A myth maker of phenomenally bad judgement and less foresight.

Of course it is natural that a whole lot more people think that Britain should receive priority in terms of men, guns, food and other war materiel during the early days of America's entry into WW2. That was called "The Europe First" policy. I for my own interests prefer the view that such priority should have been given towards sending aid and relief to the beleguered U.S. forces in the Philippines still holding out in Bataan. A view which MacArthur supported, while FDR and every other anglophile in Washington were quite willing to sacrifice; if not totally ignore. For this reason alone, I give the General a big fat "5".

The Philippines was a still a U.S. territorial possession in those days, and Filipinos were U.S. nationals. 17 million U.S. civilians and a force of more than 90,000 American and Filipino soldiers held out for as long as they could while every other allied garrison from Java to Singapore had already folded up in surrender. Needless to say, no aid was ever received nor sent, and the whole islands fell into the darkness of brutal Japanese occupation by the summer of 1942. Still, even with the Japanese occupation, the racist geniuses in Washington didn't feel that any U.S. forces should be spared for the liberation of the Philippines, even as late as 1944! It took the persistence of MacArthur to see to it that there would be a liberation of the Philippines.

Douglas MacArthur was a very power-hungry general. I also feel he sold his soul to the devil during the war. The Japanese were secretly conducting horrible medical experiments on prisoners and civilians in a camp called Unit 731. Their ultimate goal was to manufacture and unleash biological weapons on the Allies, including the United States mainland. Realizing that this data was extremely valuable and to prevent the data from being captured by the Russians, MacArthur was one of the individuals who secretly negotiated with the Japanese to hand over all their medical data in exchange for immunity from prosecution of war crimes. He also was able to get many death sentences of Japanese war criminals overturned as part of the deal. MacArthur also wanted to invade the Japanese mainland, which would cost the Americans over one million soldiers, not counting the number of Russian soldiers needed for the invasion. He was furious when the bomb was used. The fact he was awarded the congressional medal of honor is a disgrace. He was only seeking personal glory for himself.

MY KIND OF LEADER...NEED MORE GENERAL'S LIKE HIM IN IRAQ...NOT ONLY DID HE CONQUER A NATION BUT HE EVEN HAD THE HEART FOR THE PEOPLE OF A CONQUERED NATION AND REWROTE THE CONSTITUTION OF THAT NATION (JAPAN)...HE WAS A GREAT REFORMER AND INNOVATOR DID MUCH FOR THE DEMOCRATIZATION OF ASIA..FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THE UNITED STATES...THEY NEED A GENERAL WITH AS MUCH COURAGE AS HIN THAT COULD RE-WRITE IRAQ CONSTITUTION...AND DEMOCRATIZE IT SO IT WOULD PARALLEL LEBANON...THE ONLY DEMOCRATIZED AND PROSPEROUS ARAB NATION..

An insubordinate officer, he should have remembered from WWII that there is a time to call it quits, and to go back later if necciscary. The Korean War may have been a big struggle in the Cold War, but if MacArthur had done the right thing and held back from the Chinese-North Korean border, My grandfather would probably still be alive today.

Clearly he was an out of control military racist.

Pompous grandstanding idiot. He's Patton without the skill to back it up...

Despite his inability to follow those above him MacArthur had great tactics and knew what he was doing. Douglas MacArtur was my type of leader because he beleived in total victory. Push the enemy back so far that they will never rise up again. I think that the reason he was so insubordinat durring the Korean War was that Truman was incompetant. When it comes to war guys like Eisenhower, MacArthur, and Patton should have been making the decisions for how hard and how far they would fight, while the president keeps things going on the home front.

Vanity and arrogance personified! When Truman fired MacArthur in 1951 (relieving him of his duties in Korea), Truman was the least popular man in America - but he had to do it to protect the constitutionally-defined concept of civilian authority (the President) over U.S. military forces. Whether MacArthur's wish to extend the field of battle into China would have triggered a Sino-American war is questionable. The salient issue is that MacArthur refused to accept the fact that he was subordinate to civilian higher authorities in the government.

He could've won the Cold War then and there in Korea.. forward-thinking man. Imagine him and Patton together in Korea or Vietnam!

General MacArthur was a great military leader. He was daring, brave, and a fine strategist. The island hopping strategy in the Pacific theater was thought to be very costly, but MacArthur's strategy to root out the Japanese little by little was the only way to roll back them back considering the geography of the South Pacific. MacArthur administered Japan after the war. He should be commended for the way he rebuilt the government and how he liberalized Japanese society while being able to maintain the traditional power structures in the country; the Emperor was allowed to stay on after the war, but his power was diminished so he is no longer a god like it was before. He managed to keep Soviet influence out of Japan, which prevented several problems that could have come up with a co-habitation scheme similar to what happened in Germany. His record in Korea is somewhat more mixed. His most noteworthy accomplishment was the landing at Inchon, which even MacArthur himself said was a "1:5,000 chance for success." Those were very low odds, but everything seemed to go as planned. The big risk MacArthur took was trying to take over all of Korea. His next bet was that the Chinese would not get involved in the war, thus making it much more difficult to fight and disturbing the balance of power. Washington received a message from Red China saying that if American troops cross the border into North Korea, then the Chinese army will invade North Korea. The Chinese did and the Korean War turned into a war of attrition. During this time, MacArthur was advocating an invasion of China using troops from Taiwan. President Truman was against it justifiably; the President knew that if we invaded China, the Soviets will get involved, turning it into another world war. The Soviets will also make more pushes into Europe if war were to be started at that time. Majority opinion at the time said that Truman was appeasing the Russians, not so. A world war would have been costly, and nuclear weapons would have certainly been used. Truman knew that it would have been the wrong war at the wrong time and with the wrong enemies. MacArthur was fired because he directly disobeyed the Presidents orders by sending different signals to the Taiwanese than what the President wanted. The General wanted war and he believed that the President was wrong. So, MacArthur exercised his own policy. The General was also a very egotistical man who was very difficult to work with; he was one of those types who think they can never be wrong. "Rank insubordination" as Truman described it, fit the description. When Truman fired the General, the country was very angry with him. There were even calls for his impeachment. At the end of the day, the people saw the wisdom in Truman's action; they realized that the right place for the military to be is in civilan hands. A general's job is to make war, that is what they live for. If we were to be ruled by the military, then we would wage war with considering all the necessary diplomatic channels to prevent it.

How could anyone forget one of the last 5 stars? Macarthur was legendary in pushing the patients of his superiors. Too bad the US and Briton won't unleash more officers on the world like MacArthur to control the savages of this day and age.

I have to give this guy five stars for his military genius. At the same time, I would never have wanted to serve under him (or have him serve under me, for that matter - as Truman found out). Headstrong, hugely egotistical, insubordinate, and generally a pain in the ass. But he was a bold and intelligent military leader. During the war in the Pacific, MacArthur saved a lot of lives by championing the "island hopping" strategy that - instead of taking each Japanese-held island on the way to their homeland - skipped over some of the strongest (after establishing air and sea dominance) and let them wither helplessly without supplies. And during the Korean War (even though people thought he was too old to command by that point) MacArthur executed daring amphibious end-around attacks that helped turn the tide of the battle. He was a great military leader, but he lacked the perspective he needed to keep his ego and ambition in check.