Evening star., 1951-04-16
The Riddle Of Macarthur
General Was Brilliant Soldier,
But Is Accused of 'BIunders'
Planes Cought on Ground in Philippines
10 Hours After japanese Attack on Hawaii

CaplGulaLe mere UNe StOry OF G1eL.
Macarthur in World War II. By
the summer of 1941 practically
everybody knew that war was
coming-sometime. Mr.. Roose-
welt recalled him to active status
as major general on July 26,|
194l, and promoted him to lieu
tenant general the next day, in
command of all United States
Army forces in the Far East: the
Philippine army became part Of
the American command. Gen.
Macarthur was severely embar-I
raised by the destruction of his
planes on Clark Field on Pearl
Harbor day. The Japanese caught
him in exactly the same naked
and exposed state as they caught
the Americans in Hawaii. though
he had ample warning since the
Pearl Harbor attack had come 10
hours before.
Today the inclination Of his
staff is to blame a subordinate
officer for this botch and blunder.
Gen. Macarthur himself thought
that war was inevitable, but he
did not expect it till the spring
'of 1912. and he felt that the Jap
|anese would probably bypass the
Philippines in favor Of softer spots
to the south.
Serious BIunder Recalled.
One may bring this story up to
the present again by mentioning
that Gen. Macarthur has sew
eral times made serious blunders
in judgment, based on faulty in
formation. The attack on South
Korea on June Is apparently took
him by complete surprise, and he
thought that the Korean war was
won after the landing at Inchon
on September Is. He told Mr..
Truman at their meeting on Wake
Island a month later that the
danger of Chinese intervention
had passed, but the Chinese dras-
tically fooled him. Then (though
he tried to wriggle out of this
by saying that the remark had
only been "jocular") he predicted
fatty that the American troops
would be home by Christmas
only three or four days before they
were caught by surprise and ham,
mered back. Gen. Macarthur,
having secuted the ground per-
sonally for what was to have
been his final advance, crashed
into a colossal trap-moreover a
trap about which he was fully
aware.
Yet he has been generally re-
garded as the very symbol and in
carnation Of military omniscience
Few people dared to criticize him
when he lost his planes on the
Philippines: it was almost as If a
conspiracy of silence existed to
protect him, and most people are
loath to criticize him now.
Mr. Roosevelt was, as everybody
knows. violently attacked because
American officers at Pearl Harbor
were caught unaware and unpre-
pared. Those who like to calumni-
ate Mr.. Roosevelt usually take
earnest care to ignore the fact that
Gen. Macarthur in the Philippines
likewise lost most of his planes on
the ground. Most Roosevelt haters
are Macarthur lovers (and vice
versa) which perhaps serves to
explain their easy exculpation of
Gen. Macarthur while Mr.. Roose-
welt is still venomously maligned.
Gen. Macarthur thought-an-
other error-that Manila could be
held for a long period, because
Corregidor was "the strongest
single fortified point in the world
He did not think that the
Japanese, or anybody. were capable
Of the type Of attack they
Launched. He was wrong.
TOMORROW. MacArthur's
escape from, Corregidor and his
! return.
! tFrom the book THE RIDDLE OF
MACARTHUR. published by Harper a. Bros
tCopyright. 1950-51. by John Gunther