MacArthur, Douglas 1880-1964
US soldier

Douglas MacArthur was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, the son of lieutenant-general Arthur MacArthur (1845-1912). He was educated at West Point, commissioned in the Corps of Engineers in 1903, and went to Tokyo in 1905 as aide to his father. In World War I he commanded the 42nd (Rainbow) Division in France, and was decorated 13 times and cited seven additional times for bravery. In 1919 he became the youngest-ever superintendent of West Point, and in 1930 he was made a general and Chief of Staff of the US army. In 1935 he became head of the US military mission to the Philippines.

In World War II he was appointed commanding general of the US armed forces in the Far East in 1941. In March 1942, after a skilful but unsuccessful defence of the Bataan Peninsula, he was ordered to evacuate from the Philippines to Australia, where he set up HQ as supreme commander of the South West Pacific Area. As the war developed he carried out a brilliant 'leap-frogging' strategy which enabled him to recapture the Philippine Archipelago from the Japanese. He completed the liberation of the Philippines in July 1945, and in September 1945, as supreme commander of the Allied powers, formally accepted the surrender of Japan on board the Missouri. He then exercised in the occupied Empire almost unlimited authority, giving Japan a new constitution and carrying out a programme of sweeping reform.

When war broke out in Korea in June 1950 President Truman ordered MacArthur to support the South Koreans in accordance with the appeal of the UN Security Council. In July he became Commander-in-Chief of the UN forces. After initial setbacks he pressed the war far into North Korea, but after the Chinese entered the war in November, MacArthur demanded powers to blockade the Chinese coast, bomb Manchurian bases and to use Chinese nationalist troops from Formosa against the communists. This led to acute differences with the US Democratic administration and in April 1951 President Truman relieved him of his commands. He failed to be nominated for the presidency in 1952.

A brilliant military leader and a ruler of Japan imbued with a deep moral sense, MacArthur became a legend in his lifetime. Equally, he inspired criticism for his imperious belief in his own mission and his strong sense of self-dramatization.

Bibliography: W Manchester, An American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur; 1880-1964 (1978); R Rovere and A Schlesinger, The MacArthur Controversy and American Foreign Policy (1965); J Gunther, The Riddle of MacArthur: Japan, Korea, and the Far East (1952; reprint 1974).