Douglas Macarthur the Actual Reason

Douglas MacArthur

The actual reason that President Harry Truman fired General Douglas MacArthur has generally been explained as "insubordination" (Pearlman, 2008), but there are several other reasons in the literature that explain in greater detail why MacArthur was removed from his position.

MacArthur was known to engage in bizarre & arrogant behaviors which led -- after years of his having offended many -- ultimately to his dismissal

a) MacArthur was in his penthouse suite in Manila when the war department informed him the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor; but he left his fleet of B-17 bombers and his P-40 fighter planes on the nearby runways at Clark ad Iba airfields (Wainstock, 1999)

b) Eight hours later the Japanese air force attacked and destroyed those aircraft that MacArthur decided to leave open for enemy attack (Wainstock, 1999)

c) MacArthur was paranoid, believing for example that President Roosevelt wanted to defeat Germany first because Roosevelt personally disliked him; "…he was certain that many in Washington would rather see him defeated than win the war…" (Wainstock, 1999).

d) MacArthur only smoked his corncob pipe when photographers were near; General Omar Bradley called MacArthur a "megalomaniac" with an "obsession for self-glorification" and a "contempt for the judgment of his superiors"; State Department official H. Freeman Matthews called MacArthur a "prickly and arrogant commander in chief"; President Truman saw MacArthur as a "supreme egotist" who regarded himself as "something of a god" (Wainstock, 1999).

e) After WWII ended, twice President Truman asked MacArthur to return to the U.S. To receive honors from a grateful nation; MacArthur replied that conditions in the Far East were so "unstable that it would not be safe for me to leave then to other hands, even briefly"; Truman was insulted (Wainstock, 1999).

Thesis TWO: MacArthur was basically in charge of the rebuilding of Japan's society and culture during the American occupation of Japan. Some of his policies were so provocative -- and even progressive in some cases -- they will certainly surprise and perhaps shock readers in 2012.

(a) MacArthur saw that the incidence of venereal disease within the American forces that were occupying Japan, and the returning Japanese reached "nearly 30%" right after the war; clinics were set up to distribute condoms, to give antibiotics to solders (Buhite, 2008).

(b) MacArthur outlawed prostitution but allowed women to continue walking the streets looking for "tricks"; the War Department ordered him to prevent "fraternization" between Americans and Japanese but MacArthur did not agree with the order so he ignored the order; he did not curtail (Buhite, 2008).

(c) the general wrote into the civil code rules and policies that promoted equal rights for women, equal rights in marriage, access to divorce, "ending of arranged marriages," he insisted on voting rights and participation for Japanese women in public affairs and in the workplace -- and these were all new concepts in Japan (Buhite, 2008).

(d) When the House Appropriations Committee in Washington threatened to reduce funding for the occupation, MacArthur was furious, because he did not want to relinquish control; he got his way (Buhite, 2008).

(e) MacArthur was a control freak and he hated the press; to the suggestion that he was implementing a socialist economy in Japan, he was outraged (Buhite, 2008).

(f) When reporters did not write what he wanted while he was in Japan, he had them thrown out and not allowed back in; any negative reporting might hurt his chances to win the Republican nomination for the presidency (Buhite, 2008).

Thesis THREE: MacArthur, now in charge of the American & UN forces in Korea, showed his militant independence as to how to conduct the war, and presented some outrageously controversial plans as to how to win the war along with alienating American allies.

i) the Joint Chiefs of Staff demanded that MacArthur avoid attacking the Yalu bridges because he would have to fly over Manchurian territory and though MacArthur's airmen tried heroically to isolate Korea" the way islands were isolated in WWII, it wasn't to be done, but MacArthur had a more bizarre strategy for Manchuria and China in any event (Weigley, 1977).

ii) MacArthur wanted to expand the war into China; he wanted to strategically bomb Manchurian production centers and Chinese airfields and send ground troops into China, a provocative and strategically risky proposal (Jackson, 2010).