Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur (Little Rock, January 26, 1880-Washington D. C., April 5, 1964) was an American military, five-star general of the United States army and Field Mariscal of the Philippine Army. He acted as Supreme Commander Allied in the Pacific Front during World War II. He is the most awarded military in the history of the United States of America.

Although he lost the Philippines during the initial phases of World War II, he would successfully lead the defense of Australia and the reconquest of New Guinea, the Philippines and El Borneo. He was the chief planned to direct the invasion of Japan in November 1945, so when the country surrendered, he was appointed representative of the allies at the surrender ceremony of September 2. Supervised the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951.

led the United Nations forces that defended South Korea in 1950-1951 against North Korea's attempt to unify the country by force. MacArthur was relieved of the command by President Harry S. Truman in April 1951, for his public discrepancies with the presidential policy.

MacArthur is one of the most controversial figures in American history. Admired by many, who defend their strategic and tactical brilliance, is also criticized by others who accuse him of having a debatable military criteria and recriminated his actions in the exercise of command, especially his challenge to President Truman in 1951, due in great part of the proven and unfounded hatred that had each other. It was characterized by being an anti -communist fervent, and its last campaigns (in Japan and Korea) tried to avoid any communist invasion or attack from China or the Soviet Union, first preventing Stalin In the Korean War and promote a cooperation policy with the Chinese nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, to the detriment of Mao Zedong.

General MacArthur took part in three wars worldwide (World War I, World War II and the Korean War) and reached the range of General of the Army, one of the five who have held him in history United States military. The president of the Philippines, Manuel L. Quezón, appointed him Mariscal de Campo de Filipinas in 1938, the only American who has held that rank throughout history.

first years

MacArthur was born in Little Rock (Arkansas), son of Lieutenant General Arthur MacArthur, also decorated with the Medal of Honor during the US Civil War (who in turn was the son of the jurist and politician Arthur MacArthur, Mr.) and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur, by Norfolk (Virginia). He was baptized in the Episcopal Church of Christ in Little Rock on May 16, 1880.

In his autobiography entitled Reminiscences , MacArthur wrote that his first memory was the sound of the bugle, and that he had learned to «ride and shoot even before knowing how almost before learning to walk ».

As many children, children of American army soldiers, spent their childhood moving strongly in strong. In his youth, time spent time in Washington D. C. with his paternal grandfather, Judge Arthur MacArthur, a member of the Washington's high level political scene that influenced the young Douglas.

MacArthur's father was destined for San Antonio (Texas) in 1893. There, Douglas attended the Military Academy of Texas West (known today as T.M.I.-The Episcopal School of Texas), where he stood out as an excellent student. As the son of a decorated with the medal of honor had a free place in West Point, where he entered in 1898. He was a brilliant cadet, graduated as the first of his class (of 93 members) in 1903, with such high notes that only only Two students have surpassed them in the history of the Academy (one of them was Robert E. Lee). His first destination was as a hurried in the body of engineers of the United States Army. He served as his father's assistant, destined for that time as governor general of the Philippines, which was still an American possession.

from 1904 to 1914 was assigned to engineering tasks in the Philippines, Wisconsin, Kansas, Mistigan, Texas and Panama. During that time he attended the School of Applied Engineering (1906-1907), graduated in 1908 and worked at the Office of the Chief of Army Engineers.

from 1913 to 1917, MacArthur served in the General Staff of the War Department (predecessor of the current United States Department of Defense), complying with temporary assignments in intelligence missions in Veracruz, Mexico, in 1914. Under the command of the command of the General Frederick Funston MacArthur participated in a long -range recognition mission after Mexican lines. Although he was summoned by his value and recommended for the medal of honor, he did not receive it, since his actions had clearly violated the orders received from Funston.

World War I

General Brigadier MacArthur in a chateau French, September 1918.

During World War I, MacArthur served in France as Chief of Staff of the 42nd Infantry Division. After being promoted to Brigadier General, he became a commander of the 84, ª Infantry Brigade, and a few weeks before the war ended, he became the commander of the division. He would fight with his division, among others, in the battles of Saint-Mihiel and the offensive of Meuse-Argonne.

During the war, MacArthur twice the Cross of Distinguished Services, seven silver stars, a distinguished service medal from the army and two purple hearts. "Leading from the front" was a personal policy of MacArthur. He won the confidence and unconditional support of his men, but he supposed several war wounds, and due to the fact that he refused to put on the antigás mask until all his men took her, he had respiratory problems during the rest of his life. In any case, at the end of the war he was the most decorated officer of the Army, and the youngest division chief. General Charles T. Menoher, his predecessor under the command of the 42nd division, said of him that he was the "greatest fighter in the front."

Delivery period

Like many other officers after the war, MacArthur had difficulties to maintain a job in the army, which was morally devastating. However, he was not dismissed from his rank in peacetime, as happened to many; He managed to keep his general star, thanks mainly to the support received from General Peyton C. March, the new Chief of Staff of the Army. MacArthur used all his father's connections to get him not demobilized. One of the offers that was raised was to become a military aggregate of the Indian Affairs Office, although it finally dismissed it.

In 1919, MacArthur became the superintendent of the West Point Military Academy, which was in an obsolete state in several aspects, and needed in need of reforms. MacArthur ordered drastic changes in tactical, athletic and disciplinary systems; It also modernized the curriculum, adding subjects of liberal arts, government, and economy.

married on February 14, 1922 with Henrietta Louise Cromwell Brooks, a rich divorced heiress who had two children of his previous marriage. They divorced in 1929.

From 1922 to 1930 he met two service shifts in the Philippines, the second as commander of the Philippines Department (1928-1930); He also fulfilled two shifts as commander of Army Corps areas in the United States. In 1925 he was promoted to Major General, the youngest existing at that time, and participated in the Martial Court who tried and condemned Brigadier General William Mitchell. In 1928, he presided over the American Olympic Committee for Amsterdam Games.

Chief of the Army Staff

President Herbert Hoover appointed MacArthur Chief of Staff of the United States Army in November 1930 with the temporary position of General. In his new functions, he had to face hard budget cuts accompanied by excess enlistments due to unemployment.

One of his most controversial performances took place in 1932, when he received the Hoover order to use the army to disperse the Bonus Army , a huge group of veterans of the First World War without employment and With economic problems, who had camped in the capital with their relatives and friends as a protest for government policy towards them. Convinced that the protesters were mostly communists and pacifists instead of veterans (he came to affirm that only one in ten men was really a veteran), he ordered the troops to enter the camp with the squad bayonet and wearing tear gas discretion. In subsequent disturbances, two veterans died from gunshots, and hundreds were injured of different consideration, including relatives and some children.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt renewed him in office. In October 1935, the US army was 16. in the size of the world, with 13,000 officers and 126,000 soldiers. MacArthur's main points of action in this second stage were their programs for the development of new mobilization plans and a reorganization of troops at the administrative level in four different armies, which improved administrative efficacy. He decidedly supported the New Deal through the creation, diversion of resources and subsequent use of the civil conservation body. He also promoted and favored the career of great talent officers, such as George Marshall and Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Army of the Philippines

When the Philippine Commonwealth reached a state of semi-independence in 1935, it had to initiate the creation of its own army. The president of the Philippines Manuel L. Quezón asked MacArthur to supervise the creation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines as commander in chief. MacArthur, after consulting it with Roosevelt, accepted the appointment. Quezón had been his friend when his father was general governor. He presented two conditions to accept the position: his salary and his house had to be equivalent to those of the president. Keep in mind that the residence of the president of the Philippines, the Palace of Malacañán, was the place where Douglas spent his childhood. The palace was the residence of the general governor in the time of Spanish domination, it was also in the time of the American domain, and it has been the official residence of the president of the Nation until today.

It was decided to house MacArthur and his family in a suite from the famous Manila hotel, owned by the Philippines government. It was located in Manila Bay, on the other side of the park from the Army and Navy Club, MacArthur's favorite place, and was conveniently close to the US embassy. The Government's accountants decided that the best way to deal with the cost of the suite was to turn Douglas into an employee with the right to residence, so that the honorary title of the General Director was granted. MacArthur ignored the part that prayed "honorary" and took control of the hotel during all the time he lived in him. Your suite still exists at the hotel. Despite the fact that Manila was one of the cities most devastated by Japanese bombs during World War II, the hotel survived intact; Recognition photographs showed for a long time a totally razed city, except the Manila Hotel. Apparently, the Japanese pilots had received orders not to bombard the hotel as a sign of respect for MacArthur, and once the conquest of the city was completed, it became the residence of the Japanese military governor. MacArthur gave the same order to US pilots by reconquering the Philippines. There is a legend that his suite, with all the possessions he had to leave behind in his retirement, was still intact, as if he had left the day before. Whether or not the anecdote is real, MacArthur felt tremendous respect for the tradition of "honor between warriors," a feature of his character that facilitated understanding with Japanese leaders in the coming years.

The general did not forget his finances. He invested strongly in the Philippine industry and mining. Before the National Bank of the Philippines in New York closed, after the Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbor, managed to sell all their shares and change all its weights for dollars.

Among MacArthur attendees in the Philippines, with the position of military advisor, was his old friend Eisenhower.

On April 30, 1937, MacArthur married his second wife, Jean Faircloth; They had a single son, and continued together until the day of Douglas's death.

World War II

While MacArthur held his position as the Supreme Commander of the United States in the Far East, he was frequently involved in controversial situations. One of the most famous occurred shortly after the start of hostilities for the United States, when he disavowed his air commander, General Lewis H. Brereton, who had requested permission to launch the attack on the Far East Air Force (Far East Air Force, FEAF) against Japanese bases in nearby Taiwan. MacArthur called the plan "suicide" and ordered the planes to be moved immediately away from the Japanese attacks; during the prelude to the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, only half had been successfully moved, and virtually all of those remaining to be removed were destroyed on the ground. Brereton's account of events has been heavily discredited, and according to Geoffrey Perret, the disaster was caused by gross negligence on the part of mid-level officers, who were delayed by preferring the setting of Clark AFB.

MacArthur escape route from the Philippines.

MacArthur's headquarters in the 1941-1942 Philippine campaign was the island fortress of Corregidor; His one trip to the front lines at Bataan sparked the derogatory nickname "Digout Doug " (the Buried Doug ). The truth is that Corregidor suffered almost constant bombardments by the Japanese air forces, to the point where Manuel Quezón expressly asked the general "not to put himself in danger." In March 1942, as the Japanese were expanding their control of the Philippines, MacArthur received a direct order from Franklin D. Roosevelt to relocate to Melbourne, Australia, after President Quezon and his wife had already left. The American High Staff could not at that time transfer to the Philippines enough troops and resources to defend the Philippines, so giving them up they needed MacArthur to move to a safe place to prepare the war against Japan. Although he preferred to stay in command of his troops, but obeying the presidential order, MacArthur, his wife, his four-year-old son, and a select group of advisers and subordinate commanders left for Australia. While he could have chosen to leave the Philippines comfortably and safely in a submarine, he opted to do so in a riskier but more dignified way aboard the PT-41 torpedo boat commanded by then-Lieutenant John D. Bulkeley, and managed to traverse the mined waters. and escape the Japanese encirclement.

Arrived on the island of Mindanao on March 13, embarking three days later in a B-17 Flying Fortress; her on March 17 she arrived at Bachelor airfield, in the Australian Northern Territory, from where she traveled to Adelaide by rail. The famous speech of hers, in which she said "I left Bataan, and I will return." was delivered in Terowie, South Australia, on March 20. During this term, President Quezon awarded MacArthur the Philippine Star of Distinguished Conduct.

He was immediately appointed Supreme Commander of all Allied forces in the South West Pacific theater, and in order to remove any potential ambiguity, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin placed the Australian armed forces directly under his command. At that time, the Australians formed the bulk of the troops available in the area, supplemented by a small number of Americans, Dutch, and the rest of the allies in descending proportion. One of MacArthur's first tasks was to build the confidence of the Australians, who feared an imminent Japanese invasion. The fighting was already taking place predominantly in the area of New Guinea and the Netherlands East Indies. On July 20, 1942, the headquarters were transferred again, to Brisbane, to the AMP Insurance Company building (which would later be renamed MacArthur Central, its current name).

Late in 1942 came Australian victories at the Battle of Milne Bay and the Kokoda Trail campaign, the first by Allied ground forces against Japanese soldiers. When informed that many officers of the 32nd Infantry Division (a hastily mobilized unit of the United States National Guard) had acted incompetently during the Allied offensive on Buna and Gona (the largest warheads), Japanese beach in northeast New Guinea), MacArthur ordered Robert L. Eichelberger, commander of US I Corps, to take direct control over all Allied operations in the area:

Bob, I'll put you in charge at Buna. Releva [Edwin] Harding... I want you to turn away all the officers who won't fight. Relevant the commanders of regiment and battalion; if necessary, place sergeants in command of battalions and caps in command of companies... Bob, I want you to take Buna, or don't come back alive.... And that also applies to your Chief of Staff.

General MacArthur disembarks in Leyte along with his staff.

Douglas MacArthur smoking one of his famous mazorca pipes on the balcony of Manila City Hall, Philippines, August 2, 1945.

In March 1943, the Board of Chiefs of Staff of the United States as advanced bases. During 1944 the General Plan was modified in order to exceed Rabaul and leave the Japanese forces fortified there. Initially, most of the land forces were Australian, but an increasing amount of US forces was incorporated into the theater of operations, including the sixth US army.), and later the eighth army.

Allied forces, under the command of MacArthur landed on the island of Leyte on October 20, 1944, fulfilling their oath of returning to the Philippines. The position in the archipelago was consolidated with the battle of Luzón after a strong combat, despite a massive Japanese counterattack in the battle of the Gulf of Leyte. With the reconquest of the Islands, MacArthur moved his headquarters to Manila, in order to plan the invasion of Japan, scheduled by the end of 1945. This invasion was annulled as a result of the Japanese surrender after the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and on August 15, 1945 MacArthur received the formal surrender of Japan that ended World War II.

He received the Medal of Honor for his leadership at the Southwest Pacific Theater. Filipino President Sergio Osmeña also decorated him with the highest Philippine Medal, the Philippines' medal.

postwar in Japan

Japanese war crimes

MacArthur received Washington orders on August 29 of exercising the final authority over the country through the existing government machinery, including the figure of Emperor Hirohito.

Some historians have affirmed that this period as a supreme commander of the allied powers in Japan, in which he directed the country with a new political regime for five and a half years, is its greatest contribution to history. However, some criticize their work to exonerate Hirohito and other members of the imperial family involved in the war from all criminal investigation, such as the Yasuhito Chichibu, Yasuhiko Asaka, Tsuneyoshi Takeda, Higashikuni Naruhiko and Hiroyasu Fushimi princes. November 1945, MacArthur confirmed to Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai that the abdication of the emperor would not be necessary. MacArthur not only exonerated Hirohito, but ignored the advice of several members of the imperial family and Japanese intellectuals, who publicly requested the abdication of the abdication of the Emperor and the establishment of a regency. For example, Prince Takahito Mikasa, younger brother of the emperor, came to affirm in a private council meeting, in February 1946, that Hirohito had to assume the responsibility of defeat; The famous poet Tatsuji Miyoshi wrote an essay in the magazine Shinchô entitled "The emperor must abdicate right away."

According to historian Herbert Bix, MacArthur and Bonner Fellers had prepared their own approach to the occupation and reform of Japan. MacArthur proposed not to modify the situation of the emperor's figure in the least; The situation of the last year of the war was limited to continuing, solving its implications as circumstances required. The action plan, called "Black List Operation" informally, consisted of separating Hirohito from the militarists, keeping it as an element of legitimation of the Allied Occupation Forces, and using their image to enhance the transformation of the Japanese people towards a new political system.

Months before the Tokyo Tribunal began its activities, the highest subordinates of MacArthur worked to attribute the ultimate responsibility of the attack on Pearl Harbor to Hideki Tojo.

General MacArthur together with Emperor Hirohito at his first meeting in 1945.

Citing debates between Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and MacArthur himself, Bix claims that immediately after landing in Japan, Bonnie Fellers went to work protecting Hirohito from the role he had played during and at the time. end of the war, allowing the main war crimes suspects to coordinate their versions, in order to protect the emperor and prevent him from being tried.

John Dower also says,

«... This successful campaign to absolve the Emperor of any responsibility for war did not know limits. Hirohito was not only presented as innocent of any formal act that could make him susceptible to trial for war crimes. It was converted into an almost angelic figure that had not only some moral responsibility for war....» With the full support of MacArthur headquarters, the prosecution actually worked as an Emperor's defense attorney.

In late 1945, Allied military juries tried more than 4,000 Japanese officers for war crimes. Some 3,000 were sentenced to prison terms, and 920 were executed. The accused officers faced charges stemming from multiple incidents, including the Nanjing massacre, the Bataan death march and the Manila massacre.

Voices critical of the process affirm that General Tomoyuki Yamashita, the Japanese commander-in-chief in the Philippines, accused of this latest incident, had lost control of his men, and therefore should not be executed. In fact, the responsible troops committed the crimes on the orders of Count Tereuchi, and the defense declared so. However, since Yamashita had not resigned from his post despite his declared inability to control his men, he was held ultimately responsible for the acts of the troops under his command and executed. Such critical voices accused the sentence as revenge for General MacArthur's pride, since General Yamashita was able to offer a more efficient and lasting resistance in the defense of the Philippines than MacArthur offered in 1942. The case became the precedent known as the "Yamashita Standard." The same criteria of command responsibility was applied to the case of General Masaharu Homma, who was also tried and sentenced for the atrocities that occurred during the Bataan death march, holding the general responsible for the acts of his subordinates despite not being found. present, since at that moment he was leading his troops in the capture of Corregidor. This case is also considered MacArthur's revenge against the general who had humiliated him by defeating him in the invasion of the Philippines. PBS called the trials "hasty". MacArthur's critics often deplore the "double standards" used, by not taking the concept of "command responsibility" to its ultimate consequences by keeping the emperor out of the picture.

Occupation

To his admirers, MacArthur's sentiments toward defeated Japan are visible in photos of the surrender ceremony, which prominently displayed Commodore Perry's flag. A descendant of the Perrys of Massachusetts and a distant cousin of the Commodore, MacArthur presented himself more as a second "integrator" from Japan to developed countries than as a conqueror.

MacArthur and his staff are credited with helping war-torn Japan rebuild, instituting a democratic government in the process, and establishing a plan for reconstruction that made Japan one of the world's leading industrial powers. During MacArthur's direct rule of Japan from 1945 to 1948, the United States maintained tight control of the country and oversaw its reconstruction. In 1946, MacArthur's staff wrote a new constitution for Japan that gave up the possibility of declaring war again, and considerably reduced the role of the emperor. This constitution is still in force. He also changed the Parliament of Japan and its electoral system; he dissolved the large Japanese companies ( Zaibatsu ), and promoted the creation of the country's first labor unions modeled on the United States.

These plans for reconstruction alarmed many in the US Department of Defense and State, believing that they conflicted with the intent to turn Japan and its industrial power into a brake on the spread of communism. in Asia. Some of MacArthur's reforms, such as his labor laws, were rescinded in 1948 when his unilateral control of the country ended due to increasing interference from the State Department. MacArthur returned power to the newly formed Japanese government in 1949, and he remained in the country until he was relieved of the position of Supreme Commander in Japan by President Harry S. Truman on April 11, 1951.

Korean War

In 1945, as part of the surrender of Japan, the United States of America agreed with the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to divide the Korean peninsula along the 38th parallel. This resulted in the creation of two states: one pro-capitalist called the Republic of Korea (better known as South Korea), and another pro-communist called the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (better known as North Korea). The latter launched a surprise attack, invading its neighbor in an attempt to reunify the peninsula by force, on June 25, 1950, starting the Korean War.

Douglas MacArthur, commander-in-chief of the United Nations forces, observes the bombing of Incheon from the USS Mount McKinley September 15, 1950.

The United Nations General Assembly authorized the United Nations to form an international military coalition to support South Korea's defense. MacArthur was placed in command of said coalition, first in the defense operation and then, once the invasion was stopped, in a counteroffensive in which he highlighted a risky but successful landing behind North Korean lines at Incheon. The maneuver successfully outflanked the North Korean army, forcing it to fall back north in complete disarray. The United Nations forces (basically made up of members of the US Army) began the pursuit, entering North Korean territory and approaching the border with China, established on the Yalu River.

On November 19, 1950, a strong contingent of Chinese army troops crossed the Yalu, forcing the Americans and their allies back. After describing the Chinese intervention as "the start of a totally new war." In order to stop the Chinese invasion of Korea, which was massacring UN and American soldiers, MacArthur proposed to his superiors (General Staff and President Truman) several elementary measures: blow up the bridges connecting China and Korea, or else bombing the Chinese troop home bases in Manchuria, both were repulsed. Failing him, he proposed seeding the border between North Korea and China with radioactive debris; was also rejected. There was no formal proposal for the use of nuclear weapons, nor is there any proof of it. The, in the opinion of many politicians of the time, the weak and cowardly position of President Truman, prevented MacArthur from using the means at his disposal to stop an aggressive war against Korea and the US and UN armies, and caused a great number of of casualties in his troops.

In March 1951, after a UN counterattack led by Matthew Ridgway turned the tide in favor of the Allies, Truman informed MacArthur of his intention to begin talks for a ceasefire. MacArthur's public statement jeopardized the negotiations, although it was similar in content to the recommendations made to the President by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for which he received only a mild rebuke. Truman's patience, however, reached his limit. limit when the Republican head of Congress read into it a letter from MacArthur in which he publicly expressed his point of view and his clashes with the presidency. In April, the Joint Chiefs of Staff declared it necessary to remove MacArthur from command for military reasons, claiming that they had lost confidence in his strategy. Truman seized the opportunity and relieved him of his post in Japan, placing Ridgway in charge of him. April 11, 1951.

MacArthur's replacement aroused enormous controversy, and is still a topic of discussion to this day. Berstein and other historians have asserted that MacArthur never opposed the constitutional separation of powers, something of which he was once accused by the presidency. The war continued in a deadlock for two more years, no longer moving from around the 38th parallel.

Return to the United States

MacArthur returned directly to Washington, D.C., his first stay in the United States in eleven years. There he made his last public appearance, in the reading of a speech in the United States Congress, interrupted by thirty ovations from the congressmen.In what would be his farewell speech, he said: «Old soldiers never die; they just fade away. And like the old soldiers in the ballad, now I close my military career, and just fade away—an old soldier who only tried to do his duty as God led him to understand. Bye bye".

On his return from Korea after being relieved of command by Truman, MacArthur was met with massive popular adulation, receiving in New York the largest popular tribute in history: some 7 million people cheered for him in his parade through the city, more than the sum of the second and third most crowded (those of Lindbergh and Eisenhower). Which raised the expectation that he could run in the 1952 legislative elections as a candidate for the Republican Party. However, a United States Senate committee inquiry into his removal, led by Richard Russell Jr., was instrumental in chilling the mood, and Republican hopes of MacArthur were dashed. The accusations with which they tried to discredit him were revealed to be false. The latter, in his autobiography Reminiscences, repeatedly stated that he never had any political aspirations.

In the 1952 election, MacArthur did not appear as a candidate, although he publicly endorsed Republican Senator Robert Taft of Ohio. Taft was rumored to have offered him the vice presidency, and in fact succeeded in getting him to give a speech in his favor at the Republican convention to choose the candidate. However, the speech was not well received. Taft lost the nomination to Dwight D. Eisenhower. MacArthur was silent throughout the campaign, which Eisenhower narrowly won. After it, Eisenhower consulted MacArthur about his opinion on the Korean War, and adopted his suggestion of threatening the use of nuclear weapons to end the war, entering into the dynamics later known as the Cold War.

In 1956, Senator Joseph Martin formally proposed promoting MacArthur to the rank of six-star general; however, the proposal was seen as a possible conflict with Eisenhower, who was MacArthur's equal in rank before he became president, and the issue ended up quietly dying in the Senate without reaching any resolution. MacArthur became president of the Remington Rand computer company and spent the rest of his life living quietly in New York, except for one spectacular "sentimental" trip in which he returned to the Philippines in 1961 to be decorated by the then president of the country, Carlos P. García, with the Philippine Legion of Honor, in his rank of commander in chief.

President John F. Kennedy met MacArthur twice to listen to his advice in 1961. The first time was shortly after the Bay of Pigs invasion. MacArthur was extremely critical of the Pentagon in his military advice to the president. He also warned the young president, advising him to avoid military deployment in Vietnam, further indicating that domestic issues should be given much higher priority.

Death and legacy

MacArthur Tomb and his wife Jean.

MacArthur and his second wife, Jean Faircloth, spent the last years of their lives together in a suite in the Residential Tower of the Waldorf Astoria. After MacArthur's death, his wife Jean continued to live in the same suite until her death on April 5, 1964. Both are buried together in Norfolk, Virginia; their graves are in a memorial building and museum to the memory of the general, which had formerly been the city hall, and opposite it is the MacArthur Center, a large shopping center named in honor of MacArthur. He chose to be buried in this city because it was the origin of his mother's family.

MacArthur wanted to be remembered by his people for more than just being a soldier:

By profession, I'm a soldier, and I'm proud of it. But I am even more proud—infinitely prouder—to be a father. A soldier destroys to build; the father only builds, never destroys. One has the potential of death; the other personifies creation and life. And while the hordes of death are powerful, the battalions of life are even more powerful. It is my hope that my son, when I am gone, will remember me not in battle, but at home repeating with him our simple daily prayer, “Our Father, you are in heaven”.

MacArthur's nephew, Douglas MacArthur II (son of his brother Arthur) served as a diplomat for several years, including a posting as ambassador to Japan.

In 1945, MacArthur relinquished his prized Gold Castles insignia to his chief engineer, Major General Leif J. Sverdrup. He handed them over to his successor as Chief of Engineers of the United States Army in 1975, initiating the tradition that has been maintained ever since for them to be worn by the Chief of Army Engineers.

Controversy

General MacArthur is a highly controversial figure. The management of it in Japan after World War II is generally praised from the economic point of view. However, the fact that he protected some leaders of the Showa regime is the subject of much criticism. According to Herbert Bix (among others):

The truly extraordinary measures taken by MacArthur to save Hirohito from being judged as a war criminal had a lasting and profoundly distorting impact on the Japanese understanding of the lost war.

Others, such as former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who in 1952 accused Hirohito of causing the war and demanded his abdication, have since stated their belief that acquitting and rehabilitating the emperor was an act of leadership wise man who facilitated Japan's postwar reforms and averted what could have been a political disaster. Similarly, his actions and views during the Korean War remain highly controversial.

A decade after firing him, Truman claimed he did so because MacArthur disrespected presidential authority, not just because he was a dumb son of a bitch:

I fired him because he wouldn't respect the authority of the President. I didn't fire him because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three-quarters of them would be in jail.

MacArthur's son, born Arthur MacArthur IV, changed his last name so he could live anonymously as an artist and saxophonist in the New York area.

MacArthur is also a highly controversial character in Australia, due to his actions and comments in the Kokoda Trail campaign and the Battle of Buna-Gona, due to his disrespect for Australian troops.

His reputation for being overly self-promoting earned him many detractors. On the controversial statement from him during World War II:

MacArthur's statement was criticized, ridiculed or regretted by many. Most critics do not understand that MacArthur did not write the statement for the benefit of troops, the press or politicians in Canberra, London and Washington. He wrote it to the American public, whose opinion could influence political forces on decisions on strategic planning and control. He wrote his statement to focus the attention of the American people on the area of the south-west Pacific and its needs... Interpreting the communiqué, and all other aspects of MacArthur's activities, in terms of a pure and unbridled ego, is a terrible simplification, an underestimation of the complex character of the general and his intellectual capacity.

MacArthur's public pressure campaign to improve Washington's logistical support for the war in the Pacific was somewhat successful, and combined with the influence of his sometimes-rival, Admiral Ernest J. King, was largely responsible for the increased diversion of resources to the Pacific theater of operations during 1943.

Awards and decorations

General MacArthur has been the most decorated American military officer, a unique case for receiving the highest decorations and ranks from various countries. During his service he was awarded the following decorations from the United States and other allied nations. The following list includes only those medals that could be worn on the uniform, so neither commemorative medals nor unofficial decorations are shown.