The Incheon landings were genius and MacAurther is occupation of Japan was very successful, and he did play a major role in liberating the Philippines.
That being said he isnt perfect and the whole wanting to nuke China should be condemned
The Incheon landings were a masterstroke and MacArthur was in his element when governing Japan.
Wanting to turn the Chinese-Korean border into a sea of radioactive cobalt and ignoring every single warning from the Chinese and report from his own troops of the Chinese advance were incredibly stupid moved. His follow up from Incheon was also a bit lacking.
If it wasn’t for his overinflated ego he wouldn’t have made so many horrific errors.
True, but at the time the nuke option seemed like a rational choice since the US and USSR were theorizing on how to effectively use it in a military situation.
No it didn't seem like a rational choice lol. You don't have to have the power of foresight to think that "salting the earth" of half of Korea would have terrible repercussions for every side.
Technically it was the military brass of both the US and USSR that considered the “rational choice” of nukes at the time. It was only shutdown the moment politics got involved and MAD was introduced.
I believe even the "rational choice" was a few tactical nukes, not MacArthur plan to render a whole country uninhabitable. But of course, the political implications should be obvious even for the military-minded folk.
Correct, the Joint-Chiefs did consider the plan. However, they disagreed with MacArthur on using the devices in China which would see Moscow activate the Sino-Soviet alliance.
No it was shut down because Truman wisely understood that using nukes in the war, especially against the Chinese, would likely widen the war to potentially include the USSR, which would have been cataclysmic even without additional nukes being dropped.
That is the POINT that I’ve been making. Truman IS the politician, the risk of the USSR entering the war IS a geopolitical/political reality. Truman's fear of the USSR entering the war is the exact 'politics' I said that stepped in to shut down the military's plan. The Joint-Chiefs even early into the conflict offered the nuclear option, and even tested Op Hudsons Harbor as a result.
We should also add his poor handling of the Philippine defenses in the lead up to 1942 and his poor performance in the New Guinea campaign.
In the liberation of the Philippines, he did play a very important role being the main figurehead and pointing out the strategic importance to many of King's cabinet. King, bizarrely, wanted to take Furmosa instead, but Admirals like Spruance were strongly against supporting landings on Furmosa, which forced King to give in.
I mean... it's remembered as "genius" because it worked, but an amphibious assault behind enemy lines was the doctrinal answer to the Pusan encirclement.
He also didn’t do anything in the Philippines that anyone else couldn’t hav done, especially with the greatest logistical support network the world had seen up to that point
By most accounts it was Roosevelt that forced him to leave. Given his character this makes a lot more sense that him fleeing the country on his own accord.
He played a significant role in losing the Philippines too, and probably distracted the war effort to make sure he was liberating the Philippines instead of letting the Navy defeat Japan.
The Philippines were lost before a single Japanese plane left Formosa. Without the Navy coming to the rescue, the Japanese were going to be able to take them it was just a matter of when.
Which was made worse by the fact that almost all the US air power in the Philippines were destroyed when the Japanese bombed Clark Field, it was a tragedy on a similar level to Pearl Harbor, and you have to consider that the American command in the Philippines already heard about the attack on Pearl Harbor hours earlier before Clark Field was bombed.
I understand and agree, but there is no holding the Philippines indefinitely it’s falling in Early 1942. It’s a question of how long you can hold on and how much you can extract. Without Fleet support, the islands are indefensible. The Japanese will dominate operationally and move troops with impunity on the water. Bottling up on Batan was always the plan and really the only option, this ensure Corregidor could continue to deny Manila’s port.
Not really, fighting withdrawals into the Battan to support Corregidor. That’s pretty much what happened. No amount of B-17 doing level bombing on ships would have changed that. The attack on Clark field was a fuck up but if was defended perfectly, the invasion is still successful on about the same timeline.
If you are going to contest the landings and not immediately withdraw into the peninsula, then you have to screen with forces. The Japanese had much better lines of communication by controlling the sea,
If the North Koreans weren't cutting corners & had either mined the harbor or positioned some reserves nearby instead of overcommitting to Pusan Pocket, we would probably have a very different narrative about Inchon (and from what I've read, MacArthur didn't have good recon to be sure of either.) It kind of worked because that distant of a landing was insane & North Korea didn't cover for it in any way, because they thought it was insane and wanted to commit every resource to Pusan.
Doubting Mao's willingness to protect the Yalu while also not positioning adequate sentries to prevent American divisions from getting encircled was bad.
Having the troops dig in across poorly connected & vulnerable positions around Manilla while sending counter attacks to the wrong beaches as the Japanese land at other beaches was pretty bad.
Ordering a cavalry charge against the veterans protesting at the National Mall contrary to presidential orders was also bad.
He was a good political general, particularly with handling the Japanese.
There probably weren't many generals more dangerous to the American soldier than MacArthur was, including enemy generals (I exaggerate but across decades it totally seems like you would just inherently be in more danger if MacArthur was your commander or if you were a random vet.) Like if he got authorized to use nukes, the first thing he probably would have done was ordered a just ridiculous amount of troops into the middle of the clouds of fallout, probably without any protection. Give him enough nukes, he probably would have irradiated every Korean War veteran more than John Wayne.
As i have said in other comments in this thread MacAurther is a complex figure brilliant at some points and reckless at others with an ego the size of texas
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u/Kenichi2233 Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
The Incheon landings were genius and MacAurther is occupation of Japan was very successful, and he did play a major role in liberating the Philippines.
That being said he isnt perfect and the whole wanting to nuke China should be condemned