Evening star., 1951-04-17
General Did Not Desert Army
AT Botoon, Was Ordered Out
obeyed Reluctantly, but Finolly Accepted
ldeo Thot He Would Have Revenge on Jops

4 Have Revenge on Jops
lgiven the chance to put his vas
1plans for Japan (which at tina
time seemed wildly chimerical1
| into fnll effect.
Generals Imperiousness Mounted
Gen. MacArthur's imperious.
ness mounted as his campaign!
progressed. One curious item, for.
gotten nowadays. Is that he never
permitted the Office of Strategit
Services to operate in his theater
Despite all efforts. Gen, sWilc
Bill. Donovan was never once ablt
Ito get an OSS. officer Into Gen
MacArthur's vast domain. Mr.
IChurchilrs latest volume casts
oblique light on the generate be-
havior in another field. He re-
cords that Cen Macarthur. going
1over everybody's head, asked fol
the diversion OF British forces tx
Australia. the use Of British air
craft carrier and large augmen-
tation of shipping on the United
States-Australia run. Apparently
Washington had never heard Of
these requests, much less approved
them and they were promptly can
fceled. Nothing evil happened,
lis Mr.. Churchill's laconic con-
|clusion.
T Another ,Eow--on a smaller scale
came with the Office of War In
formation. The shrewd idea was
thought up, of dropping on Japa-
nese-held areas millions of mes
'sages on the theme of "I will re-
turn." The OWL wanted to change
the slogan. to I'VE shall return;
Gen. Macarthur fought for months
to keep it,"I will return" Many
rvituperative exchanges occurred
"a member of. OWL told me that
/ ''MacArthur acted like a bull
headed baby") and In the end he
won.
/ I have heard several explana-
tions why SO many officers. par
ticnlarly of the Navy! disliked the
general so vehemently. despite his
record; even today, naval officers
on duty in Japan may find them
selves in difficulty with their old
superiors in Washington If they
are too overtly Macarthur men. -
One is the charge, totally baseless,
that he used naval craft like
sitting ducks, to take most Of the
punishment. Another is that he
sought to grab all the limehght
for himself. His communicates,
which were often on the boastful
side. talked of my Navy and
my" Air Force. -
Probably many Navy officers
thought that the Marines were
unjustifiably exposed to casualties
for instance on Two Jima-in
order to get an easy airstrip for
Air Force bombers en- route home
from Tokyo. A great many GIS
hated Gen. MacArthur's CUTS; this
was probably for some such illogi-
cal reason as. that he was seldom
seen, and looked SO blindingly
spick-andrspan when he was. Also
they resented the misleading opti-
mism iof his eommuniques after
they themselves had been through
savage fighting. and his prancing.
Gen. Macarthur was such
a dominant figure that he was
blamed il anything at all went
wrong, ATen iflit was far from his
owno province.
The general landed at Leyte on
OetobeE 40. le44. and at Lngayen
on, January o. 1945, He. took
Manila on February 8, and by
early July the reconquest of the
Philippines was complete. The
japanese lost more than 100000
men; the victory, on anybody's
terms, was one of the most bril-
liantly comprehensive in military
annals. Gen. Macarthur was a
veritable knight in armor during
this campaign. During one period
his own headquarters were some
miles ahead of his own Army COM
manders. With the campaign
over, his eyes turned north-to
the homeland. of the enemy,
Japan.
TOMORROW: M1cArthur's Family.
i sFrom the book. '"The Riddle of
Macarthur, published by Harper
& Bros.)
tcopyright 1950-51. by John Gunther. }