Douglas MacArthur

Douglas MacArthur (26 January 1880 – 5 April 1964) was an American general. He served with distinction in World War I; as chief of staff of the United States Army from 1930 to 1935; as Supreme Commander, Southwest Pacific Area, from 1942 to 1945; as Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers overseeing the occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1951; and as head of the United Nations Command in the Korean War from 1950 to 1951. He is one of only five people to hold the rank of General of the Army, and the only person to hold the rank of Field Marshal in the Philippine Army. MacArthur, a son of Medal of Honor recipient Arthur MacArthur Jr., graduated first in his class from the U.S. Military Academy in 1903. During the 1914 U.S. occupation of Veracruz, he conducted a reconnaissance mission for which he was nominated for the Medal of Honor. On the Western Front during World War I, he rose to the rank of brigadier general, was again nominated for a Medal of Honor, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross twice and the Silver Star seven times. From 1919 to 1922, MacArthur served as Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy. His next posting was in the Philippines, where in 1924 he was instrumental in quelling the Philippine Scout Mutiny. In 1925, MacArthur became the Army's youngest major general at the age of 45, and in 1930 was appointed Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. He was involved in the controversial expulsion of the Bonus Army protesters in Washington, D.C., in 1932, and organized the Civilian Conservation Corps. In 1935, MacArthur was appointed Military Advisor to the Commonwealth of the Philippines. He retired from the Army in 1937, but continued as an advisor and as a Field Marshal in the Philippine Army from 1936. MacArthur was recalled to active duty in 1941 as commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East. A large portion of his air forces were destroyed in December 1941 in the Japanese attack on Clark Field, and an invasion of the Philippines followed. In March 1942, MacArthur escaped to Australia, where he was appointed Supreme Commander of the Southwest Pacific Area in April. He promised that he would return to the Philippines, and for his defense of the islands was awarded the Medal of Honor. From Australia, he commanded the New Guinea campaign, and in October 1944 led the campaign which liberated the Philippines. In December 1944, he was promoted to General of the Army. At the end of the war, MacArthur accepted the surrender of Japan. As the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers and effective ruler of Japan, he oversaw the war crimes tribunals and the demilitarization and democratization of the country. During the Korean War, he led the United Nations Command with initial success, but suffered major defeats after China's entry into the war in October 1950. MacArthur was contentiously removed from his command in Korea by President Harry S. Truman in April 1951. He died in Washington, D.C., in 1964.

== Early life and education == A military brat, Douglas MacArthur was born 26 January 1880, at Little Rock Barracks in Arkansas, to Arthur MacArthur Jr., a U.S. Army captain, and Mary Pinkney Hardy MacArthur (nicknamed "Pinky"). Arthur Jr. received the Medal of Honor for his actions with the Union Army in the Battle of Missionary Ridge during the American Civil War, and was promoted to lieutenant general. Arthur and Pinky had three sons, of whom Douglas was the youngest, following Arthur III and Malcolm. The family lived on a succession of Army posts in the American Old West. Conditions were primitive, and Malcolm died of measles in 1883. In his memoir, MacArthur wrote "I learned to ride and shoot even before I could read or write—indeed, almost before I could walk and talk." Douglas was extremely close with his mother and often considered a "mama's boy". Until around age eight, she dressed him in skirts and kept his hair long and in curls.

In July 1889 the family moved to Washington, D.C., where MacArthur attended the Force Public School. His father was posted to San Antonio, Texas, in September 1893. MacArthur attended the West Texas Military Academy, where he was awarded the gold medal for "scholarship and deportment". He played on the school tennis team, quarterback on its football team, and shortstop on its baseball team. He was named valedictorian, with a final year average of 97.33%. MacArthur's father and grandfather unsuccessfully sought to secure Douglas a presidential appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, first from Grover Cleveland and then from William McKinley; both were rejected. He later passed the examination for an appointment from Congressman Theobald Otjen. He later wrote: "It was a lesson I never forgot. Preparedness is the key to success and victory." MacArthur entered West Point on 13 June 1899, and his mother moved to a suite at Craney's Hotel, which overlooked the grounds of the academy. Hazing was widespread at West Point at this time, and MacArthur and his classmate Ulysses S. Grant III were singled out by Southern cadets as sons of generals with mothers living at Craney's. When Cadet Oscar Booz left West Point after being hazed and subsequently died of tuberculosis, MacArthur was called to appear before a special congressional inquiry, where he testified against cadets implicated in hazing but downplayed his own hazing. Congress subsequently outlawed acts "of a harassing, tyrannical, abusive, shameful, insulting or humiliating nature", although hazing continued. MacArthur was a corporal in Company B in his second year, a first sergeant in Company A in his third year and First Captain in his final year. He played for the baseball team and academically earned 2424.12 merits out of a possible 2470.00 or 98.14%, the third-highest score ever recorded. He graduated first in his class on 11 June 1903. At the time it was customary for the top-ranking cadets to be commissioned into the United States Army Corps of Engineers, therefore, MacArthur was commissioned as a second lieutenant in that corps.

== Junior officer == MacArthur spent his graduation furlough with his parents at Fort Mason, California, where his father, now a major general, was commanding the Department of the Pacific. Afterward, he joined the 3rd Engineer Battalion, which departed for the Philippines in October 1903. MacArthur was sent to Iloilo, where he supervised the construction of a wharf at Camp Jossman. He conducted surveys at Tacloban City, Calbayog and Cebu City. In November 1903, while working on Guimaras, he was ambushed by a pair of Filipino brigands or guerrillas; he killed both. He was promoted to first lieutenant in Manila in April 1904. In October 1904, his tour of duty was cut short when he contracted malaria and dhobi itch during a survey on Bataan. He returned to San Francisco, where he was assigned to the California Debris Commission. In July 1905, he became chief engineer of the Division of the Pacific. In October 1905, MacArthur was appointed aide-de-camp to his father in Tokyo. A man who knew the MacArthurs at this time wrote that "Arthur MacArthur was the most flamboyantly egotistical man I had ever seen, until I met his son." They inspected Japanese military bases at Nagasaki, Kobe and Kyoto, then headed to India via Shanghai, Hong Kong, Java and Singapore, reaching Calcutta in January 1906. In India, they visited Madras, Tuticorin, Quetta, Karachi, the Northwest Frontier and the Khyber Pass. They then sailed to China via Bangkok and Saigon, and toured Canton, Qingdao, Beijing, Tianjin, Hankou and Shanghai before returning to Japan in June. The next month they returned to Fort Mason in the U.S. In September, Douglas received orders to report to the 2nd Engineer Battalion at the Washington Barracks and enroll in the Engineer School. While there he served as "an aide to assist at White House functions" at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt.

In August 1907, MacArthur was sent to the engineer district office in Milwaukee, where his parents were living. In April 1908, he was posted to Fort Leavenworth, where he was given his first command, Company K, 3rd Engineer Battalion. He became battalion adjutant in 1909 and then engineer officer at Fort Leavenworth in 1910. MacArthur was promoted to captain in February 1911 and was appointed as head of the Military Engineering Department and the Field Engineer School. He participated in exercises at San Antonio, Texas, with the Maneuver Division in 1911 and served in Panama on detached duty in January and February 1912. The sudden death of their father on 5 September 1912 brought Douglas and his brother Arthur back to Milwaukee to care for their mother, whose health had deteriorated. MacArthur requested a transfer to Washington, D.C., so his mother could be near Johns Hopkins Hospital. Army Chief of Staff, Major General Leonard Wood, took up the matter with Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, who arranged for MacArthur to be posted to the Office of the Chief of Staff in 1912.

== Veracruz expedition == On 21 April 1914, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the occupation of Veracruz. MacArthur joined the headquarters staff sent to the area, arriving on 1 May 1914. He realized that the logistic support of an advance would require the railroad, and set out to verify a report that there were locomotives in Alvarado, accompanied by three Mexicans. After locating three suitable engines, on the way back to Veracruz his party was set upon by five armed men. The party escaped all but two, whom MacArthur shot. Soon after, they were attacked by about fifteen horsemen. MacArthur took three bullets in his clothes but was unharmed. One of his companions was lightly wounded before the horsemen retired, after MacArthur shot four of them. The party was attacked a third time by three horsemen. MacArthur received another bullet hole in his shirt, but his men managed to outrun all but one of their attackers. MacArthur shot both that man and his horse. A fellow officer wrote to Wood recommending that MacArthur be put forward for the Medal of Honor. Wood did so, and Chief of Staff Hugh L. Scott convened a board to consider the award. The board feared that "to bestow the award recommended might encourage another staff officer, under similar conditions, to ignore the local commander, possibly interfering with the latter's plans". Consequently, MacArthur received no award.

World War I

Rainbow Division

MacArthur returned to the War Department, where he was promoted to major on 11 December 1915. In June 1916, he was assigned as head of the Bureau of Information. MacArthur has been regarded as the Army's first press officer. Following the American entry into World War I, MacArthur and Secretary of War Newton D. Baker secured an agreement from President Wilson for the use of the National Guard on the Western Front. MacArthur suggested sending first a division organized from units of different states, so as to avoid the appearance of favoritism toward any state. Baker approved the creation of this formation, which became the 42nd ("Rainbow") Division and appointed Major General William Abram Mann as its commander; MacArthur was its chief of staff, and with his new role came the rank of colonel, skipping the rank of lieutenant colonel. At MacArthur's request, this commission was in the infantry rather than the engineers. The 42nd Division's initial training emphasized open-field combat rather than trench warfare. It sailed for the Western Front on 18 October 1917. On 19 December, Mann was replaced by Major General Charles T. Menoher after Mann–who was "ill, old, and bedridden"– failed a physical examination. The new division commander and his chief of staff "became great friends", in MacArthur's words, who described Menoher as "an able officer, an efficient administrator, of genial disposition and unimpeachable character".

Lunéville-Baccarat Defensive sector

The 42nd Division entered the line in the quiet Lunéville sector in February 1918. On 26 February, MacArthur accompanied a French trench raid and assisted in the capture of German prisoners. The commander of the French VII Corps, Major General Georges de Bazelaire, decorated MacArthur with the Croix de Guerre. This was the first Croix de Guerre awarded to a member of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). Menoher recommended MacArthur for a Silver Star, which he later received. On 9 March, the 42nd Division launched three raids on German trenches in the Salient du Feys. MacArthur accompanied a company of the 168th Infantry. His leadership was rewarded with the Distinguished Service Cross. A few days later, MacArthur, who was strict about his men carrying their gas masks but often neglected to bring his own, was gassed. He recovered in time to show Secretary Baker around the area on 19 March.

Champagne-Marne offensive

On the recommendation of Menoher, MacArthur was promoted to brigadier general on 26 June. This made him, at 38, the youngest general in the AEF until October when Lesley J. McNair and Pelham D. Glassford, both 35, received promotion. Around the same time, the 42nd Division was shifted to Châlons-en-Champagne to oppose the German Champagne-Marne offensive. Général d'Armée Henri Gouraud of the French Fourth Army elected to meet the attack with a defense in depth. His plan succeeded, and MacArthur was awarded a second Silver Star. The 42nd Division participated in the subsequent Allied counter-offensive, and MacArthur was awarded a third Silver Star on 29 July. Two days later, Menoher relieved Brigadier General Robert A. Brown of the 84th Infantry Brigade of his command and replaced him with MacArthur. Hearing reports that the enemy had withdrawn, MacArthur went forward on 2 August to see for himself. He later wrote:

I will never forget that trip. The dead were so thick in spots we tumbled over them. There must have been at least 2,000 of those sprawled bodies. I identified the insignia of six of the best German divisions. The stench was suffocating. Not a tree was standing. The moans and cries of wounded men sounded everywhere. Sniper bullets sung like the buzzing of a hive of angry bees. MacArthur reported to Menoher and Major General Hunter Liggett, the commander of I Corps, that the Germans had indeed withdrawn. He was awarded a fourth Silver Star, a second Croix de guerre, and was made a commandeur of the Légion d'honneur.

=== Battle of Saint-Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne offensive === The 42nd Division earned a few weeks rest, returning to the line for the Battle of Saint-Mihiel on 12 September 1918. The Allied advance proceeded rapidly, and MacArthur was awarded a fifth Silver Star for his leadership of the 84th Infantry Brigade. He received a sixth for his participation in a raid on the night of 25–26 September. The 42nd Division was relieved on the night of 30 September and moved to the Argonne sector where it relieved the 1st Division on the night of 11 October. On a reconnaissance the next day, MacArthur was gassed again, earning a second Wound Chevron.

The 42nd Division joined the Meuse–Argonne offensive on 14 October. That evening, a conference was called to discuss the attack, during which Major General Charles P. Summerall, commander of V Corps, telephoned and demanded that Châtillon be taken by 18:00 the next evening. An aerial photograph showed a gap in the German barbed wire northeast of Châtillon. Lieutenant Colonel Walter E. Bare—the commander of the 167th Infantry—proposed an attack from that direction, covered by a machine-gun barrage. MacArthur adopted this plan. He was wounded, but not severely, while leading a reconnaissance patrol into no man's land at night to confirm the existence of the gap. The Germans shot at the squad with artillery and machine guns. MacArthur was the sole survivor of the patrol, claiming it was a miracle that he survived. He confirmed that there was indeed an enormous gap due to the lack of enemy gunfire coming from that area.

Summerall nominated MacArthur for the Medal of Honor and promotion to major general, but he received neither. He was awarded a second Distinguished Service Cross. The 42nd Division returned to the line for the last time on the night of 4–5 November 1918, the final advance on Sedan. MacArthur later wrote that this operation "narrowly missed being one of the great tragedies of American history". An order to disregard unit boundaries led to units crossing into each other's zones; MacArthur was taken prisoner by men of the 1st Division, who mistook him for a German general. His performance in the attack on the Meuse heights led to his being awarded a seventh Silver Star. On 10 November, a day before the armistice with Germany, MacArthur was appointed commander of the 42nd Division, upon the recommendation of its outgoing commander, Menoher. For his service as the 42nd's chief of staff and commander of the 84th Infantry Brigade, MacArthur was awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal. His period in command of the 42nd Division was brief, for on 22 November he was returned to the 84th Infantry Brigade, with Major General Clement Flagler taking command. It is possible that he may have retained command of the 42nd had he been promoted to major general (making him the youngest in the U.S. Army) but, with the sudden cessation of hostilities, that was unlikely. General Peyton C. March, the Army Chief of Staff, "had put a block on promotions. There would be no more stars awarded while the War Department got to grips with demobilization". MacArthur was one of only three American generals wounded or killed in action in World War I, and the only one who ranked as a general: Edward Sigerfoos and Albertus W. Catlin became casualties while in the process of being promoted. The 42nd Division was chosen to participate in the occupation of the Rhineland, occupying the Ahrweiler district. In April 1919, the 42nd Division entrained for Brest and Saint-Nazaire, where they boarded ships to the United States. MacArthur reached New York on 25 April 1919.

Between the wars

Superintendent of the United States Military Academy

MacArthur's 84th Brigade was demobilized at Camp Dodge, Iowa, on 12 May 1919. The following month, he became Superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, which General March felt was much in need of reform. Accepting the post, "one of the most prestigious in the army", allowed MacArthur to retain his rank of brigadier general (which was temporary for the duration of the war), instead of being reduced to his substantive rank of major. When MacArthur moved into the superintendent's house with his mother, he became the youngest superintendent since 1817. He had to overcome resistance from graduates and the academic board. MacArthur's vision of what was required of an officer came not just from his recent experience of combat, but also the occupation of the Rhineland. The military government of the Rhineland had required the Army to deal with political, economic and social problems, but he had found that many West Point graduates had limited knowledge of fields outside of the military sciences. During the war, West Point had been reduced to little more than an officer candidate school, with five classes being graduated in two years. Cadet and staff morale was low and hazing "at an all-time peak of viciousness". MacArthur's first change was to restore the four-year course, after Congress had set the course length at three years. During the debate over the length, The New York Times highlighted the cloistered and undemocratic nature of student life at West Point. MacArthur sought to modernize the system, expanding the concept of military character to include bearing, leadership, efficiency and athletic performance. He formalized the hitherto unwritten Cadet Honor Code in 1922 when he formed the Cadet Honor Committee to review alleged code violations. Elected by the cadets, it had no authority to punish, but acted as a kind of grand jury. MacArthur attempted to end hazing by using officers rather than upperclassmen to train the plebes. Instead of the traditional summer camp at Fort Clinton, MacArthur had the cadets trained to use modern weapons by regular army sergeants at Fort Dix; they then marched back to West Point with full packs. He attempted to modernize the curriculum by adding liberal arts, government and economics courses, but encountered strong resistance from the academic board. Study of the campaigns of the American Civil War was replaced with those of World War I. In History class, more emphasis was placed on the Far East. MacArthur expanded the sports program and required all cadets to participate. He allowed upperclassmen to leave the reservation, and sanctioned a cadet newspaper. He also permitted cadets to travel to watch their football team play, and gave them a monthly allowance of $5 (equivalent to $96 in 2025). Professors and alumni alike protested these radical moves. Most of MacArthur's West Point reforms were soon discarded but in the ensuing years his innovations were gradually restored.

=== Army's youngest major general === MacArthur became romantically involved with socialite and heiress Louise Cromwell Brooks. They were married at her family's villa in Palm Beach, Florida, on 14 February 1922. Rumors circulated that Pershing, who had also courted Louise, had threatened to exile them to the Philippines if they were married. Pershing denied this. More recently, Richard B. Frank has written that Pershing and Brooks had already "severed" their relationship by the time of MacArthur's transfer; Brooks was, however, "informal[ly]" engaged to a close aide of Pershing's (she broke off the relationship to accept MacArthur's proposal). Pershing's letter concerning MacArthur's transfer predated Brooks's and MacArthur's engagement announcement, though this did not dispel the newspaper gossip. In October 1922, MacArthur sailed to the Philippines with Louise and her two children, Walter and Louise, to assume command of the Military District of Manila. MacArthur was fond of the children, and spent much of his free time with them.

The revolts in the Philippines had been suppressed, and in the wake of the Washington Naval Treaty the garrison was being reduced. MacArthur's friendships with Filipinos like Manuel Quezon offended some people. In February and March 1923 MacArthur returned to Washington to see his mother, who had a heart ailment. She recovered, but it was the last time he saw his brother Arthur, who died suddenly from appendicitis in December 1923. In June 1923, MacArthur assumed command of the 23rd Infantry Brigade of the Philippine Division. On 7 July 1924, he was informed that a mutiny had broken out amongst the Philippine Scouts over grievances concerning pay and allowances. Over 200 were arrested and there were fears of an insurrection. MacArthur was able to calm the situation, but his subsequent efforts to improve salaries were frustrated by financial stringency and racial prejudice. On 17 January 1925, at the age of 44, he became the Army's youngest major general. Returning to the U.S., MacArthur took command of the IV Corps Area, based at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia, on 2 May 1925. However, he encountered southern prejudice because he was the son of a Union Army officer, and he requested to be relieved. A few months later, he assumed command of the III Corps area, based at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland. The transfer allowed MacArthur and Louise to move to her Rainbow Hill estate, near Garrison, Maryland. However, this relocation led to what he later described as "one of the most distasteful orders I ever received": to serve on the court-martial of Brigadier General Billy Mitchell. Three of the thirteen judges, including Summerall, the president of the court, were removed when defense challenges revealed bias against Mitchell. Despite MacArthur's claim that he had voted to acquit, Mitchell was convicted.

In 1927, MacArthur and Louise separated, and she moved to a Manhattan hotel. In August that year, William C. Prout—the president of the American Olympic Committee—died suddenly and the committee elected MacArthur as their president. His main task was to prepare the U.S. team for the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, where the Americans won the most medals. Upon returning to the U.S., MacArthur received orders to assume command of the Philippine Department. He travelled alone; on 17 June 1929, while he was in Manila, Louise obtained a divorce. Both later acknowledged the reason to be "incompatibility".

=== Chief of Staff === By 1930, MacArthur was 50 and still the youngest and one of the best known of the U.S. Army's major generals. He left the Philippines on 19 September 1930 and for a brief time commanded the IX Corps Area in San Francisco. On 21 November, he was sworn in as Chief of Staff of the United States Army, with the rank of general. While in Washington, he rode home each day to have lunch with his mother. 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. He began referring to himself as "MacArthur". He had already hired a public relations staff to promote his image with the American public, together with a set of beliefs: that America needed a strongman leader to deal with the possibility that Communists might lead the masses of unemployed into a revolution; that America's destiny was in the Asia-Pacific region; and a strong hostility to the British Empire. One contemporary described MacArthur as the greatest actor to ever serve as a U.S. Army general while another wrote that MacArthur had a court rather than a staff. The Great Depression prompted Congress to cut the Army's personnel and budget: 53 bases were closed, but MacArthur prevented attempts to reduce the number of regular officers from 12,000 to 10,000. His main programs included the development of new mobilization plans. He grouped the nine corps areas together under four armies, which were charged with training and frontier defense. He also negotiated the MacArthur-Pratt agreement with the Chief of Naval Operations, William V. Pratt. This was the first of a series of inter-service agreements that defined the responsibilities of the different services with respect to aviation. This agreement placed coastal air defense under the Army. In March 1935, MacArthur activated a centralized air command, General Headquarters Air Force, under General Frank M. Andrews. By rapidly promoting Andrews from lieutenant colonel to brigadier general MacArthur supported Andrews' endorsement of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and the concept of long-range four-engine bombers. Most high-ranking Army generals and officials in the War Department at the time supported twin-engine bombers. After MacArthur left his position as Army Chief of Staff in October 1935 his successor, Malin Craig, and War Secretary Harry Hines Woodring ordered a halt to development of the B-17. Andrews, thanks to MacArthur putting him in a position of power in 1935, was able to use bureaucratic loopholes to covertly order development of the B-17 to the point that when the Army and President Franklin Roosevelt endorsed four-engine bombers in 1940, B-17s were able to be immediately produced. The development of the M1 Garand rifle also happened during MacArthur's tenure. Many in the Army and Marine Corps wanted the new rifle to use the .276 Pedersen round. MacArthur personally ordered that the Garand use the .30-06 Springfield round, which was what the M1903 Springfield used; this allowed the military to use the same ammunition for both. The Garand was cleared for service in November 1935 and officially adopted in January 1936 as the new Army service rifle a few months after MacArthur finished his tour of duty as chief of staff.

Bonus Army

One of MacArthur's most controversial acts came in 1932, when the Bonus Army of veterans converged on Washington. He sent camp equipment to the demonstrators, along with mobile kitchens, until an outburst in Congress caused the kitchens to be withdrawn. He was concerned that the demonstration had been taken over by communists and pacifists but the General Staff's intelligence division reported that only three of the march's 26 key leaders were communists. MacArthur went over contingency plans for civil disorder: mechanized equipment was brought to Fort Myer, where anti-riot training was conducted.

On 28 July 1932, in a clash with the District police, two veterans were shot, and later died. President Herbert Hoover ordered MacArthur to "surround the affected area and clear it without delay". MacArthur brought up troops and tanks and, against the advice of Major Dwight D. Eisenhower, decided to accompany the troops, although he was not in charge of the operation. The troops advanced with bayonets and sabers drawn under a shower of bricks and rocks, but no shots were fired. In less than four hours, they cleared the campground using tear gas. The gas canisters started fires, causing the only death during the riots. While not as violent as other anti-riot operations, it was nevertheless a public relations disaster. However, the defeat of the "Bonus Army", while unpopular with the American people at large, did make MacArthur into the hero of the more right-wing elements in the Republican Party who believed that the general had saved America from a communist revolution. In 1934, MacArthur sued journalists Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen for defamation after they described his treatment of the Bonus marchers as "unwarranted, unnecessary, insubordinate, harsh and brutal". Also accused for proposing 19-gun salutes for friends, MacArthur asked for $750,000 (equivalent to $13.7 million in 2024) for the damage to his reputation. The journalists threatened to call Isabel Rosario Cooper as a witness. MacArthur had met Isabel while in the Philippines, and she had become his mistress. He was forced to settle out of court, secretly paying Pearson $15,000 (equivalent to $274,000 in 2024).

New Deal

Roosevelt won the 1932 presidential election. MacArthur and Roosevelt had worked together before World War I and had remained friends despite their political differences. MacArthur supported the New Deal through the Army's operation of the Civilian Conservation Corps. He decentralized its administration to the corps areas, which became an important factor in the program's success. His support for a strong military, and his public criticism of isolationism, made him unpopular with the Roosevelt administration. Perhaps the most incendiary exchange between Roosevelt and MacArthur occurred over a proposal to cut 51% of the Army's budget. MacArthur lectured Roosevelt that "when we lost the next war, and an American boy, lying in the mud with an enemy bayonet through his belly and an enemy foot on his dying throat, spat out his last curse, I wanted the name not to be MacArthur, but Roosevelt". Roosevelt yelled, "you must not talk that way to the President!" MacArthur offered to resign, but Roosevelt refused. In spite of such exchanges, MacArthur was extended an extra year as chief of staff, ending his tour in October 1935. For his service as chief of staff, he was awarded a second Distinguished Service Medal. He was retroactively awarded two Purple Hearts for his World War I service, a decoration that he authorized in 1932. MacArthur insisted on being the first recipient of the Purple Heart.

=== Field Marshal of the Philippine Army === When the Commonwealth of the Philippines achieved semi-independent status in 1935, President of the Philippines Manuel Quezon asked his longtime friend MacArthur to supervise the creation of a Philippine Army. With President Roosevelt's approval, MacArthur accepted. It was agreed that MacArthur would receive the rank of field marshal, with its salary and allowances, in addition to his major general's salary as Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines. This made him the best-paid soldier in the world. MacArthur sailed from San Francisco on the SS President Hoover in October 1935, accompanied by his mother and sister-in-law. He brought Eisenhower and Major James B. Ord as his assistants. Another passenger on the President Hoover was Jean Marie Faircloth, an unmarried 37-year-old socialite. Over the next two years, MacArthur and Faircloth were frequently seen together. His mother became gravely ill during the voyage and died in Manila on 3 December 1935.

Quezon officially conferred the title of field marshal on MacArthur in a ceremony at Malacañan Palace on 24 August 1936. Eisenhower learned later that the field-marshalship had not been (as he had assumed) Quezon's idea: "rather, Quezon said that MacArthur himself came up with the high-sounding title." (A persistent myth has pervaded the biographical literature that MacArthur wore a specially designed sharkskin uniform at the 1936 ceremony. Richard Meixsel has debunked this story as a journalist's error.) The Philippine Army was formed from conscription, and the Philippine Military Academy was created along the lines of West Point to train officers. MacArthur and Eisenhower found that few of the training camps had been constructed and the first group of 20,000 trainees did not report until early 1937. Equipment and weapons were American cast offs, and the budget was completely inadequate, although MacArthur and his naval adviser, Lieutenant Colonel Sidney L. Huff, persuaded the Navy to initiate the development of the PT boat. Much hope was placed in the Philippine Army Air Corps, but the first squadron was not organized until 1939. The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty banned the construction of new fortifications or naval bases in all Pacific territories of the five signatories from 1923 to 1936, and military bases were not allowed to be expanded or modernized. This added to the challenges facing MacArthur and Quezon. In Manila, MacArthur was a member of the Freemasons. On 28 March 1936, he became a 32nd degree Scottish Rite Freemason. He married Jean Faircloth in a civil ceremony on 30 April 1937. Their son, Arthur MacArthur IV, was born in Manila on 21 February 1938. On 31 December 1937, MacArthur officially retired from the Army. He ceased to represent the U.S. as military adviser, but remained as Quezon's adviser in a civilian capacity. Eisenhower returned to the U.S., and was replaced as MacArthur's chief of staff by Lieutenant Colonel Richard K. Sutherland, while Richard J. Marshall became deputy chief of staff.

World War II

Philippines campaign (1941–1942)

==== Defense of the Philippines ==== On 26 July 1941, Roosevelt recalled MacArthur to active duty as a major general and named him commander of U.S. Army Forces in the Far East (USAFFE). MacArthur was promoted to lieutenant general the following day, and then to general on 20 December. The initial American plan for the defense of the Philippines called for the main body of the troops to retreat to the Bataan peninsula to hold out against the Japanese until a relief force could arrive. MacArthur changed this plan to one of attempting to hold all of Luzon and using B-17 Flying Fortresses to sink Japanese ships that approached the islands. MacArthur persuaded the decision-makers in Washington that his plans represented both the best deterrent to war and the best chance of victory. The Navy intercept station in the islands, known as Station CAST, had an ultra-secret Purple cipher machine, which decrypted Japanese diplomatic messages, and partial codebooks for the latest JN-25 naval code. Station CAST sent MacArthur its entire output, via Sutherland, the only officer on his staff authorized to see it. At 03:30 local time on 8 December 1941, Sutherland learned of the attack on Pearl Harbor and informed MacArthur. At 05:30, the Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, General George Marshall, ordered MacArthur to execute the existing war plan, Rainbow Five. This plan had been leaked to the American public by the Chicago Tribune three days prior, and the following day Germany had publicly ridiculed the plan. MacArthur did not follow Marshall's order. On three occasions, the commander of the Far East Air Force, Major General Lewis H. Brereton, requested permission to attack Japanese bases in Formosa, in accordance with prewar intentions, but was denied by Sutherland. Brereton instead ordered his aircraft to fly defensive patrol patterns, looking for Japanese warships. Not until 11:00 did Brereton speak with MacArthur, and obtained permission to begin Rainbow Five. MacArthur later denied having the conversation. At 12:30, aircraft of Japan's 11th Air Fleet achieved complete tactical surprise when they attacked Clark Field and the nearby fighter base at Iba Field. What was left of the Far East Air Force was all but destroyed over the next few days.

MacArthur attempted to slow the Japanese advance, but his plan for holding all of Luzon against the Japanese collapsed, for it distributed the American-Filipino forces too thinly. He reconsidered his overconfidence in the ability of his Filipino troops after the Japanese force made a rapid advance following its landing at Lingayen Gulf on 21 December, and ordered a retreat to Bataan. Within two days of the Japanese landing, MacArthur had reverted to the pre-July 1941 plan of attempting to hold only Bataan while waiting for a relief force. However, while most of the American and some of the Filipino troops were able to retreat back to Bataan, most of their supplies were abandoned in the confusion. Manila was declared an open city at midnight on 24 December. On the evening of 24 December, MacArthur moved his headquarters to the island fortress of Corregidor. Air raids by the Japanese destroyed all the exposed structures on the island and USAFFE headquarters was moved into the Malinta Tunnel. In the first-ever air raid on Corregidor on 29 December, Japanese airplanes bombed all the buildings on Topside including MacArthur's house. MacArthur's family ran into the air raid shelter while MacArthur went outside to the garden with some soldiers to count the bombers involved in the raid when bombs destroyed the home. One bomb struck only ten feet from MacArthur and the soldiers shielded him with their bodies and helmets. Filipino sergeant Domingo Adversario was awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart for getting his hand wounded by the bomb and covering MacArthur's head with his own helmet, which was also hit by shrapnel. MacArthur was not wounded. Later, most of the headquarters moved to Bataan, leaving only the nucleus with MacArthur. The troops on Bataan knew that they had been written off but continued to fight. Some blamed Roosevelt and MacArthur for their predicament. A ballad sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" called him "Dugout Doug". However, most clung to the belief that somehow MacArthur "would reach down and pull something out of his hat". On 1 January 1942, MacArthur accepted $500,000 (equivalent to $7.57 million in 2024) from President Quezon as payment for his pre-war service. MacArthur's staff members also received payments. Eisenhower—after being appointed Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF)—was offered money by Quezon, but declined. These payments were known only to a few in Manila and Washington, including President Roosevelt and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, until they were made public by historian Carol Petillo in 1979. While the payments had been legal, the revelation tarnished MacArthur's reputation.

Escape from the Philippines

In February 1942, as Japanese forces tightened their grip on the Philippines, Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to relocate to Australia. On the night of 12 March 1942, MacArthur, his wife Jean, son Arthur, Arthur's Cantonese amah, Loh Chui, and other members of his staff left Corregidor. They traveled in PT boats through stormy seas patrolled by Japanese warships, and reached Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao, from where B-17s flew them to Australia. MacArthur arrived in Melbourne by train on 21 March. His declaration, "I came through and I shall return", was first made at Terowie railway station on 20 March. Washington asked MacArthur to amend his promise to "We shall return". He ignored the request. Bataan surrendered on 9 April, and Corregidor on 6 May.

Medal of Honor

George Marshall decided that MacArthur would be awarded the Medal of Honor, a decoration for which he had twice previously been nominated, "to offset any propaganda by the enemy directed at his leaving his command". Eisenhower pointed out that MacArthur had not actually performed any acts of valor as required by law, but Marshall cited the 1927 award of the medal to Charles Lindbergh as a precedent. Special legislation had been passed to authorize Lindbergh's medal, but while similar legislation was introduced authorizing the medal for MacArthur, Marshall felt that the recognition "would mean more" if the gallantry criteria were not waived. Marshall ordered Sutherland to recommend the award and authored the citation himself. This also meant that it violated the governing statute, as it could only be considered lawful so long as material requirements were waived by Congress, such as the unmet requirement to perform conspicuous gallantry "above and beyond the call of duty". Marshall admitted the defect to the secretary of war. When the Army's adjutant general reviewed the case in 1945, he determined that "authority for [MacArthur's] award is questionable under strict interpretation of regulations". MacArthur expressed the sentiment that "this award was intended not so much for me personally as it is a recognition of the indomitable courage of the gallant army which it was my honor to command". At the age of 62, MacArthur was the oldest living active-duty Medal of Honor recipient and the highest-ranked military servicemember to ever receive it. Arthur and Douglas MacArthur thus became the first father and son to be awarded the Medal of Honor. As the symbol of the forces resisting the Japanese, MacArthur received many other accolades. The Native American tribes of the Southwest chose him as a "Chief of Chiefs", which he acknowledged as from "my oldest friends, the companions of my boyhood days on the Western frontier".

New Guinea Campaign