Dougie lost me when I first read his comments that threw General Wainwright under the bus for the loss of the Philippines in John Toland’s “But Not in Shame.” The true stars of the Pacific were the navy since it would have been kind of difficult for the army to march from island to island.

Lengel has some choice words about MacArthur in the book.

I thought the American Experience from 1999 on MacArthur was quite well done. I recommend everyone to seek it out. Maybe they’ll do an excellent one on McClellan someday.

The transcript is located at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/macarthur/filmmore/transcript/index.html

I like some of the quotes from it, a commentator says about MacArthur,
“One colleague during the Pacific War described him as someone who combined a sense of courage, vanity, ego, insight, but his greatest fault, he said, was some one who mistook his emotions and ambitions for principles, and he could never distinguish between the two.”

And it ends with some great turns of phrase:
“MacArthur had had time to think about where he would be buried. West Point was special to him. He would be there, in time, at the edge of the Plain. Across from the best clerk he ever had, Ike, who never led a charge. Pleased no doubt that he occupied more real estate than Eisenhower. Acknowledging, perhaps, the prominence accorded Washington.

There was room at West Point — next to the son of President Ulysses S. Grant. But for Douglas MacArthur sons of Presidents was not Presidential enough. He accepted a site that gave him the equivalent of a Presidential library. With a museum, an archive, a gift shop, and a splendid place to rest. With room for Jean beside him.

Douglas MacArthur was buried as he was born — to the sound of bugles. His funeral was replete with all the ceremony that he had come to cherish as a boy at the army post at Ft. Selden, New Mexico. Unlike his father, he was buried in his army uniform.

On April 11, 1964, one of the greatest soldiers in the history of the United States Army was buried in Norfolk, Virginia.

A Navy town.”

Chris

As to MacArthur’s presidential aspirations, he attempted to gain the Republican nomination three times: 1944, 1948 and 1952. His problem in the first two attempts was that he would not declare himself an official candidate, instead preferring to get political friends to work behind the scenes to get him nominated. Circumstances were somewhat different for him in regard to the 1952 election.

Craig hit the nail on the head – McClellan’s greatest fault was his lack of aggression. In the end, MacArthur was sacked for pursuing a total victory – the only kind of victory in war in his mind.