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Douglas Mac Arthur

"There is no substitute for victory."

"The best and the worst things you hear about him are both true."

Sir Thomas Blamey, summing up the character of General MacArthur.

Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) was an American general during the time of the Second World War and the Korean War. He was one of only five to receive the rank General of the Army in the U.S. Army. As the youngest major general by 1925, MacArthur became the Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Infamously, MacArthur was sent by Herbert Hoover to peacefully remove jobless World War One veterans marching on Washington - instead, MacArthur used tanks and injured hundreds. He was the lone field marshal of the Philippine Army, of which he supervised and spearheaded its foundation and development.

A Medal of Honor recipient, MacArthur played a prominent role in (among others) the Pacific War, the Philippines campaign and the New Guinea campaign, elevating to the role of Supreme Allied Commander for the Allied Forces. As the de facto military governor of Japan, he effectively restructured Japanese society in the aftermath of the occupation, thereby garnering the nickname of Gaijin Shogun, aka the Foreign Generalissimo.

If you could describe him with one word, it would be "imperious." He was very much his own man, caring little - if at all - about any established power outside of his own, whether it was other nations or that of his superiors. He disobeyed or ignored orders entirely, even getting into verbal clashes with Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. He promoted soldiers based on their loyalty towards the general, and his influence extended through the Army and some on the Air Force, but never in the Navy. He was eventually relieved of command by Harry S Truman, largely because he wanted to use nuclear weapons during the Korean War. On China at the height of the Cold War. His public criticism of Truman's policies didn't help his case.

Tropes That Apply to MacArthur:

Badass: Say what you will about the man, this is certainly true.
- Four Star Badass
Bad Boss: Towards the Navy.
Benevolent Boss: Towards everyone else.
Blood Knight: MacArthur was so insistent on winning the Korean War that he wanted to keep fighting until victory was assured. He even considered using nuclear bombs to eliminate China's numerical superiority. The nuclear option was averted for the sake of preventing World War 3.
Cultured Badass: Arguably Wicked Cultured. At his desk, he would wear a Japanese ceremonial kimono, cool himself with an oriental fan and smoke cigarettes in a jeweled cigarette holder. In the evenings, he liked to read military history books.
Destructive Saviour: He had to break his ban on heavy artillery and air support when faced with a much tougher Japanese resistance. It succeeded, at the cost of flattening most of Manila and its historical landmarks with tons of bombs and shells.
Disproportionate Retribution: The Bonus Army was an assemblage of several World War I veterans, their families and others, who gathered in Washington, D.C., in the spring and summer of 1932, to demand early cash-payment redemption of their service certificates. MacArthur sent tanks to break it up. Yeeesh.
Distinguished Gentleman's Pipe: Corn cob pipe, specifically.
General Ripper: Whooo boy. His solution to winning the Korean War?
�We could solve the Chinese problem with 40 or 50 atomic bombs.�
- It got to a point where MacArthur tried to use nuclear weapons without the president's permission to continue the assault on China, via the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but it didn't work For Want of a Nail (10 B-29 bombers had been sent to Guam by 1950 with nukes, still lacking the "pit" needed to initiate, and 9 nukes of type Mk 4 had been transfered to the Army by April 6, 1951).
Genre Savvy: He figured that Nazi Germany was no match for the Soviet Union (which it wasn't), and unlike most at the time, he argued that China and North Korea were no mere Soviet puppets.
Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Filipinos will always think of MacArthur as the man who liberated them from Japanese control, and the man who in effect modernized their military.
Insult Backfire: In a strange way; the meeting between General MacArthur and President Truman. Truman got off the plane and met a man dressed in dirty clothes and a greasy cap. He was thoroughly insulted and, whereas MacArthur (treated as an emperor in Japan) intended to show the President's superiority, Truman was so offended that MacArthur was fired (it didn't help that the war wasn't going well at that time and MacArthur was seriously planning dropping nuclear bombs on Red China).
Interservice Rivalry: He was rather vicious towards the Navy, particularly in his deliberate dropping of Marines deep into enemy lines without support.
I Shall Return: Trope Namer. And he did return, by the way.
It's All About Me: To an extent. MacArthur insisted on being the first recipient of the Purple Heart, and when he did get it, he had it engraved with "#1."
Japanese Ranguage: The ever-immortal "We pray for MacArthur's erection" sign.
Karma Houdini: Inverted. In exchange for acquisition of the information gained in the studies of the biological warfare, MacArthur granted immunity to Shiro Ishii's Unit 731; who conducted lethal human experimentation during the Sino-Japanese War. None of those guys were ever tried for war crimes, largely due to MacArthur.
- Similarly, before the Tokyo tribunal, he exonerated Emperor Hirihito, Prince Chichibu, Prince Tsuneyoshi Takeda, Prince Asaka, Prince Higashikuni and Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi from criminal prosecutions.
Kicked Upstairs: He was sent to govern the Philippines so Franklin Roosevelt didn't have to deal with him for much longer. Predictably, MacArthur took advantage in every possible way.
Large Ham: Hoo boy, yes. When Dwight D Eisenhower was asked if he knew MacArthur, Eisenhower—who had been MacArthur's chief military aide 1932-1939—said, "I ought to. I studied dramatics under him for seven years!"
May-December Romance: Once had a mistress that was 34 years younger than him. More precisely, he was 50 at that time, while she was 16.
Military Brat
Military Maverick: So much that he was fired over it.
Momma's Boy: Supposedly.
Moral Myopia: Placing the lives of his men and the civilians under his protection over those of others went so far as to attempting to cause WWIII just to win a limited war. Which would've likely caused more of his men to die anyway. Jesus Christ, MacArthur.
No Kill Like Overkill: He sent tanks after the Bonus Army (WW 1 vets and their families), wanted to use dozens of nukes on Red China to eliminate their numerical advantage, and turned half of Manila into a parking lot with artillery and airstrikes.
- Not dozens. By his own words, he intended to attack Chine "with 40 or 50 atomic bombs."
Nuke 'em: His way to win the Korean War. It was one of the reasons Truman chose to fire him.
Old Soldier: Provides the page quote.
Oral Fixation Fixation: His signature corncob pipe.
The Patriarch: Prided himself in being a father, but was overbearing and adulterous enough for us to mark him as a subversion or deconstruction.
Person As Verb: Lyndon Johnson once said "I hope you don't pull a MacArthur on me" to General William Westmoreland.
Reassigned to Antarctica: When he was a Brigadier General, superior John Pershing sent him to the Philippines in 1922 for becoming involved in a woman that Pershing himself had been pursuing. At least, that was the rumor of the time. Conversely, it was also rumored to be either a reward or a punishment for his attempts to reform West Point during his two years as superintendent.
- MacArthur felt this of his command of the entire South Pacific Theater, because thought he should have been in put in charge of the entire war effort. General Marshall knew better.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He could barely stand being in the same room as Hirohito, culminating in how he refused to acknowledge Hirohito's apology for Pearl Harbour.
Third-Person Person: Around late 1930, he began to refer to himself exclusively by his last name, even conversationally. Not "I", not "me", not "my", not even a Royal "We". Simply, "MacArthur."
Thoughtcrime: As the SCAP, he had strict control over the Japanese media, banning 31 topics from all forms of media, including criticism of Allied policy, the atomic bombings, all Allied countries, any form of imperial propaganda, criticism of the SCAP and Black Market activities.
- Of course, this was standard procedure during any and all occupations.
Undying Loyalty: His soldiers, whom were promoted/demoted purely based on their loyalty towards him. "MacArthur Men", they were called.
Villain with Good Publicity: People were not happy at the time when Truman relieved MacArthur, in spite of many questionable decisions made by the guy beforehand. It also helps that, by and large, the public was not (fully) aware of the depths to which MacArthur sank in the period before he was fired. A few years after his death, the adoration for him started to dwindle and people began to realize just how dangerous he could have been.
- It goes a bit further than that. The media adored MacArthur, who perpetuated his perceived image of being a war hero. It allowed for the public to take his side versus Truman, and it at least partially helped in sowing seeds of loyalty towards sections of the military. Interestingly, the man himself was only quaintly aware of his good publicity, so it all played into his hands without him even knowing.
War Is Hell: He professed his belief in this, but in his own words, "once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end."