Post by kungfuzu on Jul 25, 2024 15:49:00 GMT -8
Douglas MacArthur: American Warrior, by Arthur Herman
I should start out saying that I am a fan of Douglas MacArthur. I have read a number of books about the General, most notably American Caesar, by William Manchester. So I was keen to plow into this 937 page (including notes and index) tome about one of America's most celebrated heroes.
In this review, I will not lay out the General's life. That has been done before and to do so here would take much too long. The man did after all come into the world in 1880s America, spending much of his youth in the West and Texas, and die in 1964 while at Walter Reed Hospital. Both America and the world changed dramatically over that period. That is why a good biography of the man should also be an interesting history of the time.
For those who are not familiar with Douglas MacArthur, he was the son of a Civil War hero (Yankee) who stayed in the Army and retired a Lt. General. Due to his father's power and connections, Douglas grew up meeting many of the most powerful and influential people in the America of his youth as well as those who would later become leaders.
His father was the military governor of the Philippines and was well ahead of his times in believing the Philippines could, and should, rule itself. Douglas' time in the Philippines, gave him both a love of the Philippines and understanding of Asia, which I have not come across in any other powerful American figure of the time.
The book uses new material to shed light on areas of the man that had been hidden until recently. I suspect that much of that material came from MacArthur's wife Jean, who died only in 2000. This material sheds both a positive, and not-so-positive cast on the man's life.
Douglas was the golden boy of the U.S. Army early in his career. He was tough, disciplined and intelligent. His father's position and mother's pushiness helped promote his career. As can be imagined, he made a number of enemies along the way. Blackjack Pershing, who had served under Arthur MacArthur, seemed to be constantly trying to trip up Douglas. George Marshall, who was Pershing's aide in WWI, didn't much get along with him either. Eisenhower, who worked for MacArthur for something like eight years, did not even go to his funeral.
While there is little doubt that MacArthur could be arrogant and was a prima donna, there is also no doubt that he was vastly superior to all of the above gentlemen intellectually and in actual battle. To my mind Pershing is highly overrated as a commander. Marshall was a super bureaucrat, and Eisenhower was also a super bureaucrat, but better politician than any of them. He never took part in any battle, much less skirmish. Yet he became Supreme Commander Allied Forces In Europe. Politics.
MacArthur was brilliant, brave and bold in war. This is a rare combination, and I suspect, one reason his peers disliked him. Envy will do that. As Herman notes, MacArthur was brave to the point of foolishness. He proved this throughout his career, from the first time two rebel Filipinos tried to kill him while he was, as I recall, on a surveying mission, to his command in Korea when he accompanied the invasion to Inchon. His escapades in WWI were literally hair raising. Yet, like George Washington, he was never touched by a bullet.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book, but if I had one complaint it would be the author's somewhat sloppy editing. He makes some very basic mistakes, such as writing that Inchon was east of Seoul. For someone who has been to Inchon, and knows were it is, such mistakes are somewhat irritating. Yet they are not so irritating so as to ruin the book.
If the reader has any interest in military history, or even of high-level history of the USA during the first half of the 1900s, I can strongly recommend this book.
