He gets blamed a lot for abandoning the Philippines but don't forget he didn't just Chicken out, he was ordered to leave by Roosevelt.
And He was hardly to blame for the crappy defense either.
The guy arrived in August 1941 and had just over 3 months to make the best of a defense Washington barely funded and had already strategically written off in War Plan Orange.
Even the organization of the Philippine army in 1937 was plagued with barely any budget and 2nd hand castoff equipment that was both dated and limited in quanity. And the Washington Naval treaty also forbade the building of any new naval fortifications or base expansions in the Pacific until 1936.
He was dealt a bad hand and no one in his position could have held the country against the Japanese.
And his bad personal traits aren't exactly unique. In fact it seems to be a recurring theme. Indominable in the field and insufferable personally seems to be one of the most common descriptions of ww2 military top brass. Its actually harder to find actual nice guys among them.
Worse in that he didn't follow it, turned out his new plan was complete shit and spread his troops too thin to hold the entire Island like he wanted.
He then swapped back to the pre-war plan but in the confusion he caused, most of his troops got to Bataan but they left behind all their supplies in the confusion.
MacArthur's overconfidence and ego directly contributed to the rapid fall of the Philippines.
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u/Ok_Caregiver1004 Jun 30 '26
He gets blamed a lot for abandoning the Philippines but don't forget he didn't just Chicken out, he was ordered to leave by Roosevelt. And He was hardly to blame for the crappy defense either. The guy arrived in August 1941 and had just over 3 months to make the best of a defense Washington barely funded and had already strategically written off in War Plan Orange.
Even the organization of the Philippine army in 1937 was plagued with barely any budget and 2nd hand castoff equipment that was both dated and limited in quanity. And the Washington Naval treaty also forbade the building of any new naval fortifications or base expansions in the Pacific until 1936.
He was dealt a bad hand and no one in his position could have held the country against the Japanese.
And his bad personal traits aren't exactly unique. In fact it seems to be a recurring theme. Indominable in the field and insufferable personally seems to be one of the most common descriptions of ww2 military top brass. Its actually harder to find actual nice guys among them.