The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1943-01-28
Macarthur Lauded
For Leadership

Macarthur Lauded
For Leadership
When the chapter Of war history
dealing with the Battle Of New
Guinea is written. it will be one Of
the most important in the whole
book. That is what military men
here tell me.
They began telling me that bit by
bit just before the second front in
Africa opened. Then the African
story wiped everything else off the
first pages. Recently they have been
talking about New Guinea again.
They keep saying to me a little re-
proachfully. the American people
don't realize what Macarthur has
achieved down in that jungle coun-
try"
These aren't the Macarthur
men"-there are such in the army.
a little group Of hero worshipers who
perhaps worship a bit more fervently
than logically. But the men who
have watched the New Guinea cam.
paign from Moresby straight up over
the Owen Stanley range and down
the other side and up to the eastern
coast Of the island tell me that Mac
Arthur and the leaders he has about
him have done a great and q sig
nifcant job.
It is great because he has accom-
plished what it was freely predicted
the Japs could not do (and didn't.
It is significant because it has proved
that Australians and Americans. CIV
en- the training, a beat the Jap at
his own game. They a (and have)
beaten him with less training, with
out the fatalistic quality Of the Jap.
whose religion is to die rather than
surrender even when dying isn't .
military necessity.
There are two reasons, which mill
tary men put forward why the battle
Of New Guinea has not been painted
in its true colors-represented In its
true importance. One is the fact
that Macarthur leans backward In
his communiques. Another IL .
peculiar copy-desk prejudice Of
American newspapers. which causes
them to play down reports from the
distance and play up the reports
from the war department in WASH
ington.
There are two reasons why Mac.
Arthur's reports are given out from
his headquarters in Australia instead
Of by the war department In Wash.
ington. One is that the Australians
land perhaps MacArthur) want It
that way. and another is because
American newspapers. who pay a
lot of money to keep correspondents
in that area. don't like to have their
men scooped by Washington.
Why He Is Winning
Macarthur may have another rea-
son for not ballyhooing his achieve
ments. He was beaten in Bataan.
He may feel that antil he has a
complete victory to his credit, he
ooCSh = walt " oAl6 tOO AOuQly.
But Macarthur has won SO far in
New Guinea because the men under
his command were able to do what
they never had a chance to do on
Bataan because Of lack Of numbers.
supplies and food.
On New Guinea they were able to
do better than the Japs could. the
very things which the Japs could do
best. And they did it in the kind Of
jungle country in which that best"
was even better. They were able
to adapt themselves to the environ
ment which required a kind of fight
ing and a kind Of endurance for
which the Japanese had spent years
in preparing. The kind of fighting
that resulted in the fall of Singapore
and the kind which the conventional
British soldiers-even the Far East
ern e~xperts-said was impossible.