The Fate of the Generals: MacArthur, Wainwright, and the Epic Battle for the Philippines
The first six months after Pearl Harbor were a very dismal time for America. Facing nothing but constant defeat at the hands of the Japanese Empire, America desperately needed heroes. The epic stand of American and Filipino forces during the Battle of Bataan provided those heroes, as Jonathan Horn narrates in this volume about both America’s first hero and the highest-ranking U.S. Army prisoner of war in World War II. Using a variety of new primary sources, especially Wainwright’s papers and personal diaries, he paints of a picture of two very different personalities and leadership styles during one of America’s darkest moments of the war.
Douglas MacArthur and Jonathan Wainwright could not have been more dissimilar as officers and leaders. MacArthur, brave but vainglorious, seemed to live his entire life trying to exceed his father’s reputation as a Civil War hero and general. Wainwright came from a modest background and was one of an entire generation of officers brought up to serve in a time of transition and turmoil around the world.
When the Japanese invaded the Philippines, the American and Filipino forces were outmatched in the air and on the ground. MacArthur’s strategic plans for the defense of the main island of Luzon were not realistic, with not nearly enough forces to provide an adequate defense, and most of the troops available were poorly trained and equipped. With no immediate hope of relief or reinforcement by the shattered American and Allied naval forces, MacArthur planned on long siege to sustain American control of the crucial harbor of Manila Bay.
But even the evacuation to the Bataan peninsula was handled poorly, and the troops that were able to dig in were woefully short of food and ammunition. The author spares no criticism of MacArthur’s lack of realistic planning and less than optimal performance during this time, noting that his primary concern seemed to be the management of his image as a fighting general holding the Japanese Empire at bay.
When President Roosevelt ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines to avoid almost certain capture by the Japanese, he left Wainwright in an impossible position. Shortly after MacArthur arrived in Australia to take command of American troops there, Wainwright was forced to surrender the remaining forces on Bataan and the island fortress of Corregidor.
The destiny of these two generals greatly diverges at this point. MacArthur went to become the commander of the Southwest Pacific theater, moving his forces up the island of New Guinea as he worked his way back to the Philippines, always ensuring he received positive headlines. The author spends quite a few pages discussing MacArthur’s award of the Congressional Medal of Honor, a controversial award made by Roosevelt that raised more than a few eyebrows in the Army. Although MacArthur’s forces won great victories over the Japanese and helped pioneer the concept of “island hopping” to avoid strong Japanese garrisons, his battles with the Navy over strategic direction of the Pacific War strained relations that often required FDR’s intervention.
Wainwright went into captivity with his troops, certain that he would be court-martialed for surrendering to the Japanese if the war ever ended. When he was finally released after the Japanese surrender, he was given a prime place at the official Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, a more appropriate award, as he spent more time on the front lines under fire in Bataan during those dark days of 1942, and endured serious depravation at the hands of his Japanese captors. The author lets us into Wainwright’s private thoughts as he learned that MacArthur suppressed his own nomination for the Medal of Honor in 1942, one of the many petty and spiteful actions MacArthur took during his military career against subordinate commanders that he felt were getting more recognition than he.
Promoted to four-star rank at the end of war, Wainwright finally gets some long overdue recognition for the difficult position he was put in by MacArthur and the Army leadership, essentially being given a last stand command that could only end in surrender and the cruel captivity of the Japanese military.
That he was able to survive this with honor and a concern for his fellow soldiers shows his strength of character and why his story is long overdue. MacArthur comes off as a flawed figure that is often more concerned with his image and ego and bears much of the responsibility for the failure of American and Filipino forces, a responsibility he was never truly called to account for during the war. The contrast between how these two men faced their challenges provides a remarkable contrast in character and command.