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Re. McArthur
Recent biographies of McA. have offered that he was no friend of Billy M. and indeed voted accordingly for conviction. McA proponents always wished to suggest otherwise as his actual vote was an embarrassent in years subsequent to the new (1940s-Post-"Blitzkrieg") acceptance of the "Doctrine of Airpower". McA's reputation has suffered badly, in many eyes, over his failure to give Brereton- C.O. of the B-17s in his Phillipine-base air units- the opportunity to sortie against bases on Formosa Those ships were destroyed on the ground 24 hours after the Pearl Harbor strike! Brereton was always disgusted by his inability to get permission to interdict with a first strike at the enemy bases. McA., ducked the issue for years and then offered that it would have been "a suicide mission and accordingly he didn't authorize it." His motives were possibly far more convoluted and certainly not flattering: He deposited a tremendous sum into a New York bank as a bonus for his services to the Phillipine government, courtesy of Pres. Quezon and other political friends in Manila. You can read that Eisenhower, proffered a similar but much less "bonus", declined as it would be "improper for a serving U.S. officer to accept such a gratuity from a foreign government". There is a interpretation about McArthur's "services" in those early days after Dec. 7th, 1941, that they may also have included endorsement of a posssible settlement with Japan which would have established the Phillipine Nation as a neutral in the newly raging war between the U.S. and Japan. A strike against Japanese territory by the B-17s would have negated any proposed strategy of neutralization for the Phillipines. This is serious revisionist thinking and possibly of no merit. What is certain is that the B-17s were absolutely wasted after all the preparation, training and deployment efforts, that there were elements of the Phillipine government who wanted a neutralization for their country and that it is most curious that Brereton reports being oddly "stonewalled" in his attempt to get permission to issue offensive mission orders from McA's H.Q.
The affection McA had for the time spent in the Phillipines and his "I shall return!" promise have led some critics to suggest that the invasion of the Phillipines was almost a privated vendetta for the General, which was not sustained by any tactical need. The argument is that the by-passing of the Phillipines would have enabled "heartland strikes" at Japan to have been effective in bringing the war to a conclusion without the loss of life involved in the campaign for the recapture of the Phillipines. I would think the U.S. fleet elements would have been endangered by Japanese air units based in the Phillipines had the islands not been recaptured. I doubt if there would have been any "Japanese-Breretons" who were unable to get permission to attack!
BTW: The ladies figured prominently in McA's professional life: He had a interest in a lovely lady in Wash. D.C. who also had attracted the great Lothario, Jack Pershing: Pershing told McA to "back off"; Doug responded with "Jack, you have absolutely no authority over my personal life- you can't tell me that." Guess who got orders to report immediately to an assignment in the Phillipines? McA. brought back a souvenir from that early tour in the Phillipines: he set her up in a salon in Washington where he assumed no one knew of her relationship with him. Westbrook Pegler insulted the Gen. in the immediate Post WWII years and McA sued. His attorney was astounded when asked to drop the case against WP. McA had seen the list of witnesses Pegler was going to call. On said list was "Little Miss Manila"- "Drop the case!" the attorney was again told. Lotsa fun! Do you know about Jack Pershings Parisian "model" mistress that he married on his deathbed? She'd been with him since '18 and was given a General's widows pension for life. We common folk have to be married to survivor for three years, I recall, for widows benefits to be established. Again-Lotsa fun! Regards...Lee
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