaign was a sideshow, it was the thrust in the Central Pacific under Nimitz that defeated the Japanese. The claim that the good general not only invented combined arms operations, but the battle tactic of flanking attacks itself, is beyond laughable in the stupendous ignorance of the history of warfare, ancient and modern, that it shows. Furthermore, the fact that Mao was planning offensive operations in Korea before MacArthur's thrust to the Yalu, far from redeeming the good general, makes him appear doubly incompetent for deftly positioning his forces inside the dragon's mouth, and almost losing the peninsula for a second time. I think I'll take a pass on this fellow's book, lol.

[@francischambless5919]

Am I wrong in how I've always looked at this general? It never sit right with me that he ran out in the middle of the night with his staff and left over 100,000 soldiers (can't recall the numbers specifically) to fend for themselves. The fact that those soldiers fought until they had no more to fight with and were captured and slaughtered subsequently in the death march and slave labor/starvation.... Even in the outset of the Japanese attack his lax and ineffectiveness leading to his air power to be utterly destroyed on the ground when even then the tensions with Japan warranted a heightened alert. I'm disgusted with this guy through and through he had zero redemption regardless of what he did or said.

[@richardcassidy9536]

@@francischambless5919 Right on the money. Dwight Eisenhower who served under MacArthur in the Phillipines was scathing of MacArthur; his boundless vanity, his constant theatrics, insatiable ego, carelessness etc.. Eisenhower did all the work and MacArthur took credit for it. Also of importance was his cruel and barbarous treatment of American veterans who set up camp outside the White House in protest to be paid. MacArthur drove them away with troops and burned all their shanties. A loathsome creature right up there - maybe even eclipsing - the other incompetent prima donna General George Armstrong Custer.

[@nogoodnameleft]

Oh great, Truman/Marshall hagiographers projecting their own hero-worship problems and insecurities onto others. The Philippines was lost after Pearl Harbor which meant no hope of any USN rescue. FDR and Marshall refused to send any weapons to Mac prior to June 1941. The defenses were not ready at all by Dec 1941. Mac and Ike went to DC in 1937 begging for some surplus Springfield rifles that were sitting in dusty warehouses and Marshall and FDR laughed at them and told them "too bad!" Those 35 B-17s in the Philippines were early models and had no chin turrets, no ball turrets, and no tail guns and there was zero reconnaissance done because they were not at war before that day. You wanted those 35 unescorted B-17s to be foolishly sacrificed so you can blame it on Mac, don't you? P-40s would not be able to even escort the B-17s halfway to Formosa let alone a full round trip escort. The Japanese declared on the radio all throughout the Philippines campign of 1941-42 that when they capture Mac that they would execute him via hanging or beheading right in front of the Emperor. They planned to execute MacArthur in the very area where MacArthur later became the SCAP in Japan after WWII. The Japanese had plans to actually execute Mac between the Dai-Ichi Building and the Imperial Palace. You Mac haters for some reason take this very lightly like it was a joke or something. For Korea everything that happened post-Inchon was Dirty Harry Truman's fault. On 11 September 1950 TRUMAN ordered MacArthur to cross the 38th but the June 1950 UN resolution said to only restore South Korea below the 38th. DOD Secretary Marshall later ordered MacArthur in late September to proceed strategically and tactically with no limits above the 38th and the JCS also ordered Mac to "liberate all of Korea and to bring them under the control of the Seoul government". Also it is strange how Truman hagiographers never talk about the fact that Truman cut about 75% of the military from 1946-50. The 8th Army in Japan that was sent to Korea in June 1950 had no weapons like bazookas that could destroy any North Korean tanks because Truman cut the budget for the Army and Navy! Truman ordered a blockade of North Korea but the JCS told him "Mr. President, we don't have enough combat ships in the Pacific to do a blockade of North Korea". Look up the disastrous B-36 Peacemaker bombers money laundering scheme that Truman concocted with his DOD Secretary who was a major donor to his 1948 campaign and Truman's mothballing of almost all USN ships prior to 1950. Look up the "Revolt of the Admirals". How exactly was MacArthur responsible for Dirty Harry's disastrous military budget cuts and how was MacArthur responsible for Truman refusing to send any weapons to the 8th Army? When you realize that Truman cut all weapons and budget for MacArthur in Japan it turns out that it was a true miracle that MacArthur was even able to pull off the delaying battle at Taejon and successfully pull off the Pusan Perimeter battles. I don't even know what vessels were used to transport the 8th Army since Truman had mothballed almost the whole USN Fleet!!!

[@rd9793]

He was ordered to leave by FDR.

This is SO one-sided and by an historian who NEVER knew the man, as compared to W. Manchester.

[@kg4lzc]

Girl giving the introduction needs to learn a little bit about public speaking. that was a terrible intro.

[@annpeerkat2020]

I thought it was wonderful... rehearsed, attention to the audience not just reading, delivered in a cheerful manner, and without stumbles. I'd love to see an example of Dave showing us how it should have been done!

[@markholmes683]

Truly Pathetic .Utterly seen thro inept eyes.

[@lessonstolivefor]

Anti communism is America’s greatest shame.

[@JJDSports2012]

Haroldo Neto - you’re close. After our Constitution, it’s our greatest glory.

[@lessonstolivefor]

Jsports2012 anti communism has kept America in the 19th century.

[@JJDSports2012]

Haroldo Neto - I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about. Communism is the 19th century “idea” that has left only a record of lies, poverty, failure, enslavement, and death everywhere it has been attempted. Even if “successful,” which it cannot be, it would result in repression and a complete lack of individual freedom. I’ll stand on America’s system as one that still attracts millions and created the highest standard of living anywhere, ever. Communism is a system of degradation and misery. Take care.

[@illuminatus530]

@@JJDSports2012 Please tell that to Kim Jong Un and Xi Jin Ping. People are dying in those countries needlessly.

[@WilliamBrownGuitar]

Ignorant and sad.

[@charlesferdinand422]

Douglas MacArthur is one of the most overrated generals in American history: At the Philippines he suffered a defeat that is cocnsidered "the greatest in the history of American foreign wars" after which he fled for his life (not before melodramatically promising "I shall return" for the newspapers, after which the Pentagon asked him to change his statement to "we shall return" to include the entire American military which he refused as he wanted to be the only liberator of the Philippines and he'd also pretend to refuse to leave the Philippines melodramatically proclaiming he'd "share the fate of the garrison" which is now known to be just an act to look heroic, brave and stoic as he knew full well the government would never allow such a high-ranking officer to surrender) and during his life in Australia after he fled and after his return to the Philippines MacArthur was more concerned with photo ops (especially taking pictures trying to look manly and tough with giant pipes or when he returned to the Philippines and took great care of including many photographers whom he instructed and positioned carefully so that they'd take picture of him disembarking and walking melodramatically towards the coast), creating self-serving propaganda flattering to himself and meddling in politics than with actual fighting. And he was also narcissistic and petty as shown by his relationship with Wendell Fertig who was everything MacArthur wasn't: Apolitical, sincerely concerned with the wellbeing of his subordinates, humble and tactically successful and a strategic genius; Fertig was one of the most successful guerilla commanders in history, when MacArthur was considering how to fit as many of his valuables and friends as possible in the boats in which he fled Fertig was refusing to leave the Philippines and stayed behind in the jungle to fight alongside his Filipino soldiers which he never abandoned and which he led to victory; however, despite all of his achievements, he never even received the Medal of Honor and was never promoted to General, which would have been customary for a man with his exploits and which had been awarded to men with lesser achievemens, this didn't happen because MacArthur blocked all attempts at rewarding Fertig because he was jealous of him and because he wanted to be seen as the only liberator of the Philippines (and even disobeyed direct orders more than once such as when he was ordered to liberate Luzon but after this was done, on his own initiative he moved to other bigger islands but he picked the easiest and less defended ones; in fact, disobeying orders in attempts to increase his glory and popularity was what got him relieved of command during the Korean War); in other words, he wanted all fame and glory to himself and was perfectly willing to rob a deserving man of his hard-earned glory in order to aggrandize himself; in fact, during the war MacArthur blocked aid and reinforcements to Wertig in the hopes that he'd be defeated or humilliated, that's how disgusting petty, vindictive and disgusting MacArthur was.